The next book I read was another by Robert Beverly Hale: "Master Class in Figure Drawing." I found this book to be instrumental in helping me learn the intricacies in drawing a human figure. In it he depicts drawings of the figure by master artists and uses them to demonstrate how to break the figure down into rudimentary shapes. If you have problems with drawing specific limbs or features of the human body this book can be very helpful. Hale breaks each feature down individually in separate sections from general landmarks and masses to the specific muscles and underlying bone structure. Along the way he includes common mistakes that artists often make in depicting the human figure and offers suggestions on how master artists successfully dealt with specific areas of the body.
One of the areas that gave me difficulty was drawing the arm. Below is one of the exercises I completed to help me understand the physiology beneath the skin.
