Practice Drawing Facial Features in your Sketchbooks

The following should be in your sketchbook when they are collected Friday, Nov.21

• FROM THR NOV 13th- 3-7  (5 is fine) practice EYES.
• Must be from real life, no photos
• 2 may be your own (mirror)
• Get some left and some right
  
• FROM FRI NOV 14th- 3-7 (5 is fine) practice NOSES.
• Must be from real life, no photos
• 2 may be your own (mirror)
• Try to get some from slightly above looking down, some from as straight-on as possible, and some from just a little below, looking up

• FROM TUE NOV 18th- 7 practice MOUTHS.
• No more than 3 may be from photos (at least 4 must be from real life, 2 may be your own (mirror or photo).
• Try to capture a variety of expressions; smile, frown, bored, surprised, etc.
• At least 2 need to show teeth or be open

• FROM WED&THR NOV 19th&20th- 3-7  (5 is fine) practice EARS & HAIRSTYLES.
• Must be from real life, no photos
• Make sure ears are foreshortened (going away from you in space), these are for the portrait view of the face, not the profile view (where you'd see the whole ear)
• Try to capture a variety of hairstyles; long, short, straight, wavy, curly, spike, etc.

Face the Face

Drawing & Seeing Class has been learning about portraiture. Every day after taking notes on general guidelines for placement and proportion of facial features, I assign students to draw several features in their sketchbooks- Last Thursday were four eyes, Monday was four noses, five mouths yesterday, and four ears today. These are from my own sketchbook, which I used a mirror for.

Facing Forward: Portrait Drawing with Ease

See fig. 9-5 on pg. 166. Drawn on a mirror with an overhead marker, then traced onto paper.

Read Chapter 9, pp.162-191

• Make you "test for yourself:" fig.9-1, 9-2, 9-3, 9-4 & 9-5
• Read pp.167-172
  

Draw in your sketchbook:

• "Drawing a blank to see better than ever" pp.168-169 (take a look at fig.10-24 on pg.212)
• "Drawing another blank and getting a line on the profile" pp.173-177
  (be sure to look at Fig.9-12 on pg.170)
• "A Warm Up Exercise" pp.178-180 (Sargent on p.179)
  

Profile of student (Crystal Deemer), 2006

18x24 Newsprint with 2in margin

• "Now, the real thing: A profile portrait of a person" pp.181-189

Drawing a blank to see better than ever

Drawing students are taking notes this week, learning about the correct placement and proportions of features in portrait drawing (see also pp. 168-170 in 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain). Each day we tackle a different feature. Wednesday was eyes, Thursday were noses, Friday will be mouths, and so on through ears and hair. After taking notes they have to sketch the featured features from real life! So, don't feel awkward if someone is staring at you in class, they're just studying your anatomy!

Next we'll deal with profiles and 3/4 Views, then the skull, and back to full-fledged real life faces.