The Artist's Guide to Animal Anatomy

by Bammes, Gottfried

• ISBN13: 9780486436401
• ISBN10: 0486436403
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-17
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

This superbly illustrated and easy-to-follow guide by an internationally renowned artist and teacher illuminates many biomechanical concepts important in portraying a variety of animals in a wide array of positions. Nearly 150 illustrations, 78 of them in color, offer artists and students a systematic approach to learning proportion, rules of repose and motion, and basic forms. Following lessons on skeletal and anatomical details, the student learns to create accurate, lively portrayals of horses, cows, dogs, lions, gorillas, bears, and other engaging creatures. Directions are provided for drawing subjects in poses ranging from static to rapidly moving. An excellent guide for drawing animal forms accurately and freely, this guide will be of value to students at all levels of expertise. The author, according to art critic Marshall Vandruff, "draws animal anatomy with authority and is one of those rare artists who can draw with technical precision as well as with wild expressiveness." Along with his other major work, The Artist's Guide to Human Anatomy, this book represents the distillation of Bammes's insights and ideas. Together, the two volumes comprise an essential addition to the working library of any artist or illustrator. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 7
Basic principles in drawing animals	p. 9
Deciding on specific impressional qualities	p. 9
Anatomical knowledge used to pinpoint essence	p. 9
Understanding the structural design of an animal	p. 11
Deciding on a viewing angle	p. 15
Body cover textures	p. 17
Learning about proportion - a first priority	p. 23
Proportion - a distinctive feature of animal form	p. 23
Establishing proportion - a practical guide	p. 26
Practical work on proportion	p. 29
Repose and motion - structural and dynamic rules	p. 33
Modes of standing, sitting and lying	p. 33
Modes of locomotive movement	p. 35
Exercises in repose and motion	p. 41
Freedom - improvisation - experiment	p. 47
The forms of the hindleg	p. 49
Drawing the construction of the skeleton	p. 49
The musculature	p. 55
Studies based on a constructional approach and on visualization	p. 57
The forms of the foreleg	p. 65
Drawing the shoulder and foreleg of specialized runners	p. 65
Disposition of the musculature in specialized runners	p. 69
The whole leg of a runner: constructional analysis and drawing from imagination	p. 71
Drawing the shoulder and foreleg of carnivores	p. 80
Basic disposition of the musculature	p. 84
A constructional approach combined with visualization	p. 87
The special shape of the shoulder girdle in primates	p. 94
The form of the trunk	p. 95
Study of the vertebral column as a structure creating form	p. 95
Drawing the thorax as a plastic core	p. 102
Drawing the skeleton of the whole trunk	p. 105
Disposition of the pure trunk muscles	p. 106
Graphic aids to depicting the body	p. 108
Head forms	p. 113
Types of skull structures	p. 113
Drawing the skull constructionally	p. 119
The head and the shapes of its soft parts	p. 122
Drawing the head as a whole	p. 130
Coming to terms with the whole animal figure	p. 134
Drawings as built designs	p. 135
Sketching	p. 136
Free play	p. 138
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