Customer Reviews
Useful. Worth the price 
2008-05-04
This book is a valuable tool for drawing and understanding human bodies. I actually used it a lot. It's worth the price. (But there arent any shots of standing people from the top).
Truth in advertising 2008-03-03
I saw a copy of this book for all of about 5 minutes before I
knew this was it for demonstrating foreshortening in figure drawing.
I have not had much time to spend with the book in the interim, but I
fully believe it will stand up to it's promise.
Interesting poses but would like to see more models 
2008-01-15
I happen to like the fact these are in black and white, since the simplicity of it makes you familiar with the form. I already have The Nude Figure for my other references for life drawing. As another person said, this is not the best book to get reference for illustrative foreshortening. This book is more to train your eye to capture various parts of the form in foreshortening.
I thought it was interesting how the author noted that it was difficult these days to find models because of people's need to do body alternations like piercings and tattoos.
While I find the models average, I would have liked to seen a few different models like overweight or even more athletic to get variations of the form in perspective. I wouldn't even mind old people, but I'm not sure if the elderly could perform in some of those poses.
Most of the poses are in seated or lying down positions, I remember the author saying also that a lot of poses even in perspective started looking the same.
I got some use out of the book, for the photography was clear enough for me. I also like using it as an exercise to recognize the form, like certain muscle and bone groups would look like in certain perspectives. I think too many people want to copy and not understand the true value of learning and utilizing reference.
It's not an AMAZING book, but it's still useful.
Great Visual Reference for artists! 2007-12-02
If you're an artist like myself and have trouble imagining parts of the body in odd perspectives then this book will probably help you. It contains literally hundreds of photos of both male and female models in various angles. My only issue with this book is that sometimes a pose will spread between the two pages, loosing some of the model in the binding.
As a student I worked with drawing real models in a studio environment, and find this to be the next best thing to having a real person in front of you. This is a book any serious artist should not be without!
goooooood 2007-09-23
It's a great material!!!! a great research book and reference!!! there really are few chances for people in arts field to gain the knowlege this book provide. Usually the best way is real life observation, but you don't have a model any time you want to draw, do you? so this book is a great material when you don't have that chance and a guide for those who want to improve his work with a real model.
My only complaint is the poor contrast on the pictures. It doesn't have to show deep black shadows but a little bit more of contrast could emphasize better different muscular groups. Any way, most of reference books are the same at end, but not this one!!! Foreshortenig is one of the hardest views to archive for artists (painters, art and human figure students, comic book artist and illustrators, etc)
Atlas of Foreshortening: The Human Figure is Deep Perspective 
2006-08-07
A unique visual encyclopedia for artists and illustrators
Like its acclaimed predecessor, the Second Edition of this outstanding photographic reference offers illustrators, fine artists, and animators immediate access to the human form in deep perspective, that is, foreshortened. With all-new photographs, the Atlas of Foreshortening features:
* Over 530 high-quality photographs
* Both male and female nudes
* Poses with slight, moderate, and marked foreshortening
* Detail shots and full-body photographs
* Many poses shot from multiple angles
Exellent! 2005-09-22
This is the book I've been searching for for years! Most art photo reference books will either give you very standard standing, lying, walking poses or very artistic poses(ie unclear) . This book has clear photos of the body in unusual positions. There's a wide variety of poses and sections. Both male and female models.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It's a must for those who can't afford to hire a model everyday.
Very useful 2004-06-11
There are lots of visual reference books out there. It would be easy to populate a bookshelf with them. After a while, though, they start to look the same.
Not this one. Heavily foreshortened poses are the hardest (for me at least), so this book devotes itself to genuinely distinctive views. It may sound like distortion to describe an arm or leg as being a third length of the other. In fact, it is distortion if they are the same length, when viewed from some angles.
This book gives an uncommon perspective - it has earned its place on my shelves.
[review of first edition]
//wiredweird
Wonderful Reference Book 2002-09-30
I have been using Mark Edward Smith's two excellent photographic references as a source for practicing figure drawing over the last year or so. I was a bit hesitant to buy this book - afraid that it might just be duplicating what I already have - but once it arrived in the mail I was really glad that I did. The quality of the photography is *fantastic* and it's printed on a glossy stock which preserves the halftones and detail which unfortunately sometimes get 'washed out' in Smith's books.
The range of poses is great too - from some very classical poses to some really "out-there" angles and poses which border on contortionism. Some of the most beautiful poses in this book are ones which a live model couldn't hold for more than 2-5 minutes, so having it captured on paper is a real bonus. All in all, I wuold say that the combination of poses and camera angles provides a fantastic reference work for studying the muscles of the body in various states of tension and compression.
I think I'm going to be spending lot of time drawing from this book.
Bad for Illustrators looking for reference!! 2001-07-25
This book like It's title clearly indicates is not an illustration reference book.It's extremely useful to students and practitioners of the fine art of figure drawing ,it provides poses which are very diffrent from what we are used to seeing in normal life thus forcing us to see how many familiar shapes change when viewed at an unfamiliar angle,for a figure artist struggling with foreshortening a book like this one and Burne Hogarths Dynamic Figure Drawing used in tandem could work wonders.This is the only book of its kind and is in one word "BRILLIANT" .
