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A pencil portrait drawing from life starts with the "drawing" of the arabesque. Striking the arabesque means drawing the outer contour of the head with the proper proportions, form, and theappropriate symmetry. Once you have drawn a reasonably appropriate arabesque it is time to situate the main landmarks of the head. That means that we will appropriately situate the most essential places of the head. These places will then be used as references for mapping out the rest of the head features. Here is something that may help you with this task: work with your eyes a bit out-of-focus. This is called looking with a "soft eye". Somehow this makes it easier to appropriately resolve forms and proportions. It also aids you with suppressing the set notions we all have of certain entities. Let us suppose that we are working from a 3/4 head profile. * The Brow Ridge - is the first critical landmark. To locate the brow ridge you must first take your best estimate at where you think it is and only then test it by sighting. Note that to teach your eyes it is better to first estimate lengths, angles, etc. and test them second. There is nothing to gain from pre- sighting. Sighting means to use your pencil with fixed arm and marking lengths along the pencil with your thumb and index finger and an eye closed. So then, first sight from the bottom of the chin to a point on the brow ridge (just select an random point on the ridge. But once chosen you should stick with it. Now hoist your pencil so that your thumb is on your point on the brow ridge and make note of where your pencil tip is. It should be a tiny distance above the top of the head. Mark on your drawing where you can best place that spot above the head. This point is called the "check-point". Remember that whenever there is a choice, you should always measure the shortest length because doing so tends to be more correct. Your point on the brow ridge should, if it was placed appropriately, be precisely halfway between the bottom of the chin and your check-point. If it is not – then correct the placement of your brow ridge. * Jaw Hinge - Now you can fix the width of the head. In the 3/4 pose the hinge of the jaw is a critical landmark. Again, take your best guess then check by sighting horizontally from the hinge of the jaw to the far edge of the cheek bone and vertically relating that measure from the bottom of the chin. * Top Nose Bone - Since we have already placed the brow ridge we now only have to approximate a small measure to fix the top of the nasal bone. If you established the hinge of the jaw appropriately, it should equal the measure from the bottom of the chin to the nasal bone. If you are off a little, then correct the placement of the hinge of the jaw. Again, suppose that the shortest distance estimated is the correct one. Now that these principal landmarks are placed you can further work out the arabesque. I find it best to further resolve only the back, least intricate, part of the head at this early time. * Facial Angle - Finally, you have to situate the facial angle which is the center line of the face. Draw a slightly arching line from the middle of the mental tubercle up through the center of the brow ridge. The positioning of the facial angle is very critical. You have to feel your way through this as there is no way to correctly measure it. Once the facial angle is placed proceed with drawing the arabesque carefully observing the form of the mouth area, the forehead, and all other features that are expressed in the form of the arabesque. With this, we have placed all the crucial landmarks that will assist us with the mapping of the rest of the features such as the nose and teeth.
Article Source: http://www.new.citynewslive.com
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