Intermediate Head Construction

[Norman]

I am following Steve Hustons Head Drawing course, here is a page of studies for intermediate head constructions (Part 2 of the course). Glad to hear your take on it. I will do more in the upcoming week, before I proceed to lesson 3. I am a bit confused if I should measure more carefully or rather just do more studies and hope for a better “feeling”.

[Tanisha]

Your structure is not sound, think like a sculptor, carve in and add as you modify primitives, making them more characteristic as you go. Your centerline needs to evolve as you go on add and subtracting forms, don’t rush to details, build from up from solid foundation. I don’t know if this will help or not.

[Norman]

@Tanisha, thanks, yes, I think I can see what you mean. It’s really hard not to get tempted and I always try to get some “likeness” which I probably should not, but rather go with “characteristic”. Thanks for your comment.

[GaryM]

I would do a mixture of both quick (2-3 minutes) sketches concentrating on feeling the big shapes (head/eye sockets/cheeks/ear placement etc) and then some longer 10-20 studies where you measure and be more focused – hopefully they combine in the end for your final works. Chapter 2 in Glenn Vilppu’s course has quite an interesting section where he draws a head over the skull which may help with structure/form.

Heads are annoying – especially from above or below!

[Josseline Jeria]

I find construction difficult. What I’ve noticed is that I benefit from spending more time at the beginning with the most basic of shapes, setting lines for where features sit, the proportional distances for features and overall head, and the like, and be really sure about them before you start building the features on top. The foundation is everything.

Have you done any of the Frank Reilly Method on here? I found the anatomy section very helpful with supporting my head construction, as it helps you to better see what you are drawing. It isn’t a long section and it doesn’t go into too much detail. What was most useful was understanding the head in three separate layers – bone, muscle, skin. Understanding the bone structure helps most with initial construction, and it helps you to see how the muscles sit. Understanding the musculature helps you understand movements of the face and what all that is happening on the surface (skin) actually reflects and means. The Reilly rhythms help you to see how all the features and structures feed into each other and understanding the face holistically.

Westermoe’s Reily section in the Beginner’s head drawing course is mostly what you’d need.

[Norman]

Thanks for your genereous advise and hints. I will look into the mentioned videos. Regarding the Reilly Method, I have looked at if superficially before and find it very interesting, but guess it will help to have a very solid basic construction first (Skull, Face Plane, basic gesture etc.) I think I struggle still at this point. I tried to go through an example at the computer overlaying, just to see how everything fits together. Would you agree that the construction in the image below is correct? At least part of the problem is me not being able to SEE things correctly, even before trying to bring anything to paper.

[Caleb Jacobo]

Hey Norman, Rey Bustos critiqued your work! Check it out here: https://www.nma.art/forums/topic/rey-bustos-critique-intermediate-head-construction-norman/

[Josseline Jeria]

You’re welcome

Construction is definitely good to have a solid understanding and application. I’m working on this myself. Gesture and form is one of the most difficult parts of drawing in general, so plenty of practice is essential! The overall construction of that image looks ohk, but I think it would help to start developing your construction more dimensionally. Looking at the face in basic planes. In this case, constructing the front and side planes. The proportional lines can be adjusted to develop this. Glen Vilppu’s beginning head drawing classes are good for this. From memory the second video he goes over the planes of the head. The seeing part is tricky. That is where the Reily Method helped me.

Seeing yours and everyone’s head studies has inspired me to get back into head work. I did a lot at the end of last year, but it’s dropped off this year, as I was focusing more on painting. But I’m back at the stage re-realizing that for my paintings to progress, I have to improve my draftsmanship. Construction, form and gesture are the areas I want to focus on.

Hope your drawing is going well 🙂

 

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