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Tips On Pencil Portrait Sketching - Sculpture In Portrait Sketching
Most beginning students will usually sketch the face on paper as a flat disk or oval which it is not. Also, compared to the whole skull, the face is quite tiny particularly in babies. Your hand can fit the whole face. Place that same hand on top of your skull and you will know straight away how big your skull really is. To understand planes and thus obtain a sculptural sensibility in your drawing you must understand and use simple geometric forms. Generally, the skull can be framed within a square box. More rightly, this square box should be modified to a phalanx-like box with the face on the smallest side. The skull tapers towards the front which is the face. This is the essential shape of the skull in the front view. In the profile view the skull is generally a cube. The difference is the facial angle (the "muzzle") that slopes to some extent forward at the chin. In the 7/8 profile, the cube has simply been rotated in space. Again, it is very significant to think about the skull in terms of simple geometric forms. Once you have situated the big plain forms you can start placing the smaller forms inside the big ones. Very soon that group of simple forms becomes quite intricate and starts resembling a skull. Keeping the above in mind you can start with striking the construct which is the complete outside outline of the skull, hair included. Then you break down the construct into its various parts such as the hair, ear, jaw and neck. As you hatch-in the darks and think of the skull as an assortment of simple geometric solids you will already begin to see the 3-dimensional outcome, even at this early point. The key is to think simply and big. At this early point, do not pay attention to the minutia - they tend to delude your sense of length and direction. Once the significant items are established, placing the features (eyes, nose, etc.) becomes relatively easy. However, if you do not establish those items appropriately you will never be successful. The front view of the portrait poses a distinctive test. If you are not cautious you can end up with a flat, 2-dimensional face. In this view, the plane changes are often quite subtle and hard to establish. Be sure to notice all plane changes in this front view and draw them carefully in your drawing: - Showing the forward tapering of the sides of the head is significant to achieving a subtle 3-dimensional effect in this front view. - The front of the face lies more or less in one plane. - The plane of the foreskull changes bearing as you move towards the top of the skull. - The plane along the cheek has a different bearing than the neighboring one along the temple. The idea is to carefully observe the directions of all the various planes that make up the skull and take these differences into account when you sketch. If you do, your drawings will possess a sculptural, 3-dimensional sensibility. It is not necessary to sketch out the geometry of the actual planes, but the differences in bearing must be clearly rendered. In closing, it is very significant that you are aware of the fact that a model's skull consists of planes with different directions and is not just an egg. This sculptural structure should be reflected in your drawing because it is significant to the likeness and to the illusion of 3-dimensionality. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Download my brand new no cost pencil portrait draw course here: www.remipencilportraits.com/PPDT/pencil-portrait-tutorial.html target="_blank">Pencil Portrait Sketching Tutorial. Remi Engels is a practicing pencil portrait draftsman and oil painter and expert sketching instructor. See his work at Pencil Portraits by Remi: www.remipencilportraits.com Visit Tips on Pencil Portrait Sketching - Discrete Flat Areas in Portrait Sketching. |
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