Structure of the Head with Steve Huston

[Meghana Kamath]

Hello 🙂

I’m currently taking the Basics of Head Construction with Steve Huston and I’m pretty much a beginner when it comes to portraits (I’ve done a few before in oils etc. but I have never actually studied anatomy or such.)

I’ve been practicing drawing the head (minus any features) in different perspectives and I just wanted to gage whether I’m doing it right and getting the concept…. I’m still on lesson 1 of this course hence why there are no features. I’m struggling the most heads viewed from below hence why I haven’t attempted too many…

Please tell me what I’m doing wrong and how I can fix it – I would really appreciate it 🙂

 

Thank you!!

[Jack]

Hello Meghana,

I’m no great portrait artist, so it’s hard for me to say what you could improve upon (especially as you’ve erased some of the presumably less successful ones!). But I will say each head immediately ‘reads’ in terms of direction and position in space, it’s obviously not your first time drawing heads. It’s clear which are views from behind/front/side/beneath. Overall, the proportions seem right, and you’ve picked up on key points like the importance of the ear to turn the form. You’re also able to convey a lot of information in very few lines, which adds a sense of cleanness to the drawings.

In terms of displaying a view from beneath, or a head tilted upwards, it’s all about the digastric muscle (as Steve often mentions) – as this effectively gives depth to the mask of the face- foreshortening of the nose, and ear placement. The fourth from last head, for instance, has the nose quite low. Too low perhaps?  The more extreme the position, the less the standard way of dividing the proportions of the face apply. So if it’s a weakness, for now I’d simply pay close observation to the features that drastically change when seen from below and practice more.

The only advice I can really offer, is ensure you’re not restricting your practice to the same size drawing, medium, and reference model. Drawing a lot of small heads is fine, as long as it’s not the only practice you’re getting. Specificity is important – you get good at what you practice.

Enjoy the course, and post more work as you progress through it!

Cheers,

Jac

• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by Jack.

[Meghana Kamath]

Hi Jac,

Thank you so much for your feedback! I’m glad I’m doing something right 🙂

When it comes to the head being titled upwards, you’re right about the features being foreshortened and I can see that I have not done that in some instances…. I’m still trying to get a hand of the diagastric plane tho so hopefully practice will help.

I will most definitely post my work throughout the course and I hope you will continue to give me feedback 🙂

[Carlos Perez]

Hi Meghana, studying with steve is definitely a great time, I haven’t taken his course on head drawing since I took a Reilly method course not long ago however I enjoyed his figure drawing and I love his lectures,  I would encourage you to make sure you’re understanding the ideas of gesture and structure out of his course or teachings in general.

Drawing the face 360 will certainly help you however  I wouldn’t worry about how my heads look or if my proportions are right but rather understand how to find the gesture and structure on basic shapes (cylinders, cubes, spheres. )

Gesture ( the longer sustainable line, the  long axis )  Structure ( showing the frontal face of the form and implying the back part of it) .

[Author]

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