4/15 Blog #3 A True Challenge
Well, I decided it was time to face a new challenge in the world of drawing. Haha…I’m sorry. (I drew a face, guys). Well, I kinda did. Anyway, before I get to that, let’s talk about my thought process leading to this point. I figured that drawing a face would be my ultimate final goal that I would wait to accomplish for quite some time. But, with the better judgement that the past few weeks have bestowed upon me, I have decided that this was something I should attempt to tackle a bit earlier on. It’s a difficult task to draw a human face well for someone just starting with drawing, so I decided that it would be best to learn the absolute basics of drawing a face. Dan Beardshaw, a talented artist with a YouTube channel dedicated to giving advice on drawing, caught my attention last week. His videos seemed rather relaxing and very helpful so I turned to them again this week.
One particular video of his covered the basics of drawing the front view of a human face. This video really brought my attention to just how technical things can get when drawing. I initially figured that drawing a face was as simple as slapping a few basic shapes together in the right spots and BAM, that’s a face. However, drawing a face requires a lot of precision and thought when trying to do it properly. To start off, I drew a circle on a piece of paper. Easy first step. Next, I divided the circle into fourths via one horizontal line and one vertical line. (The vertical line extends down below the bottom of the circle, I’ll get back to that in a bit.) I then placed dots on the vertical line to divide it into sixths. These lines and dots acted as indicators for where all the facial features should be placed. The topmost dot indicated the placement for the hairline. To draw the hairline, I drew in an arc with endpoints at high points on the circle that hit its apex at the dot. I then drew diagonal lines starting from either side of the circle (about 5/6 of the way up) that aligned with the vertical line that had gone beyond the circle. I drew one line at the bottom of all these, connecting them, to create the chin. I drew in rough shapes at the outer sides of these diagonal lines to form the ears. The mouth was drawn by placing an oval shape around 11/12 of the way down middle of the circle. I drew in lines to represent cheekbones by creating arcs from the top of each ear to the chin. I drew a nose by creating a trapezoid-esque shape, with the bottom of the nose being around 2/3 of the way down the circle. Finally, I drew in ovals to represent eyes, elevated near either side of the nose. See, I told you it got technical.
I really enjoyed my first attempt at constructing a face and I’m proud of the progress I’ve made so far. My drawing is attached below. I look forward to improving at this later on. Thanks for reading, and have a good one!
Note for Mr. Perlman and Mr. Mcdaniels: I commented on the blogs of Ethan Smith, Lucas DeTora, and Tiffany Chen.
ReplyDeleteNice work on the drawing and you seem to be making great progression. You determination seems present and I can tell through your blog you want to achieve this goal and achieve it soon. Good luck with your future drawings!
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that drawing a face could be so technical either, but I like your methodological approach! Faces are so complex and difficult to get right, but I'm glad you are pushing through the challenges. I can't wait to see your future drawings!
ReplyDeleteThe video you watched seems very helpful and full of information! I've recently started taking art classes, and I started with learning how to draw a face with a reference picture. What I learned is that you can print out your reference to the size of your paper and measure & mark points for the eyes, nose, mouth, etc... though it felt like "cheating," everyone has to start somewhere! -Olivia S
ReplyDeleteI was not aware that drawing a face could be so difficult, but I personally have never tried (aside from a generic smiley face). It seems that drawing has a lot of mathematical aspects and is not as simple as eyeballing everything until it looks the way you want. I think you did a really good job following all the steps, but I'm sure you'll get the details down soon. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteYour drawing looks great! Here's some (hopefully helpful) tips I have as someone who draws frequently. Always draw the eyes together - like don't do the left eye completely and then the right - it's something my friend told me. It should help keeping the eyes the same shape and size. For shading, I recommend using a q-tip, paintbrush, or cotton balls to blend (this probably won't be much of use til much later tho). And finally, always sketch as light as you can. It's pretty helpful to just scribble from as dark as you can to as light as you can before you draw. A lot of things really depends from person to person, so these are just some things I've learned over the years. Good luck! I can't wait to see your progress :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome work Connor! You are definitely more experienced than me at drawing, though I have a few things that I remember from 8th grade art class. When drawing profiles, I'm pretty sure each eyes' length should be equal to the distance between each eye. Another thing would be to try starting to define the jaw slightly more from the utmost left "side" of the circle. You may already know this, but excellent job.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry faces are extremely hard to draw, but I would recommend using a reference to take inspiration from. This way you can get their facial features without having to guess where they might be.
ReplyDeleteGreat work! I love watching the progress from earlier blogs, and am really impressed by how technical its become. The model drawn today kind of looks like handsome squidward.
ReplyDeletekeep up the good work! Check out Proko on YouTube-- lots of great tutorials. Some are very advanced, but some provide excellent basics.
ReplyDeleteThat looks sick, great work. The progress then you have made from your first post is imense and inspirational. Keep up the good work, and I can't wait to see what you'll draw next!
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