Art of Drawing Anatomy by David Sanmiguel - book review

I recently purchased a new anatomy book, and since I am usually on a tight budget I had to find something that was very affordable but of good quality. I bough this specific book on www.play.com for 12 euros or something like that which I thought was quite the steal. I bought it because the only anatomy book I had in my possession was not very good and filled with mostly exaggerated super hero like images. It was not very helpful to be quite honest. This book however was infinitely better. Is it one of the best ones out there? I haven't got the faintest idea as my experience with anatomy books is somewhat limited. I will say however that I personally like it a lot. It has all the basics covered like the concept of ideal anatomy, but also goes into detail, naming the bones and the muscles of the body and showing you how to foreshorten limbs and things like that. I found it immensely helpful and realized that I should have bought a new anatomy book a loong long time ago.

I would recommend this book to beginners and intermediate artists. It is easy to read and has lots of illustrations in it that explains the text and concepts of drawing the human body. I think it has a lovely production quality. I wish it had come as a hardback instead of paperback, but that is just me being picky. In general this is a beautiful book of good quality.

Below you can see some simple photos that I have taken of my copy of the book.

Until next time,
Anita K. Olsen Stoebakk

Contact:
anitaolsen.illustration@gmail.com

Website:
www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com

Death by Cashmere Cover

I recently found a competition on a Norwegian blog(http://epla.no/blogg/2011/omslagskonkurranse/) where they wanted their readers to design the cover for a book called "Death by Cashmere" or "Dødelige Masker" in Norwegian as it is soon going to be launched in Norway. The winner gets a cash prize and the opportunity to get their design printed as the official cover. The deadline is the 22.November, pretty short deadline right. I just finished my entry and considering the fact that I found this competition on thursday I would say I've done a pretty good job :)



I don't know how big of a chance I have or if I stand a chance at all, but if I don't try I'll never know, will I? All I know is that this is a great opportunity to get some experience and to get my artwork published. Also the prize money would really come in handy as I will have to invest in a new washing machine, a new bed and a new refrigerator in January.

wish me luck!

Until next time
Anita Night

Poetry through imagery

So here are my illustrations for the final project module at my university. I handed it in on Tuesday. The thought behind this project was to create illustrations inspired by poetry. Specifically the poetry written by my fiancée Ole, who has previously participated in and won the international society of poets yearly poetry competition.

Should you wish to read his poems simply head over to his blog:
www.schritsh.blogspot.com

They are of course also featured in my artwork. I look upon the art of illustration as something that gives the written word more depth, more punch. It sort of tells a story that is not apparent to the reader simply through words. I am hoping that combining poetry and illustration will leave a longer lasting impression in the mind of the reader than a regular poem would.

This is the cover art:

Spread 1 , Mortal Darkness

Spread 2, Transparent

Spread 3, Dead

Spread 4, Last hour of life

Spread 5, Thought

Spread 6, Light

This poem was dedicated to me by Ole, and is one of the things I cherish most in the world.

Spread 7, Hope

Hopefully I succeeded in achieving my goals. I believe I did. Either way am pretty happy with how the project turned out. The style of the illustrations did take a different turn than I was intending, but I don't mind that happy accidents occur.

Until next time
Anita Night