What is Reddit's opinion of The Human Machine (Dover Anatomy for Artists)?

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Your sculpting technique is fine but your anatomy is atrocious.

The rib cage and abdominal musculature anatomy is off. You don't just have abdominal muscles on your lower trunk. Also the abdominals should have a limited width. To the nipple line would work but your nipples are set out too far. They should be in the mid clavicular line but you don't have any clavicles. The 6 pack is nice but the hole in the top one would hurt as it's not present in real life and is where the xiphoid under the bottom of the rib cage should be. So your abdominals are to high and too wide and too bulky. There should also be one long one below the navel which is way too low. The pecs attach to the sternum and manubrium and go to the inside of the arm. That's what forms the axilla (armpit). The lat in the back and the pec in the front. So along the sternum the pecs should go outward not downward. Also that deep line separating the pec from the shoulder would sever the pec muscles from the arms. That is not existent in normal anatomy. People do tend to shift there humerus foward but that is an abnormality caused by bad posture and muscle imbalances. There is no rib cage giving the upper trunk its form. The serratus muscles are just sliding downward and fading out instead of inserting onto the ribs along the lateral side under the axilla. You've created a new muscle under the arm that doesn't exist. The deltoid muscle is nonexistant in the front and top and is in the wrong place on the back. There are three heads to the deltoid. The anterior (front) middle (on top) and posterior (rear). They blend together midway down on the lateral side of the humerus at about your cutoff. The posterior one attaches to the spine of the scapula where your attaches to nothing. The anterior attaches to the lateral aspect of the clavicle (which you don't have) and the anterior acromion. The middle attaches to the lateral acromion. The upper traps also go outward from the nuchal ridge on the skull to the acromion on the top of the shoulder then down the back along the spine of the scapula to the spinus' of the vertebra. The lower trap is also on the spine of the scapula to the vertebra and the lateral aspect goes down diagonally to the 12th vertebral spinus process. So you have no lower trap. The lats sweep up from the lumbosacral fascia which starts along the upper boarder of the illium (which again does not exist) moving laterally and inserts onto the humerus in the same medial groove the pec inserts into. You con't have any lats either. You also don't have any paraspinal muscles along the spine and you have no posterior hip fold where the glut medius is. I could go on and on.

You NEED to read a book on artistic anatomy. I love Bridgeman's books. They would be great for you due to your focus on muscles.

The Human Machine (Dover Anatomy for Artists)

Constructive Anatomy (Dover Anatomy for Artists)

You MUST start with the bones. Get a GOOD inexpensive or free skeleton. Put it in a separate collection and use it as a reference so you know where the bones are and can attach the muscles appropriately. Once you know your anatomy that will be superfluous or only needed as a check. But you really REALLY need to learn anatomy if you are going to do this kind of work. It LOOKS good but anyone who knows anatomy will go "nope, it's not right". When you create art about a subject always keep in mind that somewhere in your audience there will almost always be a content expert. Like me. An an artist, I always strive to impress them. If I make a spaceship, I keep in mind as best as I can the physics involved. You con't need the math. Just like in art anatomy you don't need to know the innervation of the muscles like a doctor would need. You need to know enough that you can sell your art to an expert. Keep that in mind as you do all your art. That is one thing that will separate out the pro from the amateur. There is always artistic license ... but not with human anatomy. Even is you're doing an anime or cartoon, the best artists embed their knowledge in the subtle way they do their linework or design their mesh. That's why we buy it.

I hope that helps. Don't give up or get frustrated. Your sculpting technique is good. Your knowledge must match. One thing I learned doing art is that a good artist researches and expands their knowledge about not only their craft, but their subject matter as well. Do that and you can only get better.

Good luck.

Thank you!

Prokos structure basics videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uEtdDvK6Xo

Bridgmans The Human Machine & Constructive anatomy books.

And tons of figure drawing.

Traditionally the body uses 'heads' and the face 'eyes' and divisions.

The body is 7 to 8 heads high. Male 8, Female 7.

Drawing the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm (Image) I think this is a great illustration.

Body Proportions (Image)

Human Figure Proportions - Anatomy Master Class (YouTube)

The face is a bit more complicated and there are a number of ways to do it.

Typically the crown to chin distance is split in half at the eyes.

The distance from the chin to hairline is divided into thirds. The top is the hairline to eye brows. The middle is the eye brows to the base of the nose, the lower is the base of the nose to the chin.

There is an eye between the two eyes.

The ends of the mouth line up with the pupils in the center of each eye so the mouth is a total of 2 eyes wide.

The top of the ears line up with the eyebrows and the bottom with the base of the nose.

Facial Proportions And Sculpting A Face

There are MANY great books on artistic anatomy. I love George B. Bridgman's books. They are readily available on Amazon.

Books by George B. Bridgman I loved his The Human Machine

Buy some books by George Bridgman. Copy them in a sketch book. It helps you see where the planes of complicated anatomy are. here's a sketch of the planes of the nose