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Symmetry is not your only concern when you're drawing
portraits. Your own mind may try and fool you as you
look at your subject. When we look at a face we see the
eyes, nose, and the mouth, these are the first things we
focus on, and the things we deem the most important on
the head. Because of the importance we place on these
features, we tend to make them larger and more prominent
on the head oftentimes by neglecting the other parts of
the head. Let me explain what I mean...
Where are your eyes on your head? They look to be about
one third of the way down your head, right? NOPE! The
answer is that they are halfway down your head. The
distance from the top of your skull to your eyes is the
same as the distance from your eyes to your chin. When
people start drawing portraits their mind tells them
that the forehead is "less important" than the brow and
the eyes, so they unconsciously make the forehead
shorter than it should be, thus raising the eyes on the
head to about one third down from the top. You don't
believe me? Look at the demonstration to the right. Just
as I pointed out when you were drawing a profile, that
many people tend to "squish" the head by putting the ear
too close to the rest of the facial features, the
forehead often gets the same treatment by getting drawn
too short.
Next, Let's look deeper into the straight on portrait.
We'll address each facial element on it's own and look
at how they can be measured, drawn, and shaded. |
