Dynamic Human Anatomy: An Artist's Guide to Structure, Gesture, and the Figure in Motion

Product Description
An essential visual guide for artists to the mastery and use of advanced human anatomy skills in the creation of figurative art.\nDynamic Human Anatomy picks up where
Basic Human Anatomy leaves off and offers artists and art students a deeper understanding of anatomy, including anatomy in motion, and how that essential skill is applied to the creation of fine figurative art.
Review
"Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael drew the human body with an understanding of its workings from the inside outside—as have thousands of artists since. Who better to teach this method than Roberto Osti, who trained as a medical illustrator before turning to fine art. . . .
Dynamic Human Anatomy, a follow-up to his book
Basic Human Anatomy, explains how this methodology can be used to reach beyond static depictions in order to 'convey a sense of life or express psychological character.'"\n—Artists Magazine
About the Author
Roberto Osti teaches figure drawing and human anatomy for artists at the New York Academy of Art, University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Formally trained as a medical illustrator before becoming a fine artist, Osti has contributed his work to many science and art publications. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries in Europe and the United States. He is the author of
Basic Human Anatomy, an art instruction best seller and classic reference book.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
For a figurative artist, a sure sign of accomplishment is the ability to achieve a
transcendent artwork—a work of art that conveys a sense of life or expresses psychological character. Such expertise is cultivated not only by mastering drawing techniques and practicing drawing the human form from life, but also by learning to read the many languages and intentions the human body speaks: movement, power, tension or relaxation, friendliness or aggression, and all the rest. These languages can all be understood studying the anatomical, structural, and dynamic aspects of the body and its aesthetic synergies.\nIn my teaching, I aim to give students knowledge of the body’s anatomy and mechanics in as accurate and neutral a way as possible, without influencing their artwork stylistically or aesthetically. Developing style and aesthetics is each artist’s own personal artistic quest. In my figure anatomy and figure drawing classes, students learn to draw with “informed” lines that result from an analysis of the subject, as opposed to a passive, imitative approach.\nWith this book, I set out to explore, decode, interpret, and describe the infinite dynamic, expressive, and aesthetic combinations the human form can manifest. All the material in the following nine chapters is holistically directed toward the practice of drawing the human form. Art history, proportions, anatomy, movement, aesthetics, expressivity, and techniques are described separately but at the same time woven together to give the reader a complete view of the marvelous complexity of the human figure.\nExplaining depictions of the human figure also means defining what the human figure has represented during various historical periods. Art featuring the human figure created over millenniums tells us about the values of past cultures—just as contemporary values must always be considered when drawing, painting, or sculpting the human figure now, to make our art relevant to the times we live in.\nThe first two chapters of the book are dedicated to a discussion of human proportions, anatomical knowledge, cultural values, and aesthetic development in Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Greek art, as well as in art of the Renaissance. Chapters 3 and 4 study anatomy and the structure of the body using an approach specifically directed toward movement, dynamism, and proportional harmonies. At the core of my method, which follows the Renaissance tr