Wednesday, February 28, 2007

3 asian heads


In spite of different positioning, the pattern is clear. After scaling to align height of top of eyebrow and bottom of chin (let's call that "face") one finds facial features size (both height and width, though not shape) to be mostly similar: eyes, nose, mouth, mostly take up the same real estate on the face. What makes or breaks the portrait is skull proportions, which differ wildly: how high is the widest point of the cheekbones? On one example it happens just below the eye, on another just above the nostril. What is the shape of the skull's outline? How many eyes would fit between the outside of the eye and the outside of the skull? On one of them, about one eye, on another there is almost no space. The first thing to get on a portrait is the gesture of the whole skull, not facial details.

1 comment:

Stejahen said...

Nice. I like your writing about drawing. Have you read High-focus Drawing: A Revolutionary Approach to Drawing the Figure by James McMullan?

I find his writing about drawing interesting and engaging.