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 Find
the horizontal placement of the mouth in the same way as
the nose. Hold your pencil vertically at the corner of
the mouth and note where the line falls on the eye.
Again, do the same for the other corner of the mouth and
DO NOT assume the placement will be the same as the
other corner.
The
mouth can change in size and shape, but usually, when
it's closed and not showing teeth, it's about one and a
half eyes wide. If it's smiling with teeth, it grows to
about two eyes wide. Lips also change shape, when the
mouth smiles, the lips stretch and get thinner. but the
lower lip is usually larger and fuller than the upper
lip irregardless if the mouth is smiling or not. The
size difference between the two lips isn't too much, if
the lower lip is half an eye wide at it's widest point,
the upper lip may only be one third of an eye. The
ratios between lips sizes stay the same for both men and
women. but female lips are usually fuller than male
lips.
The
chin is usually about half to one full eye long from the
lower lip. Incorrectly measuring the chin is not good
because you can make a face look too fat if the chin is
too large, and too skinny if there isn't enough chin. A
woman tends to have a smaller, more petite chin than a
man, so a female chin may be less than one eye long.
if
you measure the jawline by putting your pencil at an
angle starting at the corner of the mouth and going to
the jawline, this may be about half an eye long. When
measuring for the outline of the face, measure each side
because they most likely will have different
measurements because of the asymmetry of the face. Also,
measure the jawline at a few different points so you can
get a good idea of the contour of the jawline.
Determining
where the sides of the head are will vary from face to
face. But on an average weight person if you measure the
length from brow to chin and compare that measurement to
cheekbone to cheekbone, you might find that they are
equal.
You
know that the eyes are at the horizontal midpoint of the
head, so that gives you a general idea as to how long
the forehead will be. But many people have a hairline
somewhere on the forehead. To find the hairline, measure
from the bottom of each eye to the hairline. Measure the
distance from each eye so you can get a few points that
you can connect to create the contour of the hairline.
In fact, take more than two measurements so you can get
more than two points, because sometimes the hairline can
be a complicated contour to draw. Then when you have the
hairline drawn, take several measurements starting at
the hairline out to the outside contour of the hair. The
outside hair contour can be really challenging, so after
taking some measurements, just freehand draw in the
contour. If you find it's incorrect in places, erase
that section and redraw it.
To the right is an animation showing how to measure the
face when you're drawing a portrait of a person. First,
take a measurement from your subject then transpose that
measurement to your drawing. It's best to start your
measurement on an element that you have already placed
on your drawing. So start the drawing by drawing the
oval to get the general placement of the face on your
paper. Then place the eyes on your drawing. Then,
starting the measurement from the eyes you drew, place
and draw the nose. Then, using the nose and eyes as a
guide, place the mouth. Using the mouth, place the
contour of the chin. And then using the eyes as your
measuring starting point, measure to place the hairline. |
