Figure It Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People (Christopher Hart Figure It Out!) Paperback – August 4, 2009

After reading the reviews for this book, I felt that I had to add my own opinion to balance out what other people have said. My first thought is that people need to read the title; Figure It Out!: A Beginner's Guide to Drawing People. This is exactly what this book is, a beginner's book. While it does expect you to have some basic level of drawing skill, most of the drawings build the body from basic geometric shapes. This is the starting block for how most good beginner art books teach you to learn to draw anything. So it does pass that basic qualification. Next up and possibly what I like most about this book, is that it shows you shapes, and basic line forms that make up the parts of the body. I know growing up and going through my art classes, the one thing I struggled with was when the teacher said to "look". The problem with that approach is that until you know what you're looking for, you're a little in the dark. That is where this book excels. It gives you the basics of the human body construction and the contour lines that generally tend to be used to achieve those results.However, this is also where I get a little frustrated with some of the other reviews. All bodies are put together the same. However, there are quite a large variety of variations that happen with size, gender, race, muscle/fat ratios and cultural norms for how the human body is precisely put together for each of those things. Reviewers who are upset with this book for not having people of color, cultures or other ethnic races need to understand that those are all people who can be drawn with this book, but you will need to start with the information the writer gives you and then adapt it to fit each unique person. The author could easily write a whole book that would be titled, Figure It Out!: An Advanced Guide to Drawing People, which would cover a ton of differences that occur within all races, cultures, etc. However, those things would weigh down this book with too many choices and confuse the beginner.I'm sure you might wonder why I said this was a teacher's review. I'm an art teacher in an inner city school district where the kids can be easily frustrated at new things that they feel they have to do perfectly first time out. My students can't quite grasp the differences between professional, student learner and just plain quitting before you even begin. However, I've shown them multiple examples from this book concerning eyes, having them compare their own eyes to the generalized types, and they seemed to grasp the differences better. When they did attempt to draw their own eyes, they seemed to be a bit more confident in their attempts and didn't complain that they didn't know what they were doing. In short, they had a better grasp of what their lines should look like (differences included) because they knew to compare and contrast the line examples with the lines of their own eyes.So, should you buy this book? If you are a beginner or a more experienced person who would like to find some tips and tricks to draw bodies better or faster, yes. If you are a greatly experienced person with the human body, I'd say no. There are better, more in depth books out there, but then that's what you would be looking for anyway, not a beginner book. So I say this book for value and price is worth is and advertised and titled correctly.I hope this helps you with your body drawing book buying!

To be honest this is for a friend, so far he was vey happy that he received it and is enjoying that gift. So I am very happy with my purchase and glad I had made that purchase. Thank you.

I am a very amateur "artist," which is to say I like to sketch things here and there. I've never been very good at faces and human figures, however, as I find they always look off. I ordered this book to help me in this area, again drawing only for my own enjoyment.What this book does a good job on is providing lots of examples and tips and getting faces and bodies to look correct, e.g. placement of features on the face, or proportions of body parts, etc. It also helps you understand the differences between "idealized" faces and bodies versus realistic ones. The examples also make for great practice, including step-by-step instructions.What I find lacking in this book are instructions for "drawing what you see." That isn't this books purpose, and there are many other good books on that subject. Still, it seems this book would be good for people drawing from imagination, e.g. fashion designers, illustrators, etc. This isn't to say the drawings are cartoonish - they are not - but there's nothing in here about how to see a model properly, e.g.Still, for what this book is, it's definitely a very good resource that I would recommend to beginners in the art of face/figure drawing.

Awesome book, very cheap and worth every penny. I have never been good at drawing, I started a couple years ago with basic cartooning and slowly got better. And then I bought this book in hopes of improving my drawing skill beyond that. And it took a little while but it has started to pay off. It's quite a thin book, but there's a lot in it that has helped me. The Author has a good method of drawing the different poses. Of course, as always you still have to practice, practice, practice, and draw over and over again to get it right, but it's great having a step by step guide for drawing lots of different faces, and poses. Get this book if you're wanting to start getting into figure drawing.If you are an absolute beginner, it might not be as easy as you think, I battled a little bit with it at first, but it has to be the easiest book I found so far on figure drawing.If you are already good at drawing then i'm sure this book will give you some good tips, and if nothing else, it's a great reference. Well worth the money for anyone into drawing.

If you take your time and get a sketch book and practice every day, you will be surprised at your abilities. This book is awesome. The trick is to take your time and review what you have learned the day before. No hurry, just patience and determination. It takes time to draw, there are no short cuts. I love my new hobby. I got a sketch book ( Strathmore Series 400 Sketch Pads 9 in. x 12 in. - pad of 100) and always have it with me. So when I have time I sit down and relax and draw. I have no natural drawing skills, so I am starting from scratch. I am pleased with the outcome and the relaxation this gives me. Remember not to skip pages or rush through the book. a number 2b pencil and a Pro Art white plastic eraser and you are on your way. Good luck.

I really like this author. I have a cartoon book and a drawing happy things book of his which inspire me, but when I don't have it in front of me I don't know where to start. Everything turns out wonky and I feel like all is futile to draw without looking at instruction. SOAt first this book looked daunting to me, but I leisurely took one page at a time and focused on each figure. It is written in a way that builds the foundation of simple figure drawing and looks at different shapes and angles.After a few pages I feel like I am learning the basic structure I need to improve, without being intimidated.