The Beginner's Guide The Female Nude  Art Tutorial
584028
This art instruction book leaves a lot to be desired.  The illustrations of the final results of the drawing projects really suck.  It's more of a "How to draw like crap" tutorial.  Books such as "Drawing the Head and Figure", by Jack Hamm and "Fantasy Females", by Tom Flemming are much better and well worth their purchase price.
252922
This is another book by Thaneeya McArdle, an artist I've come to really enjoy.  I have several of her books.

There is a really nice section at the beginning of this book, explaining color techniques and providing quite a few example of completed pictures.  These completed pictures give the reader lots of ideas on how to complete our own artwork.

There are 30 pages to color.  One side only.  The pages are perforated for easy tear-out.

This artist has at least 7 other books for purchase, and I would highly recommend you check them out.
3399449
This book gives me the missing link in my journey to learn to draw plants and nature scenes. A good tutorial in shading would be a  good companion to this. Five Stars!
4667903
Chakkour offers a valuable resource. Many aspiring artists (maybe I'm not an artist, but I aspire) have limited contact with models, but understand how important it is to have ready access to simple and precise figure imagery. References like VP3 are a godsend for us. They inspire us with the many possibilities that inhere in the human form, and provide exact reference for our imperfect efforts.

This collection works very well in one way. Each model poses on a turntable; while holding that pose, s/he is photographed from many angles. With just a little interpolation, one can interpolate any angle in between, laterally, even if it doesn't cover the up/down axis.

But, as with any book, it contains the author's vision - not mine. Perhaps your vision can adapt to the pose, perhaps your pose can adapt to the vision. Some poses simply baffle. I expect a pose book to try to cover many of the moods a body can express, and p. 41 worked well for a recent project, but not all that well. The pose on p. 40 simply baffles me, though. This is a pose book. The authors imagined some situation in which that pose could make sense, so the student could take the body's physical facts and build a story around them. So, just what story did the pose on p. 40 inspire? I'm lost.

Also, I had trouble with the retouched photos. A few times, a model and angle would combine to expose something indelicate, like an excretory orifice. Fat-fingered blurring saved us from many of those troubling details. C'MON GUYS. I don't have any special fascination with naughty bits - but they're there. I find the Barbie doll plastering-over of normal anatomy jarring and disturbing. That little touch doesn't affect the pose or the general flow of a body. It does affect my ability to accept the image as real, though. It's not that I actually want all those little details of the human condition. Instead, it conjures horrible surgery when I see them missing.

On the positive side, these 70 poses gain value from their multiple viewing angles. On the negative, the editors bowdlerize even nude figures. And, on top of it all, the pose that I really wanted never appeared. I tried to adapt one from the book - it came pretty close, actually. Just not close enough.

-- wiredweird
780672
The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration: An artist's guide to drawing and illustrating realistic flora, fauna, and botanical scenes from nature by author Mindy Lighthipe is Great! The instructions are very clear and easy to understand. The illustrations are artfully presented and encourage a beginner or intermediate to want to grab a sketchbook and get started. The variations of the subjects and content are beautifully illustrated. This book is a welcome addition to my library!
2815887
If you enjoy seeing drawings of mostly unclothed, attractive young women, either tied up or in other submissive situations, then this book should definitely pique your interest!
Just under half of the drawings are girls by themselves, with most of the others involving two or more girls together, many of them utilizing a sub/dom lesbian element that I found to be particularly hot!

I counted 66 different illustrations by 22 different artists in this book.  By my count, 31 of the drawings rated very good to excellent; 30 were average, and only 5 were below-average-to-poor.

The best illustrations here (in my opinion) are those by Anibal Maraschi (4), J.L. Czerniawski (4), Emiliano Urdinola (2), and perhaps Marcelo Sosa (5), as well, with excellent individual drawings included by Steve O. Reno, Perla Pilucki, and that especially hot cover drawing by David Dunstan!

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I didn't particularly care for those illustration by Luis Buci (3) or Gonzalo Flores (4), both of whom drew rather bland solo-girl scenes exclusively.
3105001
This review is for Drawing the Female Figure by Sheppard<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Drawing-the-Female-Figure/dp/0823013707/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Drawing the Female Figure</a>.  This is a fairly complete guide to the subject of drawing female figures, for artists who already have a general understanding of their materials and media.  Starting with the basics of shading, proportions, and drawing sequence, Sheppard moves right into pointers for rendering a wide range of gestures, poses, and anatomical details.  The abundant illustrations include about equal numbers of simple sketches and finished pieces.  While primarily including monochromatic drawings in pencil, ink, charcoal or chalk, Sheppard's recommendations for realistically portraying the female figure are just as relevant for artists working in acrylic or oil paints.  Other recommended books by the same author include: Anatomy, How to Paint Like the Old Masters, and Bringing Textures to Life.
4502025
Recommended by an artist friend- simple easy book with good info!
1084864
This book is very straightforward as a great guide for beginners. I love the book contents; It's detailed from the material to painting technique. Also the bookbinding is very intersting; It's like a quality notebook. This is not a long boring book. It gives you a quick shot of painting knowledge. When you finish reading it, which woulg not take so long, you will feel like being ready for painting something and move to the next painting book!
1290423
I went to several different book stores to track this book down and it was well worth it. This is an excellent book of traditional and untraditional beauties. I love the art work so much I am using it as a guide for my artistic nudes. Beautiful is simply beautiful.
3751982
However, I would not call it complete.  I gave it four stars because the pictures are very helpful and really illustrate the process of the projects. The informational section is fairly through but the projects do not even come close to being "complete". It is however, a great introduction to the absolute beginner who wants to learn about this art and does not know where to start.
3996443
A well thought-through tutorial book for the beginning artist, or even the experienced. Sophie-chan has quite an unique style, and I've been inlove with it for several years now. This book cover the basics as well as miscellaneous and various other aspects. You got everything from face of different ages and genders, to how to draw special character types, like an angel.
One of my favorite parts of the book, is that there is pages dedicated to "how to color" which isn't something you see very often in a manga tutorial book. I love the fact that she used the same artwork to show how copic markers vs colored pencils work differently. On these pages she also explains step by step how to color the drawing, which was really useful for me. (I'm great with copics, but sucks when it comes to colored pencils xD). I've spend a long time trying to figuring out how to use colored pencils properbly, but never found the right tutorial, so I'm ecstatic to have found just the right one!
In these pages, she also explains how to color digitally - step by step.
All in all I really loved this book. It was very basic, but still had aspects that I haven't seen in other tutorial books (I own quite a few). - So even if you're an experienced artist, this book can certainly help you even so. And it's always fun to learn new art styles ;-)
4248984
This is a great introduction for beginners to this wonderful art form. I love the clear explanations of the dance posture and the basic movements, and the ever-present reminder that everyone is different, but no matter your level of physical activity and flexibility, everyone can learn and enjoy this art form. Madame Ona has an easy going teaching style and her personality really shines through. She's a character! She gives great metaphors to help you visualize the movement. That's really helpful for me!
The bonus performance at the end is a great way to see all of the things you have just learned put together to create a beautiful performance.
The music used during the instruction was a nice medium tempo piece by Carmine Guida. The music for the performance, by River Guerguerian, was nice because its not what youd expect for a belly dance performance.
The Bloopers are hilarious! There is one curse word, but it didn't bother me. Its also nice to see that Ona doesnt take herself too seriously.
This is a fun video that I really enjoyed.
1198138
This book is a must for beginners. It is a gentle introduction to an ancient art. The book is written in such a way that you would think she is talking just to you.
fayby
2174931
I love this little booklet, with pure white covers and intriguing simple pieces of the artist's work inside, which look like little worms- she calls them flaps! Apparently they are 3 dimensional in the show. A couple of pieces in the back are like paint wiggles, which she calls agents. (There is an intro by Bill Arning which talks more about her work, to interpret it.) The best part? Under the back flap of the book is an actual watercolor on acetate piece of art!!! This is a limited edition of 500 catalogues. I can see why, with an original piece of art included. Great.
3098100
If you are like me, you saw this book an needed to know what you get with this book.
This book is set up with very high quality black and white poses of one model (the
one on the cover).  This book also comes with a CD

There are aprox 1170 images in this book. The poses range form straight, to high angle,
low angles and head shot closes ups.  The poses themselves are standing, leaning on
objects, and various others that range from  standard art poses to more seductive posing
for pin ups.

There are no action poses but they should be really good for pin up drawing.
3224701
This is a fantastic little book of beautiful art, focusing on the female nude.  This book is not filthy nor is it pornographic; it is a wonderful testament to the beauty and majesty of the unclothed female and her most delightful and unfortunately commonly hidden treasures.

The book shares its title with the 1866 Gustave Courbet masterpiece (currently in the Musee dOrsay in Paris).  The painting is featured in the book, but the book is not about the painting; the painting is more an inspiration and point of visual and cerebral reference for of the book.

The book comes in at 6 high by 6  wide and 1 thick.  It is hardbound, with a paper dust jacket.  It has 255 numbered pages.  There is no introduction, no dedication, no acknowledgements, nothing up front to provide any kind of context or theme.  The book just launches right in, with no pretense.  The format is interesting, with the featured artwork on the right side, with a vertical triptych of portrait-oriented details from the artwork on the left edge of the left page, with prose in the remainder of the left page.  The artworks title, artist and details are provided at the bottom of the left page.

The prose opens with the Old Testament Song of Songs, which runs in sections for approximately three dozen pages, and is followed by various poems from the 16th, 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries, finishing with an extended essay on the female sex and related subjects by Hans-Jrgen Dpp (one of the authors/compilers), entitled Ecstasy.  The organization of the prose is a little confusing, with some of the breaks coming at strange, not entirely intuitive points in the sentences/narratives.  The prose complements the visuals nicely, but not in specific ways; the effect is a much broader accompaniment to the overall flow of the female nudes.

The artwork comes in as sketches, etchings, paintings, drawings, and photographs, color and B/W.  The oldest artwork is from the early 1500s, and the most recent artwork is a Picasso drawing from 1971.  The artwork is arranged chronologically.

As for artists, you get Picasso, Klimt, Rembrandt, Rubens, Degas, Gauguin, Rodin, Titian, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh, Renoir, and many others.  The Courbet original is on p. 49.

This content, both visual and text, is for a mature audience.  Per its namesake, the focus of the book is on the female nude, and more specifically, per the title and the Courbet work itself, the more, ah, open display of feminine attributes.  Some of the content is most definitely erotic, with depictions of exhibitionism, voyeurism, and some simple, tasteful onanism.

Price: At approximately $14, this is a great deal for this outstanding collection of luscious art.

Bottom line: this is a very enjoyable, beautiful book on a supremely beautiful subject, at a great value.  If you enjoy classic art and/or the female nude, this one is for you.