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The Structure of Man
Published by brian on February 15th, 2007 in Training Videos, Tutorials, Videotutorials
When creating a 3D model or scene its often a good idea to begin with a sketch in 2D. Meaning pencil and paper. But perhaps you are lacking in drawing skills. Have no fear! Blendernation is here!
Or rather Riven Phoenix is here, the author of this excellent video series. When it comes to the human body this is perhaps the greatest video instructional series that I have ever seen. Currently at an incredible 43 hours worth of video (all done over the shoulder) the Structure of Man is a series of videos to teach how to draw an anatomically correct man. It covers down to the skeleton and muscles. Even going into the actual technique on how to draw the shapes. Not just the usual "this is what this looks like". But how to actually get the proper look and the technique behind it. There is even a nice walkthrough on creating The Rise of Frakenstein. And whats great is that its seems that most of it is viewable through Youtube.
And if you have a few dollars to spare, support the author Riven Phoenix by purchasing the 5 DVD set for a reasonable $25. Having watched just a few of them so far I'm definetly going to purchase the set. At $25 its quite a bargain.
And the link again is: Structure of Man
I'm off to watch some more of the videos now. And while you are visiting the site, make sure to check out Riven Phoenix's portfolio too.
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Thats amazing! And 25$ is VERY reasonable for a 5 DVD set, just compare that to a gnomon workshop DVD! I just ordered a set myself, can't wait to get it :)
Great book, especially as its written by a dead guy! he he he ;-)
ordering soon :)
oh and it is Riven not River :)
I had this on my desk for a couple of weeks now and I must say its a bargain, it truly is.
The content is so good that you just want to view it times and times again.
The only thing I would like to have in those DVDs was bigger videos, higher resolution, but hey, I can see the details even at the resolution it was recorded and with some help from riven's voice you get everything down right.
– Rui –
well i have to say video tutorials are good but personaly i think this is not the proper way of learning to draw because its very unflexible. i made the experience that after a week or two you often forget some minor detail exspecialy in the beginning and you say"wait, how was the torso supose to be?" and then you search in your book and find the site with the needed content very quick.
a 43 hour tutorial is not like this and it does not replace a good anatomy book.
BUT this video tutorial is awsome if you can most of the basics and just want influences in your style and of cause its very entertaining.
To make it short, in the end if you have never drawn an anatomicly correct human then this 43 hours are mostly a big waste time because a book gives you much faster and more clearer view of anatomic drawing but if you can already see the formes in a human body and lay them down on a paper then this tutorial could indeed be very helpful to improve your drawing style exspecialy if you have some issues with drawing a human and parts of it just dont want to look right
Do those DVDs play in Europe (Zone 2)?
@Kenden
"Do those DVDs play in Europe (Zone 2)?"
Its data-DVDs
From the site:
"To view the videos on DVD, you need a PC and a DVD drive. You will need Microsoft’s Windows Media player which you can download from their site."
Typo in the article above:
Its RiveN Pheonix, NOT RiveR Phoenix.
i have seen some of these videos on google and i must say they are just as good as those gnome dvds and 43 hours worth of video for half the price of thiers, this is good nes.
I recommend you some of Giovanni Civardi books
-Drawing The Female Nude
-Drawing Human Anatomy
-Drawing the Human Body
-Drawing the Male Nude
-Drawing Hands and Feet
-Giovanni Civardi's Complete Guide to Drawing
These are advanced ones, and if you want to learn from these you have to study (they are not recommended for everyone). This is the first serious step one can take towards human figures.
Really a book on how to draw anatomy would not be the best to accompany something such as this. And I don't think copying his technique is the idea. The whole DVD series seems to be more focused on how you CAN draw anatomy from memory. And is meant as a guide towards your own style and creativity. Along with a few points on how to get certain looks. Anyway, I recommend Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist, by Stephen Rogers Peck, its been my resource for years. And nothing since has seemed as good. Its full of some great textual descriptions, and some may find it negative that it uses a lot of medical terminology. But it does what it needs to do. Plus, its pretty cheap now, you can get a copy for $15.
Wow! This is really good material. Thanks!
I've watched a few of his videos, and I must say he's really good at doing it, he just takes the fact how people invent things and used that to let your draw a human.
For example, a human always has to find a technical solution to something to figure out how it works, The best thing of this is, experimenting and invent it yourself, so as he says: the brain thinks you invented it so basicly the 2nd try it's trying to master it.
The first video shows this really well, draw a line, find a central point, divide and find a logic way of how a human would look like and base that on technical facts. Divide the line in parts, make some rules of drawing your own human, find the logic and the 2nd try will go almost automaticly. The same technic is used by artists drawing cartoons over and over again. Like you can base the cartoon Tweety and Micky Mouse on circles and easely redraw it millions of times without a huge difference.
The same technic is also used for modeling, hunderds of people learned themself to start off with a box, plane or sphere to model a character in 3D, and basicly the first few steps are always the same because you made your own rules.
I think I keep an eye on him as well I'm intrested in buying those videos, looks awesome and actually the few videos on his website made me already draw something quite decent.
Any experiences with shipping to The Netherlands (thus oversea shipping???)
I had a look at some of the videos a while ago and - although they are good - I think it is better to learn how to SEE correctly. Based on my scant view of some of the lessons, I had the impression that he tries to teach one certain rules/proportions that one can use to draw the human figure. I think it's good to gain that knowledge, but one must not get stuck there.
Nothing beats actually sitting down and drawing a human figure: preferable from life, or second prize from a photograph. Thats when you learn to SEE, and the proportions start being burnt into your mind.
I like using proportions if I have to draw a human figure without reference material - or for picking up errors in my drawings.
PS: I'm not slamming the DVDs, I am considering buying a set myself.
To Dude:
I'm in Portugal and arrived 3 to 4 days after the order got posted.
– Rui –
Gr8
Me perhaps buying then
And if I got two books from Barrington Barber, is it still worthy buying the dvd's??
Just wanted to let you know that Riven Phoenix has updated his blog and now only the first 20 videos are available at YouTube. Also, the price for the DVD has been updated to $35 instead of the $25. It seems that the publicity that Riven has gotten thanks to this post has gone over his head. IMHO, it's a shame because I was considering buying the DVD, but after this, I just don't think so (not because I can't afford the extra $10, but because I think it was rude of him to take advantage of the situation the way he did).
- Jos -
@Jos:
Dang…I just checked and you're right. That's a pretty sloppy business move IMO. Oh well, I guess if you didn't see the hat trick it wouldn't bother you so much.
Actually its not that uncommon practice to raise the price when business is booming. Its common business model to increase profits and decrease purchases. My wife and I do that in our businesses. If things get going to much, rather than not allowing more business, we just increase the price temporarily. Taking the videos down is something I personally think was a poor choice, but they are his and its his right to take them down. Oh well. Still even at $35 its a great deal.
I am really sorry about the inconvenience this has caused many of you and I hope you will understand the 'The Structure of Man' videos are the intellectual property of AlienThink and the videos were for a 3 month free preview period on YouTube as it was stated on the blog. AlienThink has started to market the videos and spending thousands of dollars so I am sure you do understand as to why they feel all the videos cannot be all online. The change was made last night on the blog. The main reasons the DVD’s are now $35 is because to help support the Advertising campaigns. I cannot thank all of you enough for the support you have shown on this project and to me. I wish the very best for all you in your life and in your careers.
Hi Riven, glad to hear from you and see that you read BlenderNation too.
The videos are great, I have the set right next to me.
This post of yours really clears any doubts about the change, great of you to write it down.
– Rui –
Thanks for clearing that up! Awesome job, BTW!
The truth is - alienthink.com , Riven Phoenix, and Junaid Khan are one and the same…
An amazingly talented and creative individual.
ditto… This guy is an amazing artist whoever he is. Thank you Riven Phoenix for your great tutorials.
I've recently purchased these dvds from Riven. It's a wonderful learning tool in understanding human anatomy and is a great asset to your drawing.
I agree that you should not focus solely on his methods and style, but obviously he intended this to be a form of guidance for all drawers and for people to pick up useful bits of information throughout the series and not absorb everything. ie. absorb what you would find useful.
Kreon: I can see you your point, but I'm sure in time you would know where to look for certain problems (if you have any) as he has obviously catergorised this whole set in parts and structure and is a very well organised series.
It's 35$ now and you can watch only a few vids entirely… i'm glad i downloaded them all when i could..
Why delete my reply even if you do not agree with it? Bad shape. Sad.
@ping: I didn't. Sometimes messages end up in the spam filter. I try to fish them out but sometimes I may miss a few.
45$ already. Worth it, but expensive for a hobbyist…
I just recently purchased these dvd's and I am a professional graphic artist/ illustrator even at $45 dollars $50 with shipping I still find this a good bargain. Compared to Gnomon and some of the others out there.
Even professionals need refresher courses and new ways of thinking which is my primary reason for purchasing. Needless to say the DVD's are no magic bullet you still have to work and I know from many years of experience:
NOTHING beats life drawing through observation and practice, practice, practice. Riven is just giving you some fundamentals. You just need to learn when and how to use them. I will also recommend getting a good anatomy book which can easily run you about $50 to a $100 I know I have several. This will allow you to familiarize your self with the human anatomy and re-enforce some of the things that he talks about in the videos.
As mentioned by a number of people above.
I can draw rather well but I still like taking classes and learning different approaches to add to my drawing skillz.
I have watched this entire series and I have to say that the production value is so low that I almost consider it insulting to me as a paying customer. While there is substantial anatomical knowledge to be gained from these videos Riven is terrible at explaining concepts and furthermore in speaking in general. He'll too often digress into incomprehensible strains of "divide this here, then - wait divide, divide, divide, then this here, divide." He continuously loses his place, and seems unable to use clear or concise language at any point during the lectures. The misuse of English in these videos is staggering: "and now we automatically get the head" or "this is mathematically perfect" abound.
He additionally seems to be recording the videos from a pad of paper on the keyboard of his laptop (perhaps using his webcam turned downwards). The lighting is very poor and his cell phone even goes off in one point in the videos. The immense time that these videos occupy is not a testament to his wealth of knowledge but to his copious rehashing, babbling, and stammering.
If you expect people to pay for these DVDs as I unfortunately did, you need to edit, write out what you plan on saying, and proofread. Buy a decent camera and work in decent lighting. I recommend that anyone considering purchasing these dvd's to think again or at least buy a stress ball and forget as much of proper English as you can.
Well, i think that these video lessons are really, really good. Ok, the lighting is bad and riven didn't practice his phrases before recording the vid, but still, they gave me a much better understanding of the human body. i am still a trillion times worse than him but i've made progress and thanks to these videos, i have been drawing almost every day lately.
Nice picture! And congratulations on making your way to the digital world (and the 21st century!) You're ahead of me though, FemmeFone.nl ? The mobile fashion store, Gratis nieuwste Sony Ericsson W910i Black of Red muziektelefoon met alle mogelijkheden van een MP3 speler, Gratis Chronotech Horloge. Femmefone.nl - Lady phone
Only 5 lessons to go on the first disk. Boy is this a great series!
The valid quality issue mentioned by Joshua is overshadowed by Mr. Phoenix's deep understanding of anatomical structure, his insight into how he acquired it, and the ability to retrace his steps and share his personal journey with others. The Structure of Man is an excellent supplement to any useful anatomy text, and it prepares us to understand what we're seeing when drawing from life.
To comment on AnyMation's post, renowned anatomy teacher Robert Beverly Hale stressed the adoption of a set of standard proportions to see how a living model differs from them. Without this personal standard, similar to what Mr. Phoenix describes as "invention," we're only copying the model in the life class without understanding what we're actually seeing. Real learning takes place only if it can be related to something already known and understood.
I ordered both The structure of Man and Sketchbook. What a disappointment. And they are $45 dollars for the structure of man, and $25 for Sketchbook. He also charges $5 dollars extra each for shipping, but then stuffs them all into on envelope that only cost him $3 to ship.
First of all, the quality is that of basement video with heavy compression and cheap stick on labels. There are 5 dvds in structure of man, but the actual content ranges from a total of 400mg to just over 1 gig per disk. Basically all of the info would really fit on 2 disc. Some of the files dont even work, and some have the video frame rate less than what is needed for viewable video, looking more like flip book animation. I at least hoped the content would make up for the amature production, but since I cant view much of it, I will never know. Also, dont let the DVD format fool you. They are all WMV files and there are no menu's or dvd structure to them. They wont play on most home dvd players. You need your pc and windows media player. DVD is just the optical disk he decided to store the files on. He could have done the same thing with cds. It would just take a lot more of them. I found that a little deceptive too.
I've attempted to email about the problems of the non working files, but never receive a response. I also notice that places like YouTube where he shills his dvds, have comments disabled. Im assuming that I am not alone in being disappointed.
Over all, I paid $79 with shipping and handling, and I basically have coasters unless I can figure out how to view the rest of the videos. But constant file unrecognizable and file corrupt error messages do not leave me very encouraged. And Yes, I have the latest updates and version for Media Player.
I really had high hopes for both of these DVDs.
It is very, very important to copy the disks to your hard drive before watching them, as otherwise you get something "looking more like flip book animation". Copying them can be a pain, as sometimes you get a cycle error.
To be honest the production value of the video is very poor, but the anatomy teaching is good.