Frames of Reference / / 2010-06-07

The book was what I need, but the excessive writing and highlighting was a bit much for the price. Every page seems to be in tact and somewhat readable. The seller stated some highlighting, but just about every page was writen on or colored. But it must do for now. Also the book didn't come with the cd-rom as stated.

Scrap file on steroids / / 2010-05-07

Old time storyboard and comp artists - as well as many illustrators - used to maintain a "scrap file." In case that term is new to you, it meant that they collected photos, tear-sheets and clipped-out pages of magazines to use as reference for illustration assignments. Few artist's can draw a convincing, realistic, image straight from their imagination, so having a handy reference saves much time and frustration. Of course you can stage your own photos as did many famous illustrators, but doing so takes time. Fortunately, Buddy Scalera and his intrepid crew took the time and the result is a stellar collection of carefully staged, and professionally lighted images. Please note that these are not static poses, but artfully composed action images of models leaping, wrestling, fighting, and using weapons. To make the fighting scenes accurate Mr Scalera retained a martial-arts expert. As you might guess, the target audience for book is mainly people drawing for action-oriented comic books or storyboard artists. I have three of these volumes: the other two are Women and Girls, and People and Poses. One final note, these are tasteful books. Mr Scalera had all of the models post in tight-fitting workout clothes. "Tight-fitting" not to please the voyeurs, but to allow the illustrators to capture as much of the musculature as decorum would permit.

The good, the bad and the irritating / / 2009-09-11

I actually picked up all of the Comic Artist Photo Reference Books on the cheap but this one was the first one to get opened so it gets the review:

Cliffs: Overall a good solid book, cons: photos in the book are not on the CD.

The good:
Tight binding and a physically well made book: I've already lugged it around in my gig bag, splashed water on the cover and have yet to crack the spine.

The photos themselves are great. Glossy, full color, well-lighted, dramatically lighted on some, adequatly sized 3 x 4 inches on most with lean and fit models (Yes, I own the Fantasy Artist's Photo reference and ugh). The models have proper action poses unlike some fine art reference manuals where you get the nude in a chair, nude standing listlessly, nude reclining on a chaise. Now you get RAWR, I am EVILY smoking a cigar, Karate chop! and OH crap someone stabbed me!

The how to's are not awesome but they're fun to look at and just a general idea/guidline on how to use the photos, setting up frames, storyboard etc.

The CD doesn't require you to install some crappy proggie on your machine in order to look at the photos. Kudos to them. Extranious software drives me bananas.

Another feature that some people might like is that they use an HTML setup to display the photos in a mouse-click friendly webpage navigator. I happen not to like it but I can see where other poeple could find it very user friendly.

The bad:
The photos that are in the book are not on the cd! Which I don't like because I like porting the photos into photoshop, tracing over them, cutting off limbs and blacking out the eyes and some of the images in the book would be great for that (hey, it's a hobby) but now in order to do that I have to scan, crop, re-size etc. They just should have put them on the disc. It's my biggest gripe about the book is still having to carry around the book.

The CD has a lot of stuff on it (easter eggs--I hate easter eggs btw) but it is stored oddly--which i will cover under the "irritating section". If you were thinking you were going to pop in a disk and DL the images to your HD and start photoshopping away...

Well, if you're [...] about organizing like me--save some time and go to ROOT_DATA\HTML on the disk and start wading through the extras folders to see if you even want any of that stuff. The extras_amy_gallery has pictures of an toy action figure parachuting, camping, in a tree and was done by the editor of the book and while cute I probably wouldn't waste the HD space.

The models' folders are aptly labeled anthony_37, Rory_18, Jarrett_25 and Mark_44

The irritating:
When you put the disc in your drive and it loads up you'll see some folders come up (_notes, ROOT_DATA, Templates) and another one at the very bottom that says "start_here.html". You click on it and it opens up a webpage from your disk drive to where you can navigate the photos on the disk in a very well laid out webpage style format and click your way around, look at the extras and easter eggs and videos clickity click click click.

This is purely from a personal style choice but I find the disc setup pretty irritating I just want the core images.

Excellent Resource / / 2009-04-18

I've been a fan of Comic Artists Photo Reference since the beginning and this last edition in the series (this is the 3rd) did not disappoint. The book builds on the previous editions by adding different poses and a few different weapons and themes. And of course, the models are different as well. It follows the format of the earlier editions by providing 4 different sections with a different model in each - ages 18, 25, 37, and 44. The book crackles with energy and provides page after page of dynamic and energetic poses. The models stand out well from the backgrounds and overall the lighting has been done very nicely... sculpting the bodies and making them pop out 3-dimensionally. The accompanying CD is really nice as well and gives you hundreds of photos that you can put on your computer. One of the ways that I utilize this is to to use a slideshow format (in iphoto or any other program) and draw from the model with timed poses. You can work with a book like "The Natural Way to Draw" very easily this way if it's hard to hire a model or attend classes. This book is also really helpful when studying anatomy. I've used George Bridgeman, Burne Hogarth and others and I like to lay this book out next to what I'm studying to help give my studies depth and such. Some reviewers complained about the ages of the models. There's a great book called "Virtual Pose - Children and Teens - that covers this age group very well (although it lacks the dynamic qualities that Scalera is so good at capturing. Until Buddy Scalera does a book on just children (hint, hint:) Virtual Pose might suffice. But regardless, "Men and Boys" is a great book to add to your library.

No Boys; All Men. / / 2009-04-06

I suppose this sounds a little bit odd - but I was sort of irritated by the misleading title? The youngest model is 18, which I suppose I at 20 would consider a young man rather than a boy. As someone who was illustrating a story that involved a younger boy, I was hoping for some good dynamic reference - of, well, a boy - like the title claimed.

The models range in age otherwise, but not so much in terms of build. It would also have been nice to see a few more for each age group rather than just the one model for each.

I appreciated it because it's definitely a reference for comic artists - lots of cool poses with interesting items; guns, swords, things you don't find in your run of the mill guide. The poses are dynamic and come up often in a typical action-based comic book.

So although I think it could have been better, it would be a lie to say I won't get a lot of good use out of it!

Must have reference for comic artists / / 2009-02-15

This is a great book for anybody who likes to draw comics.As you illustrate stories youll find this book lacks photos of people doing things besides fighting.However action is the most important part of comic books and so this book is integral.

Great study guide for NCIDQ / / 2010-06-25

I highly recommend this book when studying for the NCIDQ. I recently took the exam and passed the multiple choice section because of the information given in the book. The book doesn't take the place of any other studying it just gives you the basics and the topics that need to be studied. I will say, however, the NCIDQ has since updated the exam after last fall and the author may be printing a new edition of this text. Check for a 5th edition first. What I hear, is that the book may be updated, but the information in the book should be same it will just be organized more to follow the new exam format.

Fast shipping / / 2009-11-24

I bought new book, it delivered in three days even I chose standard shipping. Love it.

Hard to say how good the book is, test results take months / / 2009-10-28

Book seems well written and helped study for the test. Results of the test won't be known for several months yet, so hard to say if the book did the job or not.

Interior Design Reference Manual / / 2009-04-15

Excellent resource for all interior designers. Very good study guide for the NCIDQ exam.

this is the NCIDQ bible! / / 2008-12-29

This is the absolute bible to the ncidq. its a must read as its very basic and to the point. the questions weer similar to what was actually asked on the test, and its a great preparation. there has been newer editions since this one. but i strongly recommending investing on Ballast's reference manual when you are planning to take the ncidq.

Essential / / 2010-07-24

One of things first things to do while getting started as an artist is to build as big a reference library as possible. The utility of the classic "morgue" can never be emphasized enough.

First it is an essential element in studying poses, people, expressions, and learning from it. Particularly for the self-taught, in the absence of regular life drawing, and drawing from models, the reference images are a great aid. Secondly and more practically it is essential for actually creating images.

All great artists including Alex Raymond, and Norman Rockwell drew from reference. Some from live models some from carefully arranged photographs. The reference files of the evergreen Herge will talk a ton about his art.

One can often get lost in the "How to draw" part of things, including figure drawing, that when it comes time to create a graphic, one struggles if attempted purely from memory. The secret is the richness of the morgue. One out to collect as much as images, of all kinds, photographs, drawings, paintings, etc of people, things, places, animals, in all possible situations. Today the internet has changed the way we think about reference. images are flooding the e-world. And search engines make it so easy.. all you need to do is ....ask!

Yet we need structured reference material, prepared in coherent manner for consistence. This book and the companion series is a truly essential ingredient in the practicing artist's book shelf. It offers a very good variety in terms of poses and expressions, and models. Great to get started. Pictures are well shot and presented.

It will add amazing amount of creative firepower, while trying to set up a scene, thinking up a pose, or while visualizing the muscular tensions for an action hero!

You Could Buy this book / / 2010-07-11

This book is helpful for drawing and is also helpful for learning the humane body if you can't afford to hire a nude model. Of course if you want to save some money and have some props laying around you could take your own pictures and use them as reference. But, there are a few different bodytypes in this that make for good 2D drawing.

They should just sell the CD / / 2010-06-01

When I first leafed through this book, I found the askew pictures at different sizes to be distracting as well as the 'inspirational' renditions of the art (mostly just self-promo pieces for artists) to be equally distracting. And it was hard to skim the book for the poses I wanted.

But, the CD is quite useful: Simple, clearly labeled, and made for quick ready-reference. I also give the authors credit for putting it in in HTML format, so will always be accessible. For instance, the "Virtual Pose" series relies on Quicktime VR, and that technology is always changing, and I've found older file versions not always easily accessible on my newer mac (there's just a delay in rendering, things like that). So I give them credit for thinking about making it 'future-proof' and putting it in basic HTML, which is the best bet for accessibility 10+ yrs from now.

And the poses, it turns out, are quite good -- I know I will use this as a resource.

But the book is a waste of paper. Get it for the CD. ;)

avoid this if you're a beginner / / 2009-12-15

I was pretty excited about this book when I first checked it out. I needed to learn a lot about anatomy and don't exactly have the space or means to hire models for my own reference photos, so I figured something like this would be perfect. However, after owning it for a while and attempting to draw from it, I realized this book is not good for beginners. If you're just starting out and are not adept with anatomy yet, you'll probably find many of the poses useless. Many shots are, as one reviewer said, at extreme or odd angles instead of more natural ones. You can't learn much about basic anatomy when your references are all squished up so that the shoulders look giant and the legs are half an inch long. Plus, the models are pretty short, considering the references are intended for a comic artist.
If you already have a very good understanding of the human body, you may find this useful for very specific poses.
The most positive thing about this book is probably the lighting, which was done very well.

Great Idea, Poor Execution / / 2009-03-17

This book is truly a good idea but between the selection of models and less-than-good photography it falls short.

The female models in this book are beautiful, but unless you are looking for short and slightly thick this is not the book for you. Comic artists rarely draw women of this body type.

The one positive thing I can say is that for the money you are getting quite a bit of content.

Scrap file on steroids / / 2010-05-07

Old time storyboard and comp artists - as well as many illustrators - used to maintain a "scrap file." In case that term is new to you, it meant that they collected photos, tear-sheets and clipped-out pages of magazines to use as reference for illustration assignments. Few artist's can draw a convincing, realistic, image straight from their imagination, so having a handy reference saves much time and frustration. Of course you can stage your own photos as did many famous illustrators, but doing so takes time. Fortunately, Buddy Scalera and his intrepid crew took the time and the result is a stellar collection of carefully staged, and professionally lighted images. Please note that these are not static poses, but artfully composed action images of models leaping, wrestling, fighting, and using weapons. To make the fighting scenes accurate Mr Scalera retained a martial-arts expert. As you might guess, the target audience for book is mainly people drawing for action-oriented comic books or storyboard artists. I have three of these volumes: the other two are Men and Boys, and People and Poses. One final note, these are tasteful books. Mr Scalera had all of the models post in tight-fitting workout clothes. "Tight-fitting" not to please the voyeurs, but to allow the illustrators to capture as much of the musculature as decorum would permit.

Another great reference book / / 2009-02-15

This is a great book for comic artists and it includes sections by many great artists including the brilliant Terry Moore

Dynamic poses, but lacks range of age / / 2009-01-20

This is a really useful resource for the creative and dynamic posing. There are also plenty of tips for getting the most from the pictures, including how to see it from different perspectives and using the right tools to achieve your desired outcome. I only wish they had used different body types and a wider age range. There are only 4 models used in the book, starting at 16 and ending with a lady in her early thirties, all with similar average body types. Overall, it's a useful addition to any artist's books of reference.

excellent reference / / 2008-12-12

a breath of fresh air to those of us who are tired of stagnant anatomy reference books. so few references have as many dynamic poses, in addition to costume and props. a great addition to any reference collection.

Excellent Reference Book! / / 2008-09-17

My artist has grown using this book as reference... Any aspiring artist should pick up this book!

Great overview of dancing for amateur / / 2010-02-11

I am an amateur ballroom dancer and have taken some ballet and tap. This book gives an excellent history and overview of ballet, tap, modern, and jazz. It also gives good advice on how to approach dance classes and what to look for in a teacher. It is an excellent guide to dancing.

There is also professional dancer advice and information, but I don't understand that realm and will neglect to comment on that material.

An Artist Must Have. / / 2010-02-11

This book is an excellent reference material for children's facial expressions. They organize the children by age and there's plenty of ethnic variation. All angles of the head are photographed. As an artist, I use this book all the time.

Mixed feelings / / 2009-03-20

I am an illustrator and thought this book would help me with the drawing of facial exprssion, especially with children.
Unfortunately, I am disapointed that too many of the expressions photographed in the book are not realistic: the children make faces, they obviously had much fun during the shoot but very few of the photos are usueful at all. I was hoping for more photos of faces expressing actual human emotions, not open mouth and grimacing faces. The book seem better for people drawing caricatures or possibly cartoons, but not very useful for realistic picture books.
A positive however: the age progression gallery at the end of the book is of interest.
Finally, the book is VERY POORLY MADE and the binding came appart with two days of actually using the book.

Photo examples / / 2009-01-12

An interesting array of photos to use as a reference. Very few example drawings. A reference book, not instructional, but a welcome addition to my bookshelf.

Great teaching tool / / 2008-12-01

I bought this book as a reference for my Toddler class to see different expressions. They loved it! So many different children with a variety of expressions.

Good book with a word of caution / / 2008-11-24

These books by Mark Simon are great for cartooning or caricature study. The only problem I see is if you are looking for reference to use in more realistic images or trying to learn the proportions of the face. The images all have a slight 'fish-eye' distortion which makes them unsuitable for realistic work. The fish-eye effect pulls the center of the image forward and makes it larger and flattens the edges and makes them recede. This distortion also adds age to the subject so be aware that the kids pictures might not seem to agree with the listed age. This is really noticeable in the front view. Kids have small faces and features inside big heads, that's what makes them so cute, but when you distort the face like this it makes the face bigger relative to the head and ages them.

I'd caution artists who are learning how to draw the face to not try to copy these images exactly as you'll end up with a slight distortion in your realistic work that my be difficult to change later on (if you ever even notice what the problem is). To learn expressions and how the forms of the face connect these books are real good but I think the choice to get in close with the camera to really emphasize the expression was a bad idea from an artist's standpoint, especially for these young faces. From a sales standpoint maybe it works better to get customers attention with the exaggerated pictures. I'm writing this review because when I saw the 1st book I thought it would be really useful but it turns out I need more realistic reference. So I'm hoping the author reads this and considers my opinion, maybe for future products because I'd really like to use these books and recommend them to students.

Resourceful / / 2010-08-27

Learning to draw generally has two parts.

(I) Learning to draw in general (gesture, contour, tone, etc.)
(II) Learning to draw the thing we want to draw. (head, hands, figure, foliage. etc.)

When we learn to draw, and mature as an artist, one realizes the real value of reference. Initially we learn to draw by observation, and then we learn to analyze and get into construction, drawing from memory, and so on.

When it is time to produce consistent consumable art such as a graphic novel, or story illustration, reference is invaluable.

There are essentially two things that give life to an illustration of people, first is the action, gesture or pose of the figure and the second is expression of the face. if we could get these right, then we can tell a story.

For facial expressions, just like anything else the basics are essential, such as the anatomy of the face, the musculature, and the way it moves, twists and turns when the face takes different expressions. A study of basic expressions, and then more subtle variations, helps understand and clarify. While we may spend considerable amount of time in studying facial expressions, it can be daunting to remember all the variations, and bring about the exact subtlety while illustrating a picture.

This is where this handy reference comes in. It can of course be used for studying expressions. But there are other books, such as the one by Gary Faigin. This is simply a photographic reference, which can be applied directly or abstracted into the situation as needed. There is also a companion volume for babies and teens and a wonderful website supporting these books.

The book simply contains crisp, black and white photographs of expressions of various models of various types and ages.

The book though large format, is printed on light paper, making it very flexible, and easy to use.

Great for Caricature, Not So Much for Subtleties / / 2010-06-18

I'm an illustrator and was searching for something to use as a launch for getting facial expressions. I need subtle, human emotions, but what I got in this book was a lot of outrageous expressions. If you're doing caricature, this book would be a great resource. If you need slight lifts of the brown, a downturn of the mouth, then take your own pictures. Also, I had hoped that the photos would have been arranged by emotion, rather than by model. This forces the reader to have to look at page after page of pictures in hope of finding the right expression. It's off to a book reseller I go...

Fantastic for Inspiration / / 2010-06-01

Now if you're looking for a 'how-to-draw' kind of book this isn't for you. However if you are an aspiring artist that seeks to sharpen their representational skills I definitely recommend this.
I've been wanting to get better at drawing portraits, yet alone facial expressions.
Drawing on the computer is fine, but I also like having something 3 dimensional to hold and look at even if my reference is 2 dimensional. After flipping through the book once I already know this material will be highly valuable because it has a broad range of facial expressions. E.g.: age, gender, and ethnicity.

Pretty useless / / 2010-06-01

After leafing through this once it arrived, it became clear that for me this book was essentially useless, and I put it up for sale the next week.

Here's what made the book unusable for me:

The bulk of these expressions seem insincere and overly-exaggerated. These are not actors, but everyday people grimacing and mugging in front of a camera. There are not many 'real' emotions here, but mostly cartoony rubberface contortions, done by people who are not trained in subtlety conveying everyday emotion in front of a camera or audience. Some people may want this kind of thing, but I have a hard time seeing how these could be truly useful to any artist for real-world work.

The art 'examples' of how to interpret these images (also largely done by amateurs) serve absolutely no purpose and are quite distracting, as they are given more weight than the source art itself (!).

Worst of all, a bulk of the photos are badly lit, and poor adjustments were made for subjects with darker complexions. I was amazed many of the subjects were not lit to highlight what the book is supposed to be all about, facial expressions (?!). Often the strongest light source was situated on the top rear of the head -- yielding many completely flat photos.

Many of the best-lit facial poses stare directly into the camera (!). It's very rare that an artist ever needs to break 'the 4th wall' for their work, so these are also all a waste.

The author and his staff definitely put a lot of work into this book -- it's got a lot of different models and it's almost an inch thick -- but I need to be honest and say it really is a whole lot of nothing. At the end of the day, the best source for reference is a mirror by your table (like Disney animators do), or a quick camera phone pic of friend, to give you the emotion you need.

something to draw durring class / / 2010-03-08

I had this book unbound and put in to a three ring binder. I keep a couple of random pages in my sketchbook so I have some reference to work on all the time. It works pretty well. This book has some facial angles that can be hard to come across otherwise and it appears that none of it has been photoshopped which is also nice. 2 or 3 books like this and you can always have something to draw.

Very good book to have if you're an artist / / 2007-06-05

I have almost all of the photo reference picture books with the exception of Boats and Nautical scenes. I consider this book a very good one, because it gives you a wide variety of subjects to choose from, arranged in groups. For example, he will have photos of weathered barns, of houses of different periods, etc. Browsing through the photo reference books I'm sure of finding something that will inspire me. The advantage of these photos is that they were taken by an artist, with artists in mind and that makes a big difference when using them as subjects for a work of art.

Great Artists Visual Reference / / 2004-09-09

Artist's Photo reference is a compilation of over 400 photos of architecture from barns to wharves which artists can use for painting or other graphic illustration. Included are 6 painting demos and examples of techniques to use when creating your very own masterpiece. I particularly liked it that the author addresses copyright issues and how to make photo collages to create your own graphic aids. This is a must for artists who like to use photos for more photo-realistic paintings and who do not have access to their subjects.

If you like this one, make sure to check out the other books in the series: Artist's Photo Reference: Birds, Artist's Photo Reference: Flowers, and Artist Photo REference: Landscapes.

Here Is The List Of 49 Flowers In Book / / 2009-12-23

This is an excellent book to practice drawing or painting from because the flower photos (over 500) are high quality, sharp, and color saturated! There are multiple views for each flower. This book contains photos of 49 flowers: amaryllis, anthurium, aster, azalea, begonia, bird of paradise, calla lily, camellia, carnation, chrysanthemum, cineraria, columbine, daffodil, dahlia, daisy, foxglove, fuchsia, gaillardia, geranium, gerbera daisy, gladiolus, gloxinia, hibiscus, hyacinth, hydrangea, iris, bearded iris, kale, lily, lupine, magnolia, marigold, nasturtium, orchid, pansy, peony, petunia, poinsettia, iceland poppy, oriental poppy, primrose, rhododendron, rose, salpiglossis, snapdragon, sunflower, tulip, water lily, zinnia. There are five step by step demonstrations included also: chrysanthemum in acrylic, dahlia in pastel, orchid in colored pencil, pansy in watercolor, sunflower in ink and colored pencil.

Very nice / / 2009-12-16

This is a really nice photo reference, with lots of pictures of different kinds of flowers. I do feel, however, that there could have been more pictures of individual flowers. But it's helped me in my art somewhat.

FlowerPower / / 2009-11-18

Greatbook for inspiration in photographing flowers. I'm using it as a springboard for painting flowers with oils on fabric.

Artist's Photo Reference:Flowers / / 2007-08-06

This book is excellent for anyone painting flowers as the pictures are brilliant for reference.

More flowers, please / / 2006-11-10

I liked the book. It has lots of useful photos, and the author, being an artist himself, designed the book with the artist in mind, which I found wonderful. The only reason I did not give it a "perfect" score, is because I think there are some very common flowers "missing", such as hollyhocks, violets and a few others. But considering that there are hundreds of flowers, it is understandable that these flowers are not there.