Reference books & materials used on this site:

Find more art books at Blick Art Materials

"An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists " by W. Ellenberger - a large section on horses, large cats, dogs, and other various animals. Also includes some reproductions from "The Anatomy of the Horse " by George Stubbs (whose horse artworks were phenomenal!) - This book is my favorite for horses and large cats (I used this book until the binding fell apart, so I bought another one!). "Cyclopedia Anatomicae " by Gyorgy Feher - a huge book that includes humans and many types of animals. "Animal Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form " by Eliot Goldfinger Various books and pictures of horses or your subject of choice.

The books listed above are part of my personal reference library. I highly recommend each of them for any artist, especially those interested in representational art. For these and many other art books, check out amazon.com.

Salvaging damaged books:

I've found that my books, especially the ones that I work with while I'm sculpting, tend to fall apart quickly. They get covered in clay, I use heavy objects to sit on the books to keep them open (thus the bindings breaking), and they just don't last very long. When my "An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists" fell apart, I bought another one to replace it, but I just couldn't bring myself to use the new book while sculpting. So, (this works best with paperback books) I tore the binding off of the old book and punched holes in the pages so that I could put them in an oversized binder (a regular binder wasn't big enough, cd/dvd binders work well also). I don't need anything to hold the book open anymore, and if I get more clay in it? Who cares?