[jfrancis]

Anyone ever seen the videos described here?

http://www.jo-an.com/art_video.htm

They are a record of Robert Beverly Hale's anatomy lectures at the Art Students League.

[Tedsuo]

They're excellent. The best lectures on anatomy I've heard. THe only problem is the quality of the video isn't the greatest, and Hale is sort of old and phlemy, which is vaguely disturbing.

-T

[jfrancis]

I called this place; they will sell them individually, if anyone is interested. You don't have to buy the whole set.

[mr lies]

I watched them all a few years ago. I found them free at the college I was going to (university of California, Santa Cruz) you might try the college libraries near you, you can usually get a community borrowing card if you aren't a student and thats cheaper than buying the whole set.

As for the teaching, it was pretty good. He's amusing. His system is about finding landmark points on the body that help you define where muscles run from. Like the front points of your pelvis, they are obvious on everyone, and a lot of muscles end there. So if you draw the start and end of a muscle and connect the dots your form fills in pretty quick.

He also has a system of measurement based on the scapula/sternum/base of the skull that can be helpful.

So they were pretty good but I don't know if they are worth buying individually, if you read his book and the anatomy book he translated from french you could probably pick up a lot of what he says in the videos, although the videos are faster.

-Alonso

[jfrancis]

They are available at all kinds of college libraries; good point.

[Matt Elder]

I've seen the videos and they are quite good. I think they are just an additional tool to learning anatomy (the others being life drawing, books and muscle casts) so if you think you'll get everything you ever needed to know about anatomy solely from this source, I don't think it is going to happen. An interesting point he makes is the human skeleton/muscles in relation to a horse (and coming from this would be most other animals).

If you are just starting out with anatomy, I'd probably recommend spending the equivalent money on some life drawing classes with a good teacher and an anatomy book. For the beginner, I'd recommend this one by Peck http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195030958/qid=1085703764/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-0679587-5264014?v=glance&s=books and if you are cash poor, start off with the Andrew Loomis books that are floating around on the internet in PDF format.
_________________
See ya on da flip side
Matt
http://www.mattelder.com

[jfrancis]

Peck is great.

I'm REALLY liking this one by Eliot Golfinger:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195052064/qid=1087148449/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-6606946-3428821?v=glance&s=books

I read it for 20 minutes every night before going to sleep. I'm trying to really learn the origins and insertions of one muscle per day.

[jfrancis]

Did you know Robert Beverly Hale's grandfather was the Hale who authored Man Without a Country?

Here's an extensive interview I found online about the man, his career, and anatomy studies (among other things)

http://www.aaa.si.edu/oralhist/hale68.htm