Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators (Force Drawing Series)
Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators (Force Drawing Series) book cover

Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators (Force Drawing Series)

2nd Edition

by
Price
$54.04
Format
Paperback
Pages
228
Publisher
Focal Press
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0240808451
Dimensions
0.75 x 8.5 x 11 inches
Weight
1.56 pounds

Description

'For animators or anyone exploring life drawing, this book is an inspirational choice.'3D World, Feb 2007'Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators, 2e is key to understanding how to capture forceful poses with dynamic drawing. It is informative, concise, and packed full of inspirational illustrations...Force is not just another 'anatomy for animators' book - it assumes that the reader has experience of figure drawing. The focus here is to build on that knowledge and to use straight and curved lines to show the direction of force in the body. Every point in the text is thoroughly demonstrated with the help of superb, dynamically drawn examples.' - Animated News, Oct. 2, 2006 Book Description Animators and artists will discover and master the difficult techniques of rhythmic drawing - bringing their work to life! Michael Mattesi has authored four FORCE books, published in numerous languages, utilized around the world to inspire and educate artists on the concept of FORCE. He has instructed FORCE Drawing for over twenty years and inspired thousands of artists. Simultaneously, Michael has been contributing his skills as a professional artist on numerous award-winning projects in varied capacities and has collaborated with Pixar, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Consumer Products, Marvel Comics, Hasbro Toys, ABC, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, DreamWorks/PDI, Zynga, The School of Visual Arts, Beijing University, Art Center, Scuola Internazionale di Comics, San Jose State University, The Academy of Art University, Nickelodeon, LeapFrog and many others. Michael’s students occupy all fields of the art industry and have themselves gained prestige for their abilities. Michael lives in northern California with his wife and two daughters. Visit him at: DrawingFORCE.com and connect with Michael on Facebook at: DrawingFORCE.com with Mike Mattesi or email him directly : [email protected] Read more

Features & Highlights

  • Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for AnimatorsCapture the force in your life drawing subjects with this practical guide to dynamic drawing techniques - packed with superb, powerfully drawn examples that show you how to: * Bring your work to life with rhythmic drawing techniques * Create appealing and dynamic poses in your drawings* Experience the figure's energy in three dimensional space* Use the asymmetry of straight and curved lines to clarify the direction of force in the body* Build on your foundational anatomy and figure drawing skills to animate your drawings *Apply the theory of force to your on-location and animal drawing observationsWhether you are an animator, comic book artist, illustrator or fine arts' student you'll learn to use rhythm, shape, and line to bring out the life in any subject while Mike Mattesi's infectious enthusiasm will have you reaching for your pencils!Mike Mattesi is the owner and founder of Entertainment Art Academy (www.enterartacad.com) based in Southern California. He has been a professional production artist and instructor for the last fifteen years with clients including Disney, Marvel Comics, Hasbro Toys, ABC, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, DreamWorks and Nickelodeon.Audience level: Intermediate to advanced

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(143)
★★★★
25%
(60)
★★★
15%
(36)
★★
7%
(17)
★
-7%
(-17)

Most Helpful Reviews

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STILL my favorite drawing book

My copy of the original edition of Force has seen plenty of wear and tear since I try to always keep it handy when I'm drawing. But that one's going into retirement for this new expanded version.

Rather than the complex anatomies of some books and the stick figure and cylinder creations of others, Mattesi follows the animator's axiom of drawing verbs rather than nouns. Capturing the dynamic motion of a pose that is the prime factor in an appealing drawing.

This isn't an animation book per se, but no one interested in animation or any other form of figure drawing should pass up the lessons Mattesi teaches. The benefits of conveying movement and sheer LIFE in a still drawing can't be ignored.

Also with this version coming from a bigger publisher in Focal Press, the overall image quality is far higher than the somewhat pixel-y look of the pictures in the original. Plus an extra 50 or so pages of instruction isn't too shabby.
58 people found this helpful
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Useful for animators and life drawing

[[VIDEOID:1b391a71f8ce23d85c4e80851b765953]] Here's a very useful book not just for animators, but for anyone who do character drawings. It's called Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators, authored by Michael D. Mattesi.

First of all, this is a book for intermediate and advanced artists. Foundational knowledge of anatomy is required to fully appreciate and follow along with the lessons.

This book is about creating realistic poses for life drawing. Examples show how forces inside the body and outside (gravity or objects) act on the human figure, and how the body reacts to the force.

There are lots of tips and illustrated examples on strong and memorable poses, such as the using of structure and form, overlaps, foreshortening, silhouettes etc. The explanations are clear and simple, even very sketchy illustrated examples bring the point across with very few lines.

While many instructional drawing books teaches how to draw, this book teaches how to think before drawing. Whenever I draw, I always remind myself of the tips to help prevent my characters from being too static.

Additionally, there are also chapters on handling clothing, drawing on location and drawing animals.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)
33 people found this helpful
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This book is awesome! It explores areas of figure drawing that essential ...

This book is awesome! It explores areas of figure drawing that essential in creating dynamic, interesting forms. Perhaps a book more for beginners to moderately experienced artist. The author has an easy style of writing and explaining his techniques, though some of his ideas are a bit high concept (which I find to be a good thing). My drawing has jumped up a few extra levels since I've started reading, I'm a little more than halfway through at the moment. The book has been so good thus far that I went ahead and ordered his book on animal drawing.

Overall, a great book with much wisdom and technique. Easy to read, challenging to master. Essential for any artist looking for guidance on how to draw the human figure effortlessly and with appeal.
11 people found this helpful
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Big, Awesome.

The way the examples are drawn in the book is through beautiful sweeping gestures, all of them very full of motion. The book contains very little analysis of the body's physical presence, but this is not a downside at all. Mattesi emphasizes the balance and weight and volume of the form instead of going back to the dreary analysis of human biology (completely necessary to know)that is in so many of my other books.

I wouldn't recommend it for the FIRST life drawing or figure drawing book, but perhaps after a year or so of study of muscular structure.

For the price, this book is huge, and an amazing deal. A must-have for any figurative artist or animator.
9 people found this helpful
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Such an amazing book, but with a poor binding

I'm not used to writing reviews, but I didn't want to miss this opportunity to express how much I enjoyed the book and the one thing I think it could be improved.

What this book IS: The book is a comprehensive guide on how to approach the human figure in a different way. Focusing on motion and how to create a more dynamic and forceful drawing. It deals with line, perspective (applied to the figure) and even a little bit of clothing and folds.

What this book IS NOT: This is not your typical "how to draw the human figure book". It doesn't deal with the classical figure height measured in heads and neither is a book to learn anatomy at all. For that kind of reading I would suggest something on the likes of Andrew Loomis or even Human Anatomy for Artists from András Szunyoghy.

The binding, sadly, is another deal. You have to handle this book with a lot of care if you want it to last. I'm not used to leaving books laying around but I certainly would like being able to have it opened close to me while drawing to better apply some of it's concepts. This is not possible, as you can hear the binding slowly "cracking" and after little use I had to use a bit of glue to prevent some pages from detaching.

Overall, an amazing and unique book that would seriously benefit from a better binding, which is the only reason why I didn't give it five stars.
8 people found this helpful
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Invaluable!

I was in search of a good figure drawing book with an emphasis on animation and comics and this one caught my eye. After reading through, practicing the techniques and understanding them, I'm convinced that this is the most invaluable book I have in my large collection of art books.

This book completely changed the way I draw. I've been drawing seriously for roughly 10 years and once the ideas in this book clicked, it made me feel as if I'd been drawing the wrong way for all those years. Well worth the 17 bucks or whatever it was I payed for it.

I wouldn't recommend this book to beginners however. It's not really a how to draw or a book that covers basic proportion and anatomy issues. For somebody to get the most out of this book, I think they'd need to have a solid grasp on anatomy and fundamental drawing techniques. On the other hand, a beginner may benefit from this book simply from a gesture standpoint.

Easily a 5 out of 5 for me.
6 people found this helpful
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Mattesi's "Force" is great for gesture drawing

Mattesi's force is an excellent book for learning the techniques of gesture drawing. This book is great for learning how to portray motion in drawing and also for learning how to draw fluid, dynamic poses. "Force" gives helpful tips on how to determine where the "forces" are in the body while drawing a pose, such as the force of gravity, torque, etc. The book is also helpful for learning what types of lines and shapes to use when drawing the human body in various positions. This book gives great instruction on how to show all the forces that act on the moving body. I would recommend this book to anyone trying to learn how to draw quick gestures, or anyone who would like a very informative book on how to draw the human body in action.
3 people found this helpful
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Schooling

I originally bought it for a college that I dropped out of only weeks after buying this book. I wound up keeping it because it's actually a pretty good read. Very informative. Very wonderful too look at, too, the illustrations are great.
2 people found this helpful
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Not Just for Animation Drawing

[[ASIN:0240808452 Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators, Second Edition]]Not surprised to find a lot of happy reviews on this one. A must for anyone who wants to draw the human figure, definitely not just animators. This is the most exciting book I have purchased and it leaves for dead all the dull anatomy drawing we did in classes. The text, too, is actually worth reading, kept to a minimum and valid. Love this book!
2 people found this helpful
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Inspiring Read

Although I have not read through the whole book, it has some great info and has renewed my interest in drawing the human form.
2 people found this helpful

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