Complete Life Drawing Course [Paperback]

Diane Constance gives a terse and peremptory glossing over of the fundamentals of figure drawing, and most pointedly, we are obligated to ask ourselves: "Do we need another HOW-TO figure drawing book at his time?" "Are the published figure drawing books woefully inadequate?"

Well, in fact, some of the popular titles published today are woefully inadequate. Unfortunately, Diane Constance's book "Complete Life Drawing Course" must join the ranks of those cloned texts that offer the same trite superficialities over....and over....and over yet again. At a suggested retail price of $19.95 this book better deliver, and it doesn't, so what's the point? Really great art instruction is already in print, with good anatomy sections included, for far less money.

Unfortunately, once one moves past this excellent beginning, the book rapidly becomes unusable by most artists studying their craft outside of a classroom or studio environment...which means the vast majority of artists will find this book of very limited use, and good for theory only.

Far from explaining all media, it shows only a two-page layout of basic tools of the trade...this is a pen, this is a brush, this is an oil crayon, etc...and then moves into the "exercises" which turn out to be essentially useless, as they require the artist to have a live model present. It is astounding to me that with such a beautifully laid out and well written beginning, and such well done exercises, that the author should choose to omit photographs of the models she worked with in the creation of the book. Nowhere at all does the author state that one needs a live model to complete or even perform the exercises that comprise the majority of this art book...and during the exercises, she even suggests asking the model to make various poses. I found this unbelievable...how can you write an art instruction book of this nature and not mention the need for a live model?...and extremely disappointing, as well as very, very frustrating. Now, the book is essentially useless to me in all but theory.

If you are currently, or planning to, take a figure drawing class which will feature a live model, then this book is for you. It is very well written and the photographs, instruction, and exercises are superb for the beginning or intermediate artist, or any artist venturing into anatomy for the first time.

However, if you do not have plans for such a class, I would suggest buying another book on anatomy and anatomically accurate life/figure drawing. As good as this book is at the beginning, sadly, it is not as useful as it could have been if only the author had thought to provide photographs instead of sticking solely to the requirement for a live model. A terrible shortsight in an otherwise excellent artist's book. Definitely a book to have to round out your artist's library. I wish I could like it more than I do, and will attempt to work with it using my own photographs of people in motion, and an artist's mannequin. Good luck!

I have also been attending a figure drawing group, and have found the instruction contained herein is invaluable to understanding what 'information' is needed for short poses and long poses, and all of the ways one can accurately capture the essence of the human form.