Drawing the Living Figure

“Joseph Sheppard has been favorably compared to practically every Renaissance master…he is without peer among modern realists for his ability to impart a warm verisimilitude to the figure.”–”Artspeak” magazine.
In this highly praised guidebook, Joseph Sheppard, a versatile and influential artist and teacher who is widely recognized as a master of figure drawing, introduces an innovative approach to drawing the human form. Beginning by reviewing the basics of anatomy, he makes his principal focus the specifics of surface anatomy.
Rather than depicting in detail the muscles and bone that lie beneath the skin, as do most books on artistic anatomy, this book concentrates on how the position and movement of muscles and bones affect the surface forms of live models. The effects are masterfully demonstrated in over 170 of Joseph Sheppard’s own drawings of many different live models in front, back, and side views, and in various standing, sitting, kneeling, crouching, reclining, and twisting poses.
Each drawing is accompanied by two diagrams, one for bones, one for muscles, which specifically show how surface forms are created by the definitive shapes beneath the skin. The superb quality of Joseph Sheppard’s drawings, the wide range of poses he illustrates, and the effectiveness of his approach in this book–now in its first paperback edition–will help artists at all levels improve and refine their skills in drawing the living figure.
Dover (1991) unabridged republication of the edition published by Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1984.