So, I'm working on an image right now that has me dealing with buffed-up musculature, and I have the *worst* memory of the arms and upper back. I have something like 20+ anatomical guide books (I get them cheap from work... -_-*), and while a lot of them are for specific niches (Super-buff bodybuilder types, female anatomy, male anatomy, animal anatomy...) There aren't very many that sort of fit in the general-purpose "Goddammit, what muscles go where?!" books. Usually most of my images are pretty boring so I just use what I know from memory, but when I'm doing stuff like my 60,606 kiriban, its like "alright, i can't wing this. Ima' need a guide."
Problem is, there are a lot of really poorly done anatomy guides out there that run a wide spectrum -- Guides for those who have never taken an art class (or been to P.E.) in their life, Guides that are meant for medical students that are way more specific muscle strands and not applicable, poorly illustrated guides by people with mediocre artistic talent and those by people who are awesome artists but have no idea how to layout a book. I think a lot of people have the same problem, but it isn't brought up much.
Problem is, there are a lot of really poorly done anatomy guides out there that run a wide spectrum -- Guides for those who have never taken an art class (or been to P.E.) in their life, Guides that are meant for medical students that are way more specific muscle strands and not applicable, poorly illustrated guides by people with mediocre artistic talent and those by people who are awesome artists but have no idea how to layout a book. I think a lot of people have the same problem, but it isn't brought up much.
- An Atlas of Anatomy for Artists - Peck's Atlas of Human Anatomy was the de facto anatomy book recommended by all of my teachers in college. It has a lot of really good images, but the problem I find with a lot of books is that they use almost all photography ref. I can do well with live models if I have them, but photos are usually so flat and lifeless that it's hard for me to convert the forms I'm seeing on paper into something mentally useable; I need them to dumb it down for my further. AAoAfA is like if Grey's Anatomy and Peck's Atlas were mixed together: clear, concise visual representation of whats going on with the bones and muscles without lots of extra medical pondering. Straight foward with lots of usable plates for everyday application. This book does assume you have at least a rudimentary idea of how the body works, but its not so much that it removes itself from absolute beginners or pros.
- Muscles in Motion -Its not really an anatomy guide. I mean, it is, but its more like a reference book for exaggerated musculature in movement, which is really good for people who are looking to do comics or story-boarding. The good thing about this book is that it is amazing for high-action, high-movement poses and unusual views and foreshortening. It has lots of good ideas for exercises as well to help you recreate what the author did in the book with his own sketchbooking. The biggest problem is that this book really assumes that you already know your way around the human body pretty well, so it definitely would be out of the realm of the beginner and intermediate students. This book should be in everyone's library who plan on making a career out of character-design illustration, especially for comics or video games.
- Drawing the Human Body: An Anatomical Guide -Giovanni Civardi is one of those artists who has a lot of really awesome books out there, and I have almost all of them even though there is a certain amount of overlap. An Italian artist with a lot of years of experience under his belt, he has a way of conveying the softness of humanity and the ease of a pose that is not common. A lot of books are drawn so realistic that they no longer become applicable for most people who need them, and others are so cartoony they're almost better as cartooning guides as opposed to fine-art instruction. Civardi somehow straddles realism and comic-style with a degree I can only describe as being like Adam Hughes and Alphonse Mucha. He used to be my #1 go-to man, although his books have changed just a little bit over time as I've found more, well, idiot-proof books to throw in my inventory.
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