Life Drawing for Artists by Chris Legaspi

Life Drawing for Artists by Chris Legaspi ISBN-13: 9781631598012 Paperback: 176 pages Publisher: Rockport Publishers Released: December 24th 2019

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Life Drawing for Artists teaches a contemporary approach to figure drawing that includes both the familiar poses—standing, sitting, lying down—but also how to capture figures in movement and in more dynamic and engaging positions.

Author Chris Legaspi is a dedicated, life-long artist and admired instructor who is known for his dynamic figurative drawings and paintings, and as a successful illustrator in the entertainment industry. Life Drawing for Artists shows how to build your skills by combining fundamental building blocks, such as gesture lines, shape and design, structure, value control, and edge or line control. He explains techniques for both quick timed drawings and longer detailed drawings. The book covers important topics, such as drawing different views, understanding perspective, foreshortening strategies, and how to deal with various lighting conditions. The examples and tutorials explore virtually every pose scenario, as well as many active and dynamic movements.


My Review:
Life Drawing for Artists explains the author's approach to life drawing in pencil. While I recognize that life drawing is done from live people in the nude, I was surprised to see photographs of models in the nude (full frontal, side, and rear). And I was curious as to why the women were nude (with one exception) but the male model got to wear tight underpants.

Anyway, he started by describing the tools and materials that he uses. The first fourth of the book provided definitions of various terms and techniques. His definitions for these terms were sometimes not quite what I'm used to, so it was useful to know what he meant by them. Then he gave tips about how he would go about drawing a 1 to 2 minute pose, a slightly longer pose, an even longer pose, and so on. He then talked about how he would go about drawing the head, torso, and so on. He covered anatomy and points on the anatomy to identify to draw the person in correct proportion and perspective. He covered many different types of positions and poses.

I never quite understood how he chose his initial line or why he starts with an exaggerated "gesture" line that is not a guiding line (down the spine or an outline). He would say something in the text and sometimes I couldn't see it in the illustration. For example, he said to find shapes on the person and then seemed to haphazardly choose shapes, sometimes with no reason that I could identify. Some people might understand what he's talking about because they also think that way, but I had trouble following what he was trying to explain.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.