A valuable tool for intermediate artists, this volume treats the figure as a unit in the overall composition of a sketch or drawing. Discusses light and shade, draped figures, folds, movement, much more.

"From previous attempts you may have concluded that drawing the figure is difficult. This book will show you how to reduce complex figures into a variety of basic shapes that are easy to master, helping you to reach your goal of producing lifelike drawings. Tested through years of classroom use, the principles stressed here bring clear insights into drawing the human form. You'll find a logical, step-by-step method for mastering the construction and proportions of all figure types. First the basic forms are analyzed - the proportions of the various parts and their relations to the total figure. You'll then learn how these parts are connected and how they move and find exercises in drawing the complete figure in any position, engaged in a variety of activities. Also included are detailed studies of anatomy - examining bone and muscle structure - plus special instructions for drawing such intricate parts of the body as the head, hands and feet."--Publisher description.

INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards -- 2014 GOLD Winner for Art This book is a celebration of figurative art, essential to those interested in both traditional techniques and the latest developments in the art of the figure. An expansive survey of contemporary figurative art, The Figure showcases work by acclaimed artists including Jenny Saville, Eric Fischl, and Will Cotton alongside emerging talents. Artists’ texts and essays by distinguished critics, writers, and thinkers chart the evolution of figurative techniques, from the atelier to the use of photography, Photoshop, and 3D-modeling programs. Centered on the renowned New York Academy of Art—where many of the featured artists are alumni or instructors—this collection reflects the institution’s mission to instill the rigorous training of past generations within the lively dialogue of the present day. Championed by artists, scholars, and patrons of the arts, including Andy Warhol, since its founding in 1982, the Academy continues to serve as a creative and intellectual center at the vanguard of representational art. With a wealth of imagery displaying some of the finest examples of the genre in all mediums, this richly illustrated volume attests to the enduring appeal of the art of the human figure.

This book offers a much-needed new political theory of an old phenomenon. The last decade alone has marked the highest number of migrations in recorded history. Constrained by environmental, economic, and political instability, scores of people are on the move. But other sorts of changes—from global tourism to undocumented labor—have led to the fact that to some extent, we are all becoming migrants. The migrant has become the political figure of our time. Rather than viewing migration as the exception to the rule of political fixity and citizenship, Thomas Nail reinterprets the history of political power from the perspective of the movement that defines the migrant in the first place. Applying his "kinopolitics" to several major historical conditions (territorial, political, juridical, and economic) and figures of migration (the nomad, the barbarian, the vagabond, and the proletariat), he provides fresh tools for the analysis of contemporary migration.

A how-to handbook that makes drawing easy. Offers simplified techniques and scores of brand-new hints and helps. Step by step procedures. Hundreds of illustrations.

In the Gospel of John, the character of Jesus repeatedly comes into conflict with a group pejoratively designated as 'the Jews'. In chapter 8 of the Gospel this conflict could be said to reach a head, with Jesus labeling the Jews as children 'of the devil' (8:44) - a verse often cited as epitomizing early Christian anti-Judaism. Using methods derived from modern and post-modern literary criticism Ruth Sheridan examines textual allusions to the biblical figures of Cain and Abraham in John 8:1-59. She pays particular attention to how these allusions give shape to the Gospel's alleged and infamous anti-Judaism (exemplified in John 8:44). Moreover, the book uniquely studies the subsequent reception in the Patristic and Rabbinic literature, not only of John 8, but also of the figures of Cain and Abraham. It shows how these figures are linked in Christian and Jewish imagination in the formative centuries in which the two religions came into definition.

Before Raymond Chandler, before Dorothy Sayers or Agatha Christie, there was Metta Fuller Victor, the first American author—man or woman—of a full-length detective novel. This novel, The Dead Letter, is presented here along with another of Victor’s mysteries, The Figure Eight. Both written in the 1860s and published under the name Seeley Regester, these novels show how—by combining conventions of the mystery form first developed by Edgar Allan Poe with those of the domestic novel—Victor pioneered the domestic detective story and paved the way for generations of writers to follow. In The Dead Letter, Henry Moreland is killed by a single stab to the back. Against a background of post–Civil War politics, Richard Redfield, a young attorney, helps Burton, a legendary New York City detective, unravel the crime. In The Figure Eight, Joe Meredith undertakes a series of adventures and assumes a number of disguises to solve the mystery of the murder of his uncle and regain the lost fortune of his angelic cousin.