The Nude Female Figure: A Visual Reference for the Artist

This book is great for practicing figure drawing when you are unable to view a live model. There aren't any figure drawing workshops in my area, so this book is great in that it shows a variety of women in all shapes and sizes in tons of poses.

I own and have used in the distant past Mr. Smiths previous books on the figure. I used them in place of unavailable models back in the day. It might seem that this type of book is a bit obsolete, what with the availability of images on the internet. And there are a few images on the net. The problem with 99.999999% of those images is the reason they were created. The interest of pornographers (soft or hardcore) is arousal. The lighting used is more often than not shot with a ring flash, the result being maximum exposure of the notty bits in a not unpleasant image and not much more. What this book provides, as best a photo can, is good lighting used to show off the form. Not easy to do well. The models are all in color. If one wanted another facet toward drawing mastery, I would hightly recomend this book as a workshop. Do some layovers with tracing paper on the actual images drawing the muscles and important boney points. And then draw from the figure. Drawing from the live model is important in learning to draw well, but not everyone has that opportunity. This is another great way toward that goal. Don't listen to those blowhards who say you cannot create good work from photographs. Eakins thought he could and many consider him one of our greatest American artists. There you go. Buy the book. Have fun!!

i've had this book for about 6 months, and have used several of the pictures to draw and paint from. it has lovely pictures of a wide range of lovely women, and i think that the photographer did a good job capturing a range of moods and textures. i agree with another reviewer that some pictures with a single light source would be nice. there are a lot of action and unconventional poses, but it would also be nice to have some more classical poses. i think that the main reason that i'm not that overwhelmed is because figure drawing/painting from a book is so much less inspiring than in person. which isn't anything that the photographer could have done, but i've just ended up using this book less than i'd imagined i would. overall, it's a nice resource for practice but it's not what i would call inspiring.

Good drawing practice book for people who either don’t have time or don’t want to take a figure drawing class.

I read the reviews on this and was expecting to be impressed. Yes the photos were good and the lighting was good. The models were not so impressive. its good for referance in drawing, but don't expect really beautiful women or women with well defined musculature. No dancers or body builders in this book, just ordinary women.

I’m an Artist now I don’t have spend hours on the internet looking for poses worth it.

There are two main issues I had with the photos. 1. Several of the photos had the models face obscured by hair. This makes drawing the face impossible. It would have been better if the models with long hair had clear faces even if it meant them putting the hair in a pony tail. 2. Many of the photos show the models smiling and showing their teeth. Showing teeth is not good for a portrait artist. So for me I could not use most of the photos. The only thing I liked about the book is that there is diversity in the types of women included. Also, I wish the section on hands and feet had more photos.

The book was technical very good to concentrate on the strength of model using the angle to the advantage and lighting to highlight the best feature. The cover is an example

Life drawing is one of the most challenging styles of drawing and needs more practic. It is difficult to obtain a model, even one fully clothed in between lessons. Therefore reference books such as these are invaluable and allow practice in between classes. They also allow poses that would be hard for a model to sustain even for a short period. However the book could do with being in a larger format.

great poses

Ce livre est une bonne entrée en matière pour toute personne désirant étudier l'anatomie artistique. Sa qualité première est de présenter des physionomies assez diverses mais son point faible est de ne proposer qu'un seul point de vue pour chaque pause. En fin d'ouvrage, une partie du livre est consacrée à l'étude des mains et des pieds en gros plans. Ce livre ne comporte (comme son titre l'indique) que des models féminins, il vous faudra donc d'autres sources documentaires pour travailler l'anatomie masculine. A vos crayons!

Le lecteur a du mal à croire que l'auteur de ce livre est un photographe tant les modèles sont peu mis en valeur. C'est très très décevant. C'est à ce demander si l'auteur ne cherche pas plutôt "vendre du nu", sous prétexte de l'art. Je préfère largement les livres de Maureen Johnson, tel que " Art Models 3: Life Nude Photos for the Visual Arts ".

Superb, if you are a photographer or artist wanting the capture the female form, this book really will be a great help. I was expecting multiple images per page suggesting poses instead I found full page spreads of well lit and well shot pictures that can be used to practice your control of texture and shadows.