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This is a worthwhile introduction to the art of figure drawing that, while it won’t tell the more experienced artist anything they don’t already know, is an excellent and really quite thorough primer that gives valuable advice to the novice.

Viv Foster provides a useful grounding in basic anatomy that won’t make you feel as though you’ve bought a medical textbook and then explains, with copious illustrations, the shapes and structure of male and female figures. All of this takes up the first half of the book before we get to more detailed poses, which are dealt with in some detail, using step by step demonstrations where necessary. The overall style is quite loose and may not suit those who want a more detailed likeness, however, but it should also provide a solid grounding for anyone new to the subject. If this is something that interests you, but you have little experience, you’d do a lot worse than start here. You’ll almost certainly want more advanced and more detailed books later, but this is an excellent first step.

Author: Viv Foster, Medium: Drawing, Publisher: A&C Black, Series: Artist’s Handbook, Subject: Figure

Regular readers of ABR will know of my allergy to pocket-size books. This is art, fer goodness sake, make it big so we can see it, will you! Small is NOT beautiful, it’s hard to see and you have to force the pages back till your hands hurt in order to see them. The pages, not your hands, don’t get smart with me when I’m having a rant, it makes me angry.

However, just once in a while something comes along that doesn’t just float my boat, it launches a whole navy, kersplash, all at once. And these little books are one of those things. No, they shouldn’t work and, yes, at a fiver a pop, they are expensive, but what they do, really rather neatly, is offer you a single idea on a spread. Nothing so very unusual in that, I’ll grant you, but this is minimalism taken to its absolute limit and it really is just one thing, not even a whole concept. I like that. I like that you can have just Men’s Jeans or The Female Mouth just on their own. In fact, I’d recommend Manga Tips to anyone who wants to draw the human figure because it’s full of basic ideas (like the more comprehensive and better value Mega Manga). The other one that comes at the same time is Mecha Manga, which is more specialised, concentrating on that I take to be robot figures you can’t do without. Both books are arranged by category, so finding things is very easy, though flicking through and trusting to serendipity is a good approach too.

Like I said, a fiver’s a lot for a tiny book, but it’s not a fiver wasted, I’d also say. And I don’t say it often.

Mini Manga series on Amazon

Author: Yshan Li, Publisher: Search Press, Series: Mini Manga, Subject: Figure, Subject: Manga

In the way that Trevor Waugh’s other book in this series deals more with flowers in the landscape than as subjects in themselves, so this is much more about populating a painting than it is about portraiture. It’s not possible, of course, to do a detailed portrait in the timescale set by the title and Trevor doesn’t attempt to, rather concentrating on people as a series of shapes and colours that bring life to a landscape or townscape. He’s got some good tips on both posture and movement and, although it’s simply written this is really much more than a basic introduction to figure drawing.

Author: Trevor Waugh, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Collins, Series: 30 Minute, Subject: Figure, Subject: People

I have to admit that I’m in two minds about this book. One the one hand, I don’t like it, but that has more to do with the fact that fantasy art tends to bring me out in a rash. On the other hand, I admire it enormously.

So, what’s going on? Well, there’s my acknowledged problem with the whole faerie thing, but I also find some of the finished results unattractive: these are not creations it’s always easy to like. But then I can also see that, if you want to draw young faces and figures, this is a book that really can’t be bettered. Melanie Philips is a professional natural history artist, so she clearly knows her stuff. Fantasy art is her hobby, a busman’s holiday if you will.

There’s a lot of good, basic stuff included, with charts and diagrams showing you how to get the shapes and proportions right as well as examples of the main features – eyes, noses, ears, etc. What Melanie is particularly good on is capturing expressions and she does this with the eye of an illustrator so that, if you want worry, boredom or fear, you get that as well as happy, smiling and the more usual ones. As well as drawing, there’s a certain amount on painting too and this is where, I think, things perhaps get a bit insipid. However, you can’t fault the draughtsmanship and these are figures that really do look right, with the correct proportions and the clothes well rendered. There’s an old adage that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but in this case, I think you can. The picture in the illustration pretty much sums up everything I’ve said, both for and against.

So, if you want to paint fairies, I can’t advise you; you’ll have to make up your own mind. But, if you’re struggling with figure drawing, give this a try. At just under a tenner, it’s excellent value and, even if it turns out not to be exactly what you want, I don’t think you’ll feel you’ve wasted your money. Is that faint praise? I hope not.

Author: Melanie Phillips, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: New Holland, Subject: Fantasy art, Subject: Figure

This is a rare treat, because it’s not often you get a book on drawing by someone who is themselves a successful published illustrator.

Cliff Wright’s biggest claim to fame is a couple of Harry Potter covers (and you can bet the competition for those is pretty stiff), but he has also written some delightful children’s books himself such as Bear and Kite and The Star That Fell that are characterised by beautiful and sensitive watercolours that stop well short of being cutesy.

What this almost modest-looking paperback offers is a positive masterclass in drawing animals, people and natural history subjects, albeit slightly dressed-up as fantasy art. Cliff conveys more in a few words and drawings than many books don’t even manage in a whole chapter and this is a thoroughly practical guide as well as an absolute eye-opener to the many possibilities available to you. There’s also a good degree of humour – I just love the drawing of a Hippogriff wrapped in a blanket against the snow – and the spread where a self portrait turns into a horse eating a cake (yes, really) is in fact a masterpiece of character development and the use of line.

If you’re an aspiring illustrator, this has to be compulsory reading, but there’s so much more to it as well. It’ll show you how to develop characters, how to draw with absolute economy and how to work from life to art.

David & Charles

Author: Cliff Wright, Medium: Drawing, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: David & Charles, Publisher: Impact, Subject: Animals, Subject: Fantasy art, Subject: Figure, Subject: Nature

This is the companion volume to Simon’s very successful Body Parts, which appeared last year, and was planned at the same time. It features the same layout, with a huge variety of photographic images and artistic interpretations in a variety of media. Neither book is a step-by-step how-to of its subject, but rather an in-depth guide to detail work that is absolutely invaluable for any figurative or portrait artist. Using either book it is possible to dispense with a model for most work, allowing much greater freedom in terms of both time taken and variety of interpretation and experimentation.

Simon’s approach in all his books is simply to immerse the reader in visual material to the extent almost of sensory overload so that the subject simply takes over your consciousness. It’s a bold and brave way of working and won’t be for everyone; certainly I wouldn’t recommend this as a book for beginners, who are going to want rather more hand-holding than Simon has to offer. However, for anyone who is reasonably confident with their medium and materials, both books are an invaluable source of reference material as well as guides to methods of working.

Author: Simon Jennings, Medium: Drawing, Medium: Oil, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Mitchell Beazley, Subject: Faces, Subject: Figure, Subject: Portraiture

Here’s an approach to figure drawing that will please anyone who’s despairing of the rather anatomical approach taken by a lot of other books.

A quick flick through suggests that Sharon Pinsker’s background is more in illustration than fine art and her biographical details confirm this. The result is a loose, sometimes quite sketchy approach that nevertheless captures the essence of her subjects and hints at a lot more detail than it actually portrays. If you’re looking for a way to put figures in a painting of which they’re not the primary subject, there’s a lot here to set you on the way. However, if what you’re looking for is more detailed figure work, then you will be better looking elsewhere.

What you do get is a fresh and dynamic approach to a subject that a lot of manuals can make look like hard work.

David & Charles 2008
£14.99

Author: Sharon Pinsker, Medium: Drawing, Publisher: David & Charles, Subject: Figure

I’ve known this book since it first appeared in 1992 and I always thought the layout was a bit uninspired. In spite of that, it ran to several editions and filled an acknowledged need for reference material for figure drawing. It has now been given a complete makeover in a new edition which has transformed it into what it should, really, have always been.

Flicking through initially, you may well think that the material looks a bit old-fashioned and this, as well as a rather uninspired layout and some less-than-perfect production made up my original objections. Much of this, however, has been addressed now and the layout and printing are far beyond what they were and the spiral binding means that the pages lay flat if you want to copy. The material is the same though and it’s the way it is largely because Ron Tiner is an illustrator in the inking tradition that can be traced back to Burne Hogarth and the great American comic-book artists. If this isn’t your taste, or you associate comics with the penny dreadful, you might have a problem, but it’s worth sticking around because there’s just such a wealth of ideas here and examples of figures in just about every pose you want, both static and in motion. All those people who bought the previous edition can’t be completely wrong, though they might be in a quandary about whether to shell out again.

You know what? There isn’t another book like this. Sure, there are plenty of photographic reference books, but they’re not the same. This comes with the artist’s overlay, figures that are interpreted, and that’s what makes the difference.

David & Charles 2008
£12.99

Author: Rob Tiner, Medium: Drawing, Publisher: David & Charles, Subject: Figure

No, this isn’t a CSI companion but a rather excellent guide to figure drawing that includes a wide selection of photographed poses that bring the benefits of a life model to your own home.

There’s a huge variety of material here, from full figure studies to hands, feet, heads and faces and plenty of ideas for interpreting them in a variety of media. Simon Jennings is an accomplished designer as well as an artist and a writer and he offers a total immersion in the subject in a way that no one else really manages; the book is an experience in itself as much as an instruction manual and all the better for that.

Mitchell Beazley 2007
£14.99

Author: Simon Jennings, Medium: Drawing, Medium: Oil, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Mitchell Beazley, Subject: Figure

John Raynes has pretty much cornered the market in books on drawing and painting the human figure and it is a measure of his skill and depth of understanding that he has produced such a number without repeating himself and continuing to have something worthwhile to say.

This is an exhaustive study of human form and structure, as detailed as an architectural handbook or car maintenance manual. With the aid of colour coded drawings that are little works of art in themselves, John explains, in terms aimed at the artist and not the medical student, how the human body fits together and moves. Follow his tutorial through and you will understand the complex machine that the body is, how one part blends into another and how one movement provokes and influences another. Poetry in motion is what it becomes.

More than half the extent is taken up with this textbook stuff, but it’s not something you can hurry and John sensibly resists all temptation to do so. The reward for your effort in following it is what follows: a masterclass in drawing and painting a series of complete poses and compositions that simply come alive on the page. John, as we know, is supreme at this kind of thing but work with him and you too will stand a chance of getting at least somewhere near him.

Batsford 2007
£18.99

Author: John Raynes, Medium: Drawing, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Batsford, Subject: Anatomy, Subject: Figure