The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Drawing Figures! To draw an anatomical figure, you don't need a stack of weighty anatomy books. Just take it step by step! In How to Draw People, author Jeff Mellem teaches beginning artists how to draw the human figure, from stick figure to anatomically accurate person, in clear, easy-to-follow lessons. More than just a reference, this book provides the step-by-step instruction to teach you to draw the human figure and the anatomical knowledge to draw it realistically. In each chapter, called "levels," you'll learn core concepts for drawing the human figure. Each new chapter builds on the previous one to give you the skills you need to add complexity to your drawing. By the end of each chapter, you will be able to draw the figure with greater detail. By the end of Level 5, you will be able to draw an expressive figure with defined muscle groups in a variety of poses both real and imagined. Clear goals to progress from stick figure to anatomically correct Exercises and assignments to practice new skills Level-Up Checklists in each chapter to assess your skills before moving on With clear step-by-step demonstrations and check-ins along the way, How to Draw People is the beginner's guide to drawing realistic figures.

Between spring and winter 1909, Picasso executed more than sixty portraits of his companion, Fernande Olivier. These works--produced in a variety of formats and mediums--exhibit a range of artistic approaches dedicated to a single subject that stands out in the history of portraiture. Even more significant, this series of works coincided with the invention of Cubism. Published to accompany a major exhibition originating at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, this richly illustrated volume illuminates Picasso's radical reformulation of human physiognomy.

Containing eighty-two color illustrations and sixty-eight duotones, the catalogue explores the Fernande portraits and related works as a single oeuvre culminating in the magnificent "Head of a Woman (Fernande)"--one of Picasso's rare pre-1912 excursions into sculpture. By so doing, it allows us to examine Picasso's process in an unprecedented fashion. What emerges is a new picture of the artist pursuing his subject with obsessive repetition and struggling to resolve artistic problems during a time of crisis in his work. Also included are previously unpublished studio photographs that offer further insight into the conceptual nature of the artist's process. The text narrates the internal development of the Fernande portrait series, situates it within the broader history of representation, and considers the powerful impact of Cezanne on Picasso's work during this period.

Seizing a single extended moment in the early history of Cubism, this catalogue reveals Cubism's great achievement--its startling invention, its remarkable expressive power, and its profound formal and psychological implications for modern art.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE:

National Gallery of Art, Washington
October 1, 2003 - January 18, 2004

Nasher Sculpture Garden, Dallas
February 15 - May 9, 2004"

The new paperback edition of Roy Strong's popular introduction to Elizabethan portraiture Written for the general reader, Roy Strong's popular introduction to Elizabethan portraiture synthesizes scholarship and research on this subject into a concise introduction to the Elizabethan aesthetic. Strong surveysthe entirety of Elizabeth I's reign from the Procession Picture to the Rainbow Portrait (1600-1602). A range of social aspects of Elizabethan portraiture are explored, such as patronage, symbolic self-fashioning, Elizabethan pageantry and melancholic humor. Strong reveals the Elizabethan approach to portraiture, while demonstrating a new way to look at these paintings. From celebrated portraits of the Queen and paintings of knights and courtiers, to works depicting an aspiring 'middle class', Strong presents a detailed and authoritative examination of one of the most fascinating periods of British art.

Posing Sex: Toward a Perceptual Ethics for Literary and Visual Art views the long and provocative tradition of representing the sexual act in Western art as an occasion for challenging assumptions about personhood. It is uncontroversial that what Singer dubs the "sex image," the artist's posing of human figures in the act of coitus, is an enduring compositional armature for artists from antiquity to the present. Singer, however, makes the quite controversial claim that this aesthetic practice, in literature and painting especially, serves as a powerful metier for exploring how the mind is continuous with the sensuously lively body rather than its rationalistic antagonist. Singer draws upon a rich philosophical tradition-from the Greek Stoics, Descartes, Spinoza, and Hegel to contemporary theorists of perception and aesthetic agency-to show how the stakes of aesthetic experience epitomized in the sex image are essentially ethical. Referencing a broad range of image-based artworks-literary, painterly, and cinematic-Singer illustrates the proposition that "posing sex" broadens the scope of our knowledge about how feeling reciprocates with reason-giving.

Meet the unexpected, overlooked and forgotten models of art history.

Who was Picasso's 'Weeping Woman'? Why was Grace Jones covered in graffiti? How did Francis Bacon meet the burglar who became his muse?

The perception of the muse is that of a passive, powerless model, at the mercy of an influential and older artist. But is this trope a romanticised myth? Far from posing silently, muses have brought emotional support, intellectual energy, career-changing creativity and practical help to artists.

Muse tells the true stories of the incredible muses who have inspired art history's masterpieces. From Leonardo da Vinci's studio to the covers of Vogue, art historian, critic and writer Ruth Millington uncovers the remarkable role of muses in some of art history's most well-known and significant works. Delving into the real-life relationships that models have held with the artists who immortalised them, it will expose the influential and active part they have played and deconstruct reductive stereotypes, reframing the muse as a momentous and empowered agent of art history.

In A Third Look, Joseph Maida reflects on Lee Friedlander's nudes from the 1970's and 80's, reinterpreting this series as a cutting edge homage both to Friedlander, the modernist titan of photography, and to LGBTQIA+ bodies across gender and identity spectra. When curator John Szarkowski first presented Friedlander's nudes in a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1991, he wrote that "the qualities of generosity and openness, and the habit of continual exploration-of logical extemporization enlivened by an unassuming audacity" make Friedlander's nudes so "richly and rewardingly complex." Maida, viewing the traits of openness, exploration, extemporization, and audacity as queerness itself, reimagined Friedlander's nudes by picturing different bodies in A Third Look to converse with Friedlander's. Maida calls their feminist reclamation of history "a visual queering of modernist photography, providing a visible reconciliation of where the canon of art photography has historically allowed us to see" with the broader spectrum of the human nude.

The first collection of Ms. Jensen's luscious ladies was greeted with such enthusiasm, we simply had to invite Barbara to create an entirely NEW gallery - which she did with abundant energy and precision Meet the even-hotter honeys from a truly gifted illustrator Yet another eye-popping collection of cuties - semi-clothed AND, as advertised - "Clothing Optional"

A celebration of the human body and spirit in more than 100 photographs - all nude, all taken at night. These photographs illustrate the hard work and the dedication it takes to succeed in dancing, acting, photography - or really any creative endeavour that at first may be incredibly frightening or make you feel vulnerable, but once achieved offers an exhilaration previously unimagined. The photos were shot over 200 nights, with 300 different dancers, in more than 400 locations, in all kinds of weather. The photos are grouped by theme - Vulnerability, Ferocity, Stability, Ecstasy - and include shots from sunset to dawn, in spectacular black and white and glorious colour. Many will be accompanied by an inspiring quote. Additional text will include Jordan's introductory essay, describing how he came up with the book idea and how he is inspired by the dancers he photographs, as well as "Behind the Scenes" stories of how the shot was achieved and "In Their Shoes" - words from the dancers on what it was like to be photographed in nude in public.

Mickalene Thomas's vivid paintings, collages, and photographs explode off the wall. Their larger-than-life women stare back and down at the viewer, confronting them head on. Over the course of her prolific career, Thomas has created a body of work that expands notions of beauty, gender, sexuality, and race, offering a complex vision of what it means to be a Black woman. In Femmes Noires, Thomas moves breezily between pop culture and the long history of Western and African art, inserting images of Black women into iconic paintings. At times she poses them nude; at other times, she draws on elements as diverse as 1970s black-is-beautiful images of women, Edouard Mamet's odalisque figures, the mise-en-scene studio portraiture of James Van Der Zee and Malick Sidibe, and her own collection of personal portraits and staged scenes. Her ability to detect and contain contradictions and to wrestle with stereotypes translates into powerful, self-possessed depictions of Black women that confront and subvert stereotypes. Femmes Noires is a bold examination of Thomas's work and her artistic practise at an important moment in history. It blends writing from iconic Black writers and essayists (Alice Walker, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Edwidge Danticat, and Lorraine O'Grady) with 120 reproductions from Thomas's oeuvre (collages, paintings, film stills, and photographs). Original essays by Andrea Andersson, visual arts curator of the Contemporary Art Center of New Orleans; Julie Crooks, curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario; and writer-art critic Antwaun Sargent complete the book. Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noires accompanies an international touring exhibition organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Contemporary Art Centre in New Orleans..

The first Yale French Studies issue on photography, examining French photography's place in art, identity, and society through a lens of diversity and interdisciplinary investigation In its first issue on photography, this volume of Yale French Studies presents multiple avenues of interdisciplinary investigation designed to intersect and open up new areas of inquiry in the twenty-first century. These intersections push beyond traditional geographic and gender boundaries, exploring women's photography, new cultural contexts, trans orientalism, and minority and marginalized bodies. As they do so, they ask us to reconsider the way that we conceive of photography's place in the past and in our lives today.

A painter of prodigious talent and sly wit, Aly Fell has managed to make the tricky crossover from commercial work in television and gaming into the world of fantasy illustration. From his base in the UK, Aly has gained both notoriety and a growing fan base via his paperback covers and web-comic work. Now assembled for the first time are his favourite pieces reflecting his favourite subject -- the female form.

"I like depicting sexy, strong women - the spirit of a dominatrix. Through my work I explore the part of my personality that enjoys teasing and provocation. In doing this, I've seen the change and growth of myself as a person, a woman, a lover, a critical open-minded thinker and, most important, as an artist." - Alejandra Guerrero. In the second decade of the twenty-first century we are witnessing an unprecedented exploration of female sexual power, while on the other hand reactionary cultural forces contrive to keep women as defenceless as possible. In this context, the work of photographer Alejandra Guerrero can be understood as a clarion call. Hers is a rarefied visual art that marks a turning point for female sexuality in erotica, her eloquent tableaux revealing the intricate ways in which women exert their erotic power. Here we see a future in which women dictate raw, yet refined desires. Each moment comes from the erotic fever dreams of the participants and the desires of the woman behind the camera. Sometimes, when Guerrero turns the lens upon herself, those moments are one and the same. Contents: We delight in wickedness by Violet Blue; Plates; Biographies; Credits.

A young man returns home to his family's estate after a long mission at sea. Imagine his shock (well, more amazed stroke of luck) to find three young women enjoying an impromptu sleep-over, exchanging sexy stories of recent erotic adventures. Hey, it could happen! At least in the world Norberto Serrano creates in this richly detailed and beautifully illustrated tale of torrid love and unbridled passion! This is a superheated collection of carnal pleasures, in very graphic form.

A person's mien reveals the landscape of a life. In their expressive presence, not only do the eyes speak, but every detail of the face's features and folds tell of a life that has been lived. Therefore, it may not be entirely surprising that Giovanni Segantini, celebrated during his lifetime as a landscape painter and an innovator in Alpine paintings, saw the portrait as the noblest genre of art. It is all the more astonishing that this theme has received very little attention until now. The Segantini Museum in St. Moritz is now closing this gap with an exhibition and this companion catalogue. Assembled from private and public collections, this is the first exhibit to present Segantini's impressive portraits. An enchanting series of pictures, whose views of the models' lives also provides insight into the artist's life as well.

The family model has been central to patterns of social organization and cultural articulation throughout Chinese history, influencing all facets of the content and style of Chinese art. With contributors drawn from the disciplines of art history, anthropology, psychiatry, history, and literature, this volume explores the Chinese concept of family and its impact upon artistic production. In essays ranging from the depiction of children to adult portraiture, through literary constructions of gender and the psychodynamics of cinema, these authors consider the historical foundations of the family--both real and ideal--in ancient China, discuss the perpetuation of this model in later Chinese history and modern times, and analyze how family paradigms informed and intersected with art and literature.