Book Review: Freehand Figure Drawing for Illustrators: Mastering the Art of Drawing from Memory

There aren't many figure drawing books that focus on drawing human figures from the imagination so this book is really a welcomed addition to all the artists anatomy reference books out there.

David H. Ross is an accomplished comic artist and really knows his stuff.

This 198-page paperback presents a series of tutorials starting from the most basic and building up to the more advanced stuff later. It starts with a primer on perspective, then teaches you how to use the mannequin, provide examples for different poses, drawing of different parts of the body such as head, hands and legs, understanding the skeleton and muscle structure and also provides drawing tips to make your drawings more believable and natural.

The section on using the mannequin is the highlight of the book. David shows lots of examples of how he uses the mannequin in different poses and from all sorts of angles. With the knowledge of perspective and mannequin, it helps a lot when it comes to drawing the foreshortened figure. The drawings are clear and you can easily copy the drawings and learn.

This book expands a lot more in addition to what's covered in Andrew Loomis' Figure Drawing for All It's Worth.

Overall, this is a really valuable instructional book when it comes to figure drawing. It's simple to understand and there are lots of examples see and practice from. Highly recommended.

Freehand Figure Drawing for Illustrators: Mastering the Art of Drawing from Memory is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

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