Home › Forums › Explore Subjects › Figure, The › how to draw the head form quickly and more correctly..
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March 22, 2009 at 5:18 pm #987814
..Well mostly quickly! One of the things I hear a lot and see a lot of is people saying “I can’t draw heads” or “heads are too hard” both at school and on forums like this one – especially to get anything sorted in a short, gesture drawing. This, first little (ultra-humble, highly amateur) classroom moment will not be about getting exact proportions but about what makes the head look kind of right in a given attitude – and how to draw it within a certain amount of time.
First off – heads are MUCH easier than the rest of the body! they have deep sockets and clear structures everywhere (SCORE!) whereas the body is so much more subtle and the shapes are that much more difficult to manage – especially when dealing with subtle value gradients!
below are some notions of what you can think about in 30 seconds to a minute and then 5, 10mins and so on.. ok one proportion thing – remember that a head straight-on will have the irises at about the midpoint ( or a little higher depending on where you are sitting). the most important thing in that short head drawing is the brow form – it tells us how the head is positioned – you don’t need much else ( see more in gesture drawing 2). when you have a few minutes – you start to think about the more defined shapes of things like eyes, the nose and nasal bone shape and where basic shadow and lights go ( highlighted here just for illumination purposes). as you move toward 5-10 minutes, you can fine tune shapes to carve the likeness. I say carve because I believe the BEST way to think about drawing anything is to think you are carving it (just on paper) with your drawing tool – darken ( carving away “clay”) when you are pushing things into the darkness) and adding clay when you need, say a cheekbone or nose-tip to come out into the light). See also core shadows more defined at this stage.
In this page below, you can see i just quickly indicated the brow and eye-socket (highlighted in red to illuminate) shadow shape to give each head some positioning. I am not saying these are beautiful, but it adds a notion to each gesture and will help you as you develop your longer pose figures. these are all 1 minute gestures.
As you see below, it’s important to keep an eye on the center line and the perspective of the head – these are just some very quick little studies from my head ( no pun) to show how simple it is to show what a head is doing. These all took less than 5 minutes ( mostly 1-3 minutes) and that’s in painter X where I am SLOW – so you can surely build a nice head next time you are drawing from life!
As you are devleoping your drawing skill – I think it is important to develop your eye as much as possible and after you have about a year of solid ( SOLID) figure drawing, add anatomy drawing and development to your work/learning plan. If you get all “anatomy’d-up” too soon, all your figures will have extra bones and muscle bumps and lumps you really don’t neeed. Trust me on this, I have walked that path!
after a bit of practice and training your eye, your hand and learning a bit about the head – you will be doing these in no time ( about 1 hour and a bit).. and Better!!!!
These notions will also help you with quick head studies in color as well( about 5 hours below) –
and long ones as in the dreaded self portrait:)! ( about 45 hours)..
I hope you found this little instruction useful, it’s not intended for everyone here though so apologies to you figure/head stars! but I am still learning every day and need all the help I can get! your mileage, as they say, my vary! Questions and comments welcome – humbly –
i draw, paint and teach | my voice is hoarse | my shoulder hurts.
Talent is really a capacity for a certain type of learning of knowledge and a consuming interest in the facts that contribute to that knowledge~ Andrew Loomis
http://www.kevinwuesteart.blogspot.com
"kevinwueste" on instagramMarch 22, 2009 at 6:45 pm #1114425here are some more figures from friday and sat this weekend w/the quick head put into play.. these are 1-2 minutes and i would add a bit of value/detail on the breaks.. profile heads take the least time ( a lot less to draw and it can start from simply lines for brow-ridge, eyelid, nose bottom, mouth and chin egdes..
below are 3-5 minutes poses.. same concept and a bit more detail if needed..
below: a more complex pose with forshortening ( leg, foot etc.,) so the head was the easiest thing!
below -another 20 min from sat.. you can see where I have mapped out light and dark shapes with faint lines but haven’t gotten them all done. Sometimes the unfinished-ness looks cool anyway! there is probably too much of his right eye as he was turning his head a lot (another reason to get that head locked in and only come back when you are done the rest!)..
..below a 5 minute drawing of the above model.. you can’t get a ton done in five minutes but you can indicate and have something not too bad!
sometimes you don’t have a face/front-of-head to work on.. and your focal point becomes something else – like an arm/torso.. or leg.. ( arm-to-elbow here..).. and when the lighting is really flat /diffuse.. you have to work EXTRA hard -like here.. it’s all learning opportunities though.. I think about 20 minutes..
i draw, paint and teach | my voice is hoarse | my shoulder hurts.
Talent is really a capacity for a certain type of learning of knowledge and a consuming interest in the facts that contribute to that knowledge~ Andrew Loomis
http://www.kevinwuesteart.blogspot.com
"kevinwueste" on instagramMarch 23, 2009 at 3:42 am #1114423March 23, 2009 at 5:00 am #1114422March 23, 2009 at 6:22 am #1114419Marvellous stuff. Brow ridge, eyelid, nose bottom (not all of it!!!) mouth, chin edges. I have thought not to draw the outline of the mouth, but to do the upper lip and the shadow under the bottom lip. Anyway, very clear and simple, thanks so much.
The eyes in your self portrait are absolutely incredible.
You’re a star, so talented and so nice!
March 23, 2009 at 6:30 am #1114406Thank you for putting this together. Really useful, learning lots. I think I do a lot of these things instinctively, but I could not have put it into words. Great. The only thing I would add is in really quick studies of a profile. I start with three curves to define the head, a top, back and most importantly a profile.
peter
"Ladies and gentlemen I have suffered for my Art...now it's your turn."
http://peterorrock.blogspot.com/March 23, 2009 at 10:10 am #1114426Peter – I should have mentioned – I just start w/a fast box or oval depending on the shape and attitude of the head – thanks for your feedback. Head of Illustration at the Academy Chuck Pyle is the guy that got me to “not worry about everything and just knock in the brow” when you have a lot do draw quickly..
Tina – thank you there are certainly more ways than one to .. well you know and I’m glad you like the SP.. i’m most pleased w/the mouth but the eye-area is a close second
Dan – thank you
Prosenjit – I am sorry it was not at the fine level of your foot work but I’m just not that organized or good.. I’ll try harder if I can do another some time.. keep up the great work everyone!-humbly –
i draw, paint and teach | my voice is hoarse | my shoulder hurts.
Talent is really a capacity for a certain type of learning of knowledge and a consuming interest in the facts that contribute to that knowledge~ Andrew Loomis
http://www.kevinwuesteart.blogspot.com
"kevinwueste" on instagramMarch 23, 2009 at 10:16 am #1114421Great work, Kevin- and a good short course in getting it all together. I really like your short pose drawings- but all are very good. Your dreaded self portrait is very nice! (I would suggest knocking down the lettering on the jacket, or better yet- eliminating it altogether.
Ken Tiessen
www.KenTiessenArt.com
Comments or Critiques welcomed...always!March 23, 2009 at 11:35 am #1114416Thanks for the tips and the effort of putting this together, some things to remember when drawing :thumbsup:
March 23, 2009 at 3:18 pm #1114417I’m partial to the 5-hr head study. There’s a lot going on there. It looks both painterly and sculptural.:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
The head position demos—yes!
--Hard critiques always welcome.
[FONT=Arial]More stuff at http://www.flickr.com/photos/27594229@N06/
However you choose to paint, get it right in every necessary respect. That does not mean "tight" or detailed. [Richard Schmid]March 23, 2009 at 3:24 pm #1114418(I would suggest knocking down the lettering on the jacket, or better yet- eliminating it altogether.
Dunno…I’d just knock it back a bit. It goes with the attitude .
--Hard critiques always welcome.
[FONT=Arial]More stuff at http://www.flickr.com/photos/27594229@N06/
However you choose to paint, get it right in every necessary respect. That does not mean "tight" or detailed. [Richard Schmid]March 23, 2009 at 5:13 pm #1114414Kevin I’m spending more and more time looking at your threads there is so much to learn from your drawings and now this excellent counsel :thumbsup: a truly educational thread
Thanks once again Dave“What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!—and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?”
— Allen Ginsberg
Are you ready for a Journey?
PS Critiques always welcome but no plaudits or emoting, please don’t press the like button.March 23, 2009 at 10:27 pm #1114412Hi Kevin, Thanks for the time you put into showing and providing educational information along with it. Very nice and helpful, you exsplained thinks well so I could understand what you getting at. As always nice work.
Dalas Klein
March 24, 2009 at 12:49 am #1114427i’m happy if this stuff is of some use! next time i’ll do some better example drawings ( and maybe use a ref ;-)).. i’m taking a clothed figure painting class at the moment which is very intense but am learning so much from the critiques of Zhao Ming Wu – a super kind and amazingly helpful teacher ( and brilliant, effortless painter).. i think only sonni and mac saw my first painting from that class which I yanked after about 20 minutes .. some better examples will show up soon!
Sonni – that 5 hour head study was done last semester in Tae Park’s class – another fantastic teacher who pulls ZERO punches wrt feedback. When I draw and paint, her voice is often the one in my head ( “PROPORTION!” “SIMPLIFY!”, “EDGES!”, “VALUES!” etc.,) The point to all this is – as art students become more capable, I feel like it’s a privilege and a gift to give one’s knowledge to others so they may grow – no matter how little or great – to others.. even if it’s like, say, 2% of what their respective teachers know!
I appreciate being a part of this thing w/all of you – ok maybe that’s really the point!
cheers – Kevin
i draw, paint and teach | my voice is hoarse | my shoulder hurts.
Talent is really a capacity for a certain type of learning of knowledge and a consuming interest in the facts that contribute to that knowledge~ Andrew Loomis
http://www.kevinwuesteart.blogspot.com
"kevinwueste" on instagramMarch 24, 2009 at 8:59 am #1114404Great tips, and great drawings as usual. My fav is the 2nd one from the 2nd batch!! Awesome…no charge for youe awesomeness…
- Josef
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