Sooner or later you'll find yourself using all these techniques automatically and subconsciously but at first you need to be very self-disciplined about making sure you employ them regularly and carefully.
1.
You should initially use straight lines to construct the outline ('arabesque') of your portrait.
This is so that you start with a very general overall shape and gradually 'knock the corners off it' and add more detail, but it also gives you the opportunity to compare the shape of the curves around the head to the initial straight line.
Effectively you are visualizing a positive shape bounded on one side by the straight line and on the other by the actual curve of the head.
It's much easier to hold a mental picture of a positive shape than it is to visualize the meanderings of a line with nothing close to it for reference.
2.
You can also visualize the triangles formed by connecting the ends of the straight lines you've laid down.
Reducing the complicated forms you see into simple geometric shapes helps enormously; you'll find that you can suddenly see the spatial relationship between two points with ease.
3.
You should always pay a lot of attention to the 'negative shapes' of the background around, and partly obscured by, the model.
The fact that these shapes are abstract and unfamiliar makes them much easier to see for what they really are without your preconceptions getting in the way.
You can help this process by sitting your model in front of a background with some forms in it, preferably vertical and horizontal lines.
4.
Stand well back from your drawing.
You'll be surprised how different it looks from a distance.
If you're not convinced about this you should take a look at the images made by Aude Oliva at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
She has kindly given me permission to reproduce one of them on my website which is an unsurprising photograph of Einstein when you're close up but when you stand back and look again it's now a photograph of..
..
...
well, I won't ruin the surprise...
5.
Another really effective but fantastically easy check you can make is to look at your drawing in a mirror.
The curse of the artist is that one becomes so used to seeing a drawing as you're drawing it that it becomes impossible to see it objectively any more.
Simply turning it back to front allows you to see it with fresh eyes and sometimes you'll be utterly amazed by huge errors you've failed to notice.
Even now you know they're there, spotting the same mistakes with your drawing the right way round can be extremely difficult.
6.
Knowing the basic proportions of the face (different for adults and children, boys and girls) will encourage you to look for ways the face you're drawing conforms to, or differs from the 'standard'.
To properly describe the proportions of the average face obviously requires a diagram which I can't provide here but you'll find what you need at my website.
The basic rules of thumb for the proportions of the face are: • The eyes are half way between the point of the chin and the top of the head.
• The width of the face is divided into fifths, of which the eyes, the gap between the eyes, and the space between the eyes and the side of the head are all 1/5.
• The base of the nose is half-way between the point of the chin and the brow-line.
• The ears are roughly from the level of the brow-line to level of the base of nose.
• The interstice of the mouth (the meeting of the lips) is roughly 2/3 of the way from the point of the chin to the base of the nose.
7.
Something I find extremely useful for finding the angle of lines or boundaries within the face (or anywhere) is to extend that line in one or both directions in your mind so that it crosses the contour.
Imagining the short line as a small part of that long line makes it much easier to gauge.
8.
It's often possible to compare two lines you've extended and to ask yourself whether or not they are parallel or what the angle is between them.
Eg is the line of the ear parallel with the line of the back of the jaw, or does it converge with it? 9.
Once you've run through these mental checks you simply need to ask yourself if your drawing feels right.
If this person walked into the room would you think they looked natural or would you think they'd had cheap plastic surgery? Having these simple checks to call on at any time should give you enormous confidence to approach your drawings with gusto and enthusiasm, safe in the knowledge that if you go off track you'll discover it early on and be able to make the necessary adjustments.
This is so important.
Any picture started timidly is bound not to turn out well - it will look wooden and lack spirit.
You're not on trial so allow yourself to get things wrong in order that you develop your awareness of shapes and relationships.
If you seem to be wandering off-track a lot the three things that will help the most are: 1) Slow down.
2) Spend more time looking and less time drawing.
3) Have a look at your drawing from at least ten feet away.
Copyright 2011 Hugh Appleton
1.
You should initially use straight lines to construct the outline ('arabesque') of your portrait.
This is so that you start with a very general overall shape and gradually 'knock the corners off it' and add more detail, but it also gives you the opportunity to compare the shape of the curves around the head to the initial straight line.
Effectively you are visualizing a positive shape bounded on one side by the straight line and on the other by the actual curve of the head.
It's much easier to hold a mental picture of a positive shape than it is to visualize the meanderings of a line with nothing close to it for reference.
2.
You can also visualize the triangles formed by connecting the ends of the straight lines you've laid down.
Reducing the complicated forms you see into simple geometric shapes helps enormously; you'll find that you can suddenly see the spatial relationship between two points with ease.
3.
You should always pay a lot of attention to the 'negative shapes' of the background around, and partly obscured by, the model.
The fact that these shapes are abstract and unfamiliar makes them much easier to see for what they really are without your preconceptions getting in the way.
You can help this process by sitting your model in front of a background with some forms in it, preferably vertical and horizontal lines.
4.
Stand well back from your drawing.
You'll be surprised how different it looks from a distance.
If you're not convinced about this you should take a look at the images made by Aude Oliva at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
She has kindly given me permission to reproduce one of them on my website which is an unsurprising photograph of Einstein when you're close up but when you stand back and look again it's now a photograph of..
..
...
well, I won't ruin the surprise...
5.
Another really effective but fantastically easy check you can make is to look at your drawing in a mirror.
The curse of the artist is that one becomes so used to seeing a drawing as you're drawing it that it becomes impossible to see it objectively any more.
Simply turning it back to front allows you to see it with fresh eyes and sometimes you'll be utterly amazed by huge errors you've failed to notice.
Even now you know they're there, spotting the same mistakes with your drawing the right way round can be extremely difficult.
6.
Knowing the basic proportions of the face (different for adults and children, boys and girls) will encourage you to look for ways the face you're drawing conforms to, or differs from the 'standard'.
To properly describe the proportions of the average face obviously requires a diagram which I can't provide here but you'll find what you need at my website.
The basic rules of thumb for the proportions of the face are: • The eyes are half way between the point of the chin and the top of the head.
• The width of the face is divided into fifths, of which the eyes, the gap between the eyes, and the space between the eyes and the side of the head are all 1/5.
• The base of the nose is half-way between the point of the chin and the brow-line.
• The ears are roughly from the level of the brow-line to level of the base of nose.
• The interstice of the mouth (the meeting of the lips) is roughly 2/3 of the way from the point of the chin to the base of the nose.
7.
Something I find extremely useful for finding the angle of lines or boundaries within the face (or anywhere) is to extend that line in one or both directions in your mind so that it crosses the contour.
Imagining the short line as a small part of that long line makes it much easier to gauge.
8.
It's often possible to compare two lines you've extended and to ask yourself whether or not they are parallel or what the angle is between them.
Eg is the line of the ear parallel with the line of the back of the jaw, or does it converge with it? 9.
Once you've run through these mental checks you simply need to ask yourself if your drawing feels right.
If this person walked into the room would you think they looked natural or would you think they'd had cheap plastic surgery? Having these simple checks to call on at any time should give you enormous confidence to approach your drawings with gusto and enthusiasm, safe in the knowledge that if you go off track you'll discover it early on and be able to make the necessary adjustments.
This is so important.
Any picture started timidly is bound not to turn out well - it will look wooden and lack spirit.
You're not on trial so allow yourself to get things wrong in order that you develop your awareness of shapes and relationships.
If you seem to be wandering off-track a lot the three things that will help the most are: 1) Slow down.
2) Spend more time looking and less time drawing.
3) Have a look at your drawing from at least ten feet away.
Copyright 2011 Hugh Appleton
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