ART SKILLS: A road map to the basic face. Just as it is helpful to look at a road map before setting off on a journey, the first step in learning to draw a basic face is to consult a map. To continue the analogy, a road map gives you a feel for where the landmarks are located and the distances between them. Similarly, over the centuries, artists have discovered rules that provide guidance as to the relative position of the various features on a face. These rules are illustrated in the attached figures.
Human heads are basically oval in shape. (See figure 1) You sometimes hear people say that she has a round face or that he has a square face. However, what they really mean is that that person's oval is more rounded or more square than other people. They are still basically oval in shape. For purposes of this lesson, let's assume that the subject is looking directly at you full face. The eyes are on a line approximately half way down the oval. In other words, the top of the head is about the same distance from the eyes as the eyes are from the bottom of the chin (figure 2). The base of the nose is about half the distance between the eyes and the bottom of the chin. (figure 3). Many people make the mistake of placing the mouth half way between the bottom of the nose and the bottom of the chin. Actually, the mouth is in the upper third of this space. The hairline is above the eyes by a distance that is approximately the same as the length of the nose. (figure 4). The bottom of the ears is on the same line as the bottom of the nose. The top of the ears is a little above the eye line, about where the eyebrows would be. (figure 5). The Renaissance masters believed that a face was five eye lengths across at the eyes. Thus, the width of each eye should be one fifth of the distance between the ears. The distance between the eyes should be equal to one eye length. (figure 6). The wings of the nose are on a line directly below the inner corners of the eyes.(figure 7) The general rule is that the mouth should extend out on each side so that its ends are directly under the pupil of the eye. (figure 8). However, in drawing women, I find that the picture works better if the mouth is not that wide. The eyebrows sit above the orbit of the eyes. (figure 9). In men, each eyebrow is generally a straight line running from a point above the inner corner of each eye out past the outer corner. In women, the eyebrow is often more of an arch. Once you have the locations of the various features, you can adjust them to catch a likeness or to suit your artistic vision. (figure 10). |
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Art technique - Drawing the Basic Face - A road map to the Basic Face