Need Advice on Drawing Heads! Help Greatly Appreciated
5mo
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@chrisseo
I’ve made some progress! After watching a few videos on measuring portraits and reading about different face drawing methods - I’ve done 15 more heads. I would really love advice and criticism on what to work on next. Only 45-60 are posted due to the attachment limit.
I like the overall studies and really love how some of these have turned out. However, I would suggest to break your practice sessions into stages which would give you immediate feedback.
Stage 1 : Primary head shape/form with brow line, eye line, nose line and chin line. Make sure that they are tracking well in perspective. (1-2 mins)
Stage 2 : Simple blocks for secondary forms (e.g. Eye Socket with eye balls, pyramid/wedge for nose, barrel for mouth etc.) (5-7 mins)
Stage 3 : Refining features and may be adding lighting, if you prefer
Here are some links that I found helpful .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afIIuW5aJnk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T7cDY7YDsg
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5mo
Really great progress! My advice is to keep it up and draw a ton more heads! Your Loomis, Reilly, and Asaro heads are showing where you can start to improve your portraits. The basic proportions of each study can be improved. In your Reilly Abstraction the eyes are too large, and too close together, the nose is too small and too high on the face, and mouth is too large and too high. In your Loomis Head the far eye doesn't quite make sense, and the features and skull are out of proportion and perspective. In your Asaro Head you're doing a good job thinking of the planes of the head, but it has the same proportional issues. I overlaid the Reilly abstraction so you can check your proportions. Really start to pay attention to proportions and measuring when you're doing these studies they will help you start with a good baseline for each portrait. There are some great lessons in the Basics course about measuring and portraits in perspective.
https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/how-to-draw-accurate-proportions/comments
https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/demo-measure-proportions/comments
https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/project-portraits-in-perspective/assignments
I'd also recommend looking into the Portrait Fundamentals Course. Learning the anatomy and structure of the features will help you learn how to simplify them in perspective. There are a few free lessons on the structure of the features.
https://www.proko.com/course/portrait-drawing-fundamentals/lessons
And lastly study the skull. There are 3D models on the site, as well as physical models available to study from. https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/how-to-draw-the-skull/assignments
Hope this helps! Keep up the great work!