Just when I thought I might be getting comfortable drawing heads and faces, it’s time to get more advanced and start learning how to turn those heads and faces. It’s amazing how even a slight tilt of the head can alter the position and shape of the facial features.
Here are two very quick sketches I made to show how different a man’s features can be from a “straight-on” perspective to a “three-quarter” view.
As I was putting these sketches together, I felt as though I were creating a mugshot. I think this fellow might be:
WANTED FOR IMPERSONATING A DRAWING
For quick sketches, they’re all right, and I plan to use them as guidelines for more detailed drawings. I can easily see different things I’ll need to work on — such as the angles of the eyes as the man’s head turns. And, no, I’ve never yet learned to draw hair, so that’s another area that will need work.
The human body — head and all — fascinates me. I’m still loving my anatomy and figure drawing practices, but what’s the point of drawing bodies if I can’t include heads and faces? Every body deserves a head and a face, right?
So, I’ll keep sketching, I’ll keep learning, and with practice, I’ll continue to improve. I’ve come a long way from where I began, believe me!
Artistcoveries 
Will you paint them eventually?
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Yes, eventually I do want to paint figures — and faces. I want to pick up more of the small, inexpensive canvas panels for practice. I tried doing some practice painting on canvas sheets, but I didn’t like using them. I’m still working diligently on learning how to stay within the lines LOL. But I am eager to try doing human subjects in oil.
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Not sure if last comment went through. Lost wifi for a bit. You are trying to stay in the lines and I am trying to (which is very hard for me) to go out of the lines!
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I understand the Wi-Fi issues. We have so many problems here. I’m ready to call the ISP and have them come out to take a look. I even tried getting a range extender, but it can’t pick up the Wi-Fi signal either. But back to art 🙂 Do you do most of your flowers with the palette knife? I can’t seem to do much with a palette knife, other than make a mess. I might message you later on Facebook and show you the problems I had when I attempted to paint flowers. It might be tomorrow though. Today’s grocery day and I’ve got a few other errands to run.
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I do a mix of palette knife and brush for pretty much everything. It depends on the look I want.
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As someone who has been doing portraits and figures for a number of years now, it’s exciting for me to find someone who is at the beginning of this particular journey – you’re doing great! Keep up the good work and you’ll come along in leaps and bounds!
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Oh, thank you. That means so much to me, Hilda. I still suffer from bouts of “impatience” when I’m working on portraits. At other times, I fuss over them too much and spoil a lot of what I’ve done. Mostly I like doing portraits in charcoal, although someday I hope to do them in oil…along with figure studies. I love doing the gesture drawings from the online sites. It really helps me a lot. Again, thank you for your kind words of encouragement.
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I am there with you trying to learn how to do faces and the people.
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Good luck to you! Here’s hoping we’ll both succeed. 🙂
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Hahaha! Judith, I love your sense of humor. It made my day to read the “wanted” caption. I just couldn’t stop laughing. You are very good at drawing. Faces in angles are so difficult.
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Thanks. These two drawings are really awful. I can do much better. I was hesitant to post them because they were just very quick sketches, so I had to laugh at them, too. My next step is turning the head more and working on profiles. That’s always given me fits in the past. I can never get the features in the right places or get the proportions right. 😦
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