John H. Vanderpoel

Bizarre page formatting (in my early cloth-bound copy anyway). One central column of text with two to five tiny one inch thumbnail sketches in the column on the page turn side - which works efficiently enough to supliment the text I guess. However, on the pages without text the image size and placement is kept the same, leaving a bizarre blank page adorned with tiny thumbnails at the outer edge, almost as if the author were planning to add more text at a later date as one would in a diary? An odd choice of formatting to be honest.… (meer)

Reads very much as something written in the late 1800s . Vanderpoel seems to content himself throughout this slim volume, with describing the various parts of the body as if he were primarily a writer and that being so was in opposition to being the excellent artistic draftsman that he was. He certainly has an elegant turn of phrase, ironically not one that I would regard as terribly visual. I see this book has it's share of devotees particularly amongst painters, but I find the volume of little instructional use, especially to beginners. I give two stars because the drawings are excellent, but the text, which is after all the actual book, while it might give an impression otherwise, will actually leave you emptyhanded. For me there was a shocking dearth of useful insights, for a book so frequently cited. If I were to recommend the book it would be only for the illustrations.… (meer)

This is a classic instruction manual, written by a much beloved artist, who taught at the School of the Chicago Art Institute for thirty years. It is especially useful today since traditional painting and drawing style has come into fashion. A certain paint manufacturer has been quoted as calling it "retro, retro." I'm giving this book five stars because it has been continuously in print since at least 1958 and because Vanderpoel's drawings are very beautiful. Using merely charcoal or pencil his depictions of human skin cause me to want to stroke the drawing.… (meer)