I need practice sketching profiles of faces that are partially turned toward me. The terrain of the far side of the face, is like a crescent of the moon, but it must be matched to the more visible, near side for the portrait to make sense. I’m also trying to make sense of my wrinkles, […]
I have difficulty with portraits where the subject is only partially facing me. Most of the features on the far side of the face are hidden, and must be rendered as isolated lumps or bumps, with no visible connection to those which are visible.
The double outline of the woman’s face gives the viewer the opportunity to see the face turned slightly toward the viewer (three quarters profile – see yesterday’s post) or looking across the page (full profile).
Blind drawing (i.e., drawing without looking at the paper) works very well for ‘outside’ contours. That is, with practice, one can get very good at rendering skylines, landscape horizons and outlines of people’s faces. However in the case below, I tried drawing a face in three-quarters profile. This means contours inside the outline must be […]
