Fourth Assignment / Portrait Drawing, Part I

For this week’s project we’re going to lay the groundwork for drawing portraits during the final week of class (April 28-May 5). Our primarily goal will not be an accurate likeness of our sitter, but to learn the structure, planes, relationships, anatomy, and proportions of the human head, neck, and shoulders. Paradoxically, the more we attend to those objectives, the better the likeness will naturally and inevitably be.

Why the Head?

We started this semester talking about the importance of overcoming preconceptions—seeing things as they are, not as we expect them to be (or hope for them to be, or imagine them to be, or remember them to be).

Drawing a plant, for instance, allows a certain amount of distortion but it can still look like a terrific drawing of a plant. When drawing the head, however, any misstep or misproportion is immediately apparent. There’s probably no image in the world that we know better (or think we do) and have more preconceptions about (and anxieties, expectations, etc.) than the human head and face—especially our own–so that drawing the head is the ultimate challenge for overcoming preconceptions.

This is both good and bad—good in the sense that the “feedback” you’re getting from your drawing is instantaneous and beneficial (if you persist), but bad because we don’t enjoy seeing ourselves or our model in a bad light, either as the artist or the image in the drawing. Nevertheless, the ability to create a reasonably well-drawn head, much less a likeness, can be one of the great and empowering rewards of drawing.

Drawing from Another Artist

The main drawing this week will be a drawing from another artist—a copy—as accurately, faithfully, and intentionally as possible; not just mimicking their work (although that’s a large part of it) but seeking knowledge and understanding in the drawing decisions that they made by following in their footsteps.

More on that below under Drawing from Another Artist Instructions.

Optional (but Highly Recommended) Warm-Up Drawings

But at the very least please watch the following videos.

If you’d like to get a leg up on drawing from another artist and the practice of portrait drawing in general—including the portrait drawing we’re going to be doing next week– I strongly urge you to do some studies (warm-ups), as follows.

I was getting ready to record tutorials on each of the features for this project, but since it’s a popular topic I decided to search the internet and see what else was out there. I was pleased to find these tutorials about each of the facial features—eyes, nose, mouth, and ears (and hair!) by an artist named Stan Prokopenko, or Proko for short. I was startled that he makes the same points that I do about this topic, in the same order, and even uses many of the same metaphors. They’re widely known and shared, of course, but he and I present them in very similar ways (as does Professor Mullen and many others).

Best of all, his production values are much better than anything I could come up with, with animated illustrations and so forth.

Each facial feature (except for the hair) is divided into two videos, one on understanding the structure of each of these features and one a step-by-step demonstration. Don’t shortcut the structure videos. They’re only 6-8 minutes and have very useful, practical information on how to draw these features better.

Your assignment (should you choose to accept it), is to watch the two videos about the eye, for instance, and after his step-by-step, draw an eye following his lead. You could also stop and start the video as you draw along.

Then do the same for as many of the features as you’d like (but I recommend doing all of them).

I suggest you use pencil on a sheet of copy paper, or if you have your 9×12” drawing pad use that. Make your study 2-3 times larger than life size so that you have room to elaborate the details.

Please submit any of these that you choose to do anytime this coming week, for feedback, and no later than Tuesday, April 28th, along with your Drawing from Another Artist.

Drawing from Another Artist Instructions

Choosing a Drawing to Work From

Go to the page titled Master Portrait Drawings, review them, and select the one you’d like to copy. You can either work off a screen or from a print. The screen has the advantage of being able to zoom in for more detail.

You can also choose an artist of your own if you prefer, but note it has to be a frontal view of the face, and needs to be approved by me before you start. We’re working from this angle since it’s a good basic map of the features in relation to one another and to the head.

Finally, you might want to choose a drawing that looks like the one you’d like to do next week, either of yourself or another model.

Media

All drawings will be pencil on either copy paper or 9×12” drawing paper, but I’ve included some exceptions in my notes on the master drawings. I’m always open to any questions or suggestions for media you might have.

Demo

I’ll be recording a demonstration for this project, but please refer to the following guidelines.

Format, Dimensions, and Borders

Under each of the reproductions on the Master Portrait Drawings page, I’ve included the dimensions of the rectangle you should use for that image. They’re all small enough to fit on a piece of copy paper but can also fit on 9 x 12 drawing paper. Either way, please center your rectangle on the paper.

Step by Step Instructions

1. Begin with a very light schematic drawing, taking into account not only the head but where it’s located within the rectangle (i.e., composition). This is a significant lesson, since one of the pitfalls in portrait drawing is not anchoring the head to the rectangle, and, by extension, its implied relationship to the figure as a whole.

No matter how proficient your drawing per se, a poor or neglectful composition will diminish it significantly.

A reminder about schematic drawing—this is the stage to take your time and be very critical of the placement and proportion of forms, including negative spaces. We’re naturally inclined to avoid the added work of erasing and starting again, but with so little invested and so much at stake, this is the stage to do that most effectively and efficiently.

2. Once the schematic drawing is correctly located and proportioned, begin to build up the image however you like. I recommend keeping all areas of the drawing moving forward together and to avoid finishing any one area in advance of the others. This will help you keep the drawing more unified and balanced.

3. Your goal is to make a drawing as much like the original as possible, from its proportions and structure to the artist’s unique style and technique, being especially sensitive to (and learning from) their touch with contours, hatching, line quality, line weight, and so forth.

While you’re not expected to match their hatching stroke for stroke, of course, aim for the same resolution (the number of hatches per inch) and by all means the same direction/s, tempo, lengths, line qualities, the way the hatching fills in shapes, etc.

Due Date

This drawing is due on Blackboard, along with your self-assessment, no later than 4 p.m. EST, on Tuesday, April 28th.

Why the Head?

Drawing from Another Artist

Optional (but Highly Recommended) Warm-Up Drawings

But at the very least please watch the following videos.

Eye Structure / 8 minutes

Eye Step by Step / 6 minutes

Nose Structure / 7 minutes

Nose Step by Step / 6 minutes

Lips Structure / 5.5 minutes

Lips Step by Step / 8.5 minutes

Ears Structure / 6 minutes

Ears Step by Step / 8 minutes

Hair

Drawing from Another Artist Instructions

Due Date