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Drawing books: Dynamic Figure drawing

Burne Hogarth

by Vincenzo

 

Among the many drawing books we have read and used, this pearl from author Burne Hogarth is one you should not miss!

 

"In this book, Burne Hogarth, one of the founders of the School of Visual Arts in New York, introduces his own revolutionary system of figure drawing, which makes it possible to visualize and accurately render the forms of the human body from every conceivable point of view"

  

WoW! This is the general description that introduces the book on many online book stores. It speaks of a "revolutionary system" of figure drawing which makes it possible to render human forms from every point of view!

 

Is it true? (You may think). Well the short answer to the question is "yes and no" but I need to spell out what I think in a longer version to allow you to understand why.

 

First of all let's try to understand the focus or aim of the book. This is very important because this is one of those drawing books that will rock you if you understand what it is not supposed to teach.

 

So let's start defining it by negatives. This book is not an anatomy book and it is not a learn to draw step by step kind of book. The first sentence means that you won't find in it almost any reference to inner structure of the body or relation between inner anatomical parts.

 

So if you are looking to learn how the biceps is attached to the bone of the arm this is NOT the book for you.

 

Second sentence says this is not about learning how to draw with a step by step/author hand guiding you through his drawings from creation to completion. Burne presents finished artworks that are meant to be almost self explanatory toward the goal of the book.

 

So what is the goal then?

 

The precise aim of the book is to help you visualize the human figure in a tri-dimensional space, posing this figure in static and dynamic ways, solving foreshortening problems related to the drawing of the human body from different angles and perspectives.

 

Once the objective of the book is specified I'd say that this is an impressive piece of art. I wouldn't define it even an educational book in the usual sense. It is more like a collection of artworks which are at the same time inspirational and educational. Every drawing that is laid out by Burne's hand has a strength and vitality of its own.

 

If you examine intensely the drawings you'll understand for yourself why these sketches of the human body are so powerful. It's the way Burne uses light and shadow, the way he renders muscular masses and volumes, the way he position his characters on the flat surface of the paper like they were real tri-dimensional figures.

 

What is this "revolutionary" technique then? Well, Mr Burne introduces a very effective idea/technique to deal with the creation of foreshortened figures from imagination (without using any model).

 

Briefly, it consists on starting to pose the figure from the torso and not from the head or whichever other body part you used to start from. The idea is to position the parts of the body from the lower to the higher freedom of movement or rotation. So the head that can pivot around the neck joint almost on a 360 degree circle must be positioned as last.

 

This technique is very effective once you learn how to master it but it is not a technique for beginners. You need to have a good understanding of anatomy and proportion to be able to apply it effectively.

 

It is very important that you understand this because if you are a total beginner and buy this book with the hope of learning the basis of anatomy or foreshortening you might be disappointed.

 

Before wrapping this up I do want to talk a bit about the language used by Burne in the book. It's not a friendly language for today standards by any stretch of imagination. It is written in a academic sort of way, but honestly, it is really irrelevant. You can easily not read a single word and still experience the full benefit of what this beautiful book has to offer.

 

So if you are looking for a reference book with powerful and expressionistic images of male and female bodies this is a fantastic resource among all the drawing books out there. Highly recommended!

 

 

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