Among my plans for 2025 is to finally dive deeper into (human) anatomy for artists, which's journey I'm going to document here on my blog and on my Digital Garden.

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For this first blog on that matter, I would like to briefly cover all resources I'm going to use for this endeavour, covering books, websites, online tools and products, which I also believe to be most valuable for anyone seeking to get started with learning anatomy as well!

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Anatomy Books for 3D Artists

To my surprise, when I started looking for books explaining and teaching anatomy in an artistic context, I discovered some books not only aimed at artists in general, but also specifically at 3D artists!

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anatomy4sculptors

The anatomy books by Uldis Zarins and Sandis Kondrats are specifically aimed at digital sculptors, and in my opinion the best books on anatomy for 3D (character) artists out there.

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Their current lineup consists of:

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• Anatomy for Sculptors
• Anatomy of Facial Expressions
• Form of the Head and Neck

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Anatomy for 3D Artists: The Essential Guide for CG Professionals

‍Anatomy for 3D Artists: The Essential Guide for CG Professionals is another great book aimed specifically at digital sculptors! It includes variety of sculptures showing the anatomy of the human body in different motions and poses, which helps with understanding muscle deformations.

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Anatomy Books for Artists

These are anatomy books explaining and teaching anatomy in a broader, more generalised artistic context, and my personal top choices.

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Anatomy for The Artists

‍Anatomy for The Artist by Sarah Simblet and photographs by John Davis, is a fantastic anatomy book, as it not only uses classic illustrations for explaining human anatomy, but also photographs of real human bodies with bone overlays. This helps a lot with visualising where all bones are located and how the muscles span across the body.

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Figure Drawing for All It's Worth

‍Andrew Loomis was an illustrator, writer and art instructor, who is best known as the author of various art books, including Figure Drawing for All It's Worth, which I regard as a very beginner friendly introduction to anatomy and form.

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Tip: Many of George B. Bridgman's books are available for free on archive.org, including Figure Drawing for All It's Worth!

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George B. Bridgman Anatomy Books

‍George B. Bridgman was a painter, writer and teacher, who taught anatomy for artists at the Art Students League of New York for over 40 years

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Many of the books he wrote are seen as an excellent resource for any artist seeking to learn anatomy, although a bit hard to understand when completely new to learning anatomy. There are even dedicated videos explaining how to study or decipher Bridgman's anatomy teachings (e.g. by Proko).

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Below you can find a list of his bibliography:

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• Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life
• Drawing the Draped Figure
• The Human Machine
• Heads, Features and Faces
• Bridgmans Handbook of Drawing
• Bridgman's Life Drawing
• Constructive Anatomy. Pelham, New York: Bridgman Publishers
• The Book of a Hundred Hands

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The Human Machine and Constructive Anatomy are my personal favorite picks!

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Tip: Many of George B. Bridgman's books are available for free on archive.org!

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Websites for learning Anatomy

These are my personal go-to Websites when it comes to learning anatomy or when in need of references.

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Atlas of Anatomy

‍The Atlas of Anatomy is a very detailed and in-depth collection of anatomy notes, with a rather medical focus. Nonetheless I adore its illustrations by Markus Voll and Karl Wesker, as they provide detailed insights in how each of the human bones or muscles look like, which are also shown from different perspectives.

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Tip: Some pages seem to not be available anymore as you might get a 404 error. In this case you can use the Wayback Machine to access these pages again. So far this has only been the case with one or two pages.

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anatomy4sculptors 3D Reference Tool

The creators of the anatomy4sculptors books mentioned earlier, also provide an online 3D reference tool, which offers detailed 3D anatomy models that can be viewed from all perspectives in a 3D player.

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Note that not all available models can be viewed freely without a monthly subscription (7.95 USD).

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Scott Eaton's Bodies in Motion

Especially for creating studies of the human body, Scott Eaton's Bodies in Motion offers a great collection of reference images.

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As the name suggests, these are not only still images of different body types and poses, but also a collection of motions. You can preview these motions while hovering each card. When opening a motion, you can play it frame by frame.

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Apart from these motions this collection also includes 3D scans of bodies in various poses and image sequences of facial expressions (which can also be played frame by frame).

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Note that only a selection of motions are freely accessible, for being able to view all motions you will need to purchase one of the available plans.

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FlippedNormals

‍FlippedNormals is a marketplace for 3D artists, which apart from courses on different 3D software and assets such as Brush alphas or MatCaps, also offers great Reference Packs including hundreds of images of different poses!

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Products

Although I'm not using any physical products specifically for learning anatomy, I still adore things like anatomy figurines. Sadly I can't offer a vast list of resources here, but something I wanted to get for a long time now are 3dtotal's anatomy figures:

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3dtotal Anatomy Figures

‍The anatomy figures by 3dtotal are not only a nice decoration for ones desk or shelf, but also a nice physical reference tool, with them offering a variety of variations in what the figures show (skin, muscles, planar).

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Follow my Studies!

All of my own studies and notes on anatomy for artists are going to be available here on my blog and on my Digital Garden's Anatomy for Artists branch!