I was just showing my brother an introduction video of “creating the human figure from your mind”, and he seemed to think that it was inaccurate. He’s an artist by profression. What do you guys think about the dvd set? Is it worth buying?
The structure of a man DVDs
theindustry
#3
I wanted to hear what he thought before I made the purchase so I showed him the opening video on core structure. He told me that it was off and you shouldn’t be judging the width of the chest by the nipples. After that he drew things out very anatomically and was talking about all of the bones and muscles, and something about the 7 heads. It was a little much for me to take in.
Maybe it was too early in the DVD for him to judge?
Wanted to hear what people thought of it.
Simply put, I am just a designer looking for a better understanding of the fine arts to wrap into my work. As long as I can draw the human figure better and boost my skills, I’m happy.
WeetBix
#4
From what I can remember, the video states that the dots on the chest are just markers so that you know where to draw the side of the rib cage (or a rib cage like shape to be more precise) not nipples. At that point he is just giving a very board overview of the proportions of the body, such as how you can use the head length to figure out the distance to the chest, the naval, the crotch etc. and hasn’t even begun to approach the subject of specific anatomy yet.
In the beginning stages some areas are intentionally simplified (such as talking about the basic 8 head proportion in very broad terms), and then once the core understanding is in your brain it moves onto more detailed and quicker ways of drawing. As I was going through the videos I had about 3 anatomy books next to me at all times, reading all of them and ensuring that I understood every little bit 100%, and at no point in the DVD was any of the anatomy incorrect.
Considering the price of the DVD’s, they are in my opinion better than any book I have found. The website has the first 19 videos for free (which covers a lot of ground), so I suggest you watch all of them first and see how you like them.
Good luck 
JHFerry
#5
I dont own the DVDs but saw them on youtube. Later on his gets into gesture and such, the area you are talking about is strictly the skelatal structure. The idea being you will have a “vision” of the underlying structure or as he refers to it, an invention. I think its unique but I wish he did alot more on Woman. The whole course is about 99% men with one video (the I saw) explaining how to apply it to woman. Still, for something so cheap, how can you complain.
fuss
#6
To answer your first question: yes, Riven Phoenix’ proportions are about ok, for an average tall (170-180cm), adult male. However, you should keep in mind these proportions are just a GUIDELINE, every person is a bit different so there is no reason to slavishly follow this proportions diagram. There are people who have longer or shorter limbs, body parts being positioned lower or higher, being wider or thinner, with total body height measuring 7 or 8.5 heads and all of them are still within the norm. Albrecht Dürer was searching for about 20 or 30 years for the perfect “blueprint” of the human body and he finally gave up with the conclusion that such a thing simply does not exist. There are some general guideliness by which we can go, but they all leave a wide margin for variations.
Now, regarding the rest of "The Structure of Man". I used to be a big advocate of this DVD set not so long ago. I still think it's a pretty good resource for learning the basic forms of human bones and muscles, and also to learn about basic proportions - but that's all. I am still in the process of learning myself, but in the last 1.5 years I already learned quite a bit and I also did finish the whole DVD course of 180 lessons (I pretty much ignored the other lessons, did not found them all too useful...). I also studied anatomy using various sources before I bought and worked through the DVD set and I continued studying from other sources after I was done with it. So I think I am quite qualified to comment on it.
As I already said, the DVD gives you some very solid information on the overall proportions of the human body and the appearance of all the important bones and the muscles invidually and as a whole IN THEIR RELAXED, NEUTRAL STATE. This information can be put to good (although a bit limited) use when you draw from life, but turns out to be almost useless when you try to draw from imagination, which somehow was the whole point of this project. I will try to explain why I feel this way:
To understand the human body to a point where you can depict it in dynamic poses from imagination, you need to understand some fundamental concepts, none of which are addressed in this DVD (and unfortunately you can see a lack of understanding of these basic principles in the artworks of the creator of these DVDs himself). I am talking about things like joints and their mechanics - what kind of joints are at which part of the body and which kind of movement do they allow/support. What causes certain muscles to flex and how do they change their appearance when flexed in opposite to their relaxed state (this is a very important one!). How and when does the flexing of certain muscles affect which joints, and as a consequence the repositioning of whole bones and masses which in turn affects the appearance of the whole body (even the slightest change in one part of your body can affect the overall balance and initiate a change of the whole pose and of the overall appearance). What are the functions of the individual muscle groups - this is crucial to know if you draw from imagination, because flexed muscles look different than relaxed muscles, and different actions and poses require the support of different muscles (for example, a flexed bicep on a stretched arm or a flexed pectoralis when your figure raises the arms would look quite wrong, wouldn't it?).
We know some of these things intuitively, and you can obtain a good "feel" on a more or less intuitive level for all these things by drawing from life A LOT (without really understanding WHY THEY HAPPEN, though). However, in my opinion, the most effective approach is to learn these things before you start with your life studies. Knowing the basic appearance of the bones and muscles is one thing, it's just a start and it's not enough. The next important step is to learn how and under what conditions they interact with each other and how those interactions change the figure's appearance. This helps you to better understand what's going on in the figure when drawing from life and allows you to make educated guesses when drawing from imagination. Also, in understanding anatomy it also helps to know why our muscles, bones and other bodily parts look the way they do, and the reasons lie in their individual functions. And, last but not least, the body is not only made up of bones and muscles covered by skin, but also from fat and tissue which often lie on top of our muscles and greatly change our appearance from individual to individual. I miss the mentioning of all these things on Riven's DVDs.
Sorry for the whole litany, unfortunately my posting grew much longer than planned. I am still not quite happy with it and also bit afraid that at the end it became a bit too convoluted and that despite so many words I still did not manage to find quite the right words to express what I wanted to say... I still hope it is some help.
P.S. - If you want a really, REALLY good book on human anatomy which covers all the areas in "The Structure of Man", all the things I mentioned and more, get a copy of ["Die Gestalt des Menschen"](http://www.amazon.de/Die-Gestalt-Menschen-Gottfried-Bammes/dp/3363009666/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/303-2610009-7841868?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182460163&sr=8-1) by Gottfried Bammes. It's the best and most complete book on human anatomy I saw till this day, and I went through all the "usual suspects" like Vilppu, Loomis, Hogarth, Bridgman, Sheppard, Hamm and whatnot (Vilppu being the only other I could recommend, and Sheppard only as a reference)... The link is to the German Amazon website, but I know there does exist an English translation of this book as well. Also, the book underwent several revisions and additions since the first print in 1964. The one I own is the 10th edition from 2002, if you buy it try to get at least the 8th edition, I believe the book did not experience any major revisions since then.
EDIT:
“(…) the DVD gives you some very solid information on the overall proportions of the human body and the appearance of all the important bones and the muscles invidually and as a whole IN THEIR RELAXED, NEUTRAL STATE.”
I actually should take the last part of the above sentence out, I realized after posting that this is not quite correct. Some of the muscles are actually presented as flexed, because to maintain an upright standing, balanced position some muscles need to be flexed to keep the body from “collapsing” and falling down. What I rather meant was, the whole body is presented in a kind of a “neutral” position.
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