Drawing the Human Body: An Anatomical Guide
Civardi and Constance take two entirely different approaches to  drawing the human form. Civardi's is a detailed, classical  manual, informed by his study at the Faculty of Medicine, Milan,  and his teaching of sculpture and drawing. He describes each  part of the skeleton and each muscle, using frontal, lateral,  and dorsal projections. Academic libraries will want this unless  they already own Civardi's previous trilogy, Drawing Human  Anatomy, Drawing the Female Nude, and Drawing the Male Nude (LJ  3/15/96). Constance's book is a more lively and accessible  volume, progressing nicely from quick-pose sketches to more  ambitious interpretations of both the character and the form of  the person one is drawing. Constance covers a variety of media  and explores light and shadow, clothing and drapery, and varying  perspectives. Her use of cropping, pastels, collage, and  monotypes attest to her preference for creative expression over  accuracy. The result is an outstanding book for public  libraries. For an advanced book appropriate for both academic  and public libraries, see Robert Beverly Hale and Terence  Coyle's Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters (LJ 7/01).Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.