Guidelines for Pencil Portrait Sketching - Locating Skull Landmarks
A pencil portrait drawing from life starts with the "striking" of the arabesque. Striking the arabesque means drawing the outer contour of the head with the correct proportions, form, and theproper symmetry.
Once you have drawn a reasonably proper arabesque it is time to locate the main landmarks of the head. That means that we will properly locate the most significant places of the head. These places will then be used as references for mapping out the rest of the head features.
Here is something that may aid you with this task: work with your eyes somewhat out-of-focus. This is called seeing with a "soft eye". Somehow this makes it easier to properly resolve forms and sizes. It also aids you with suppressing the predetermined ideas we all have of certain objects.
Let us presuppose that we are working from a 3/4 head pose.
* The Brow Ridge - is the first essential landmark. To locate the brow ridge you must first take your best estimate at where you think it is and only then test it by sighting.
Note that to train your eyes it is better to first estimate lengths, angles, etc. and test them second. There is nothing to gain from pre- sighting.
Sighting means to use your pencil with fixed arm and checking lengths along the pencil with your thumb and index finger and an eye closed.
So then, first sight from the bottom of the chin to a place on the brow ridge (just choose an random place on the ridge. But once chosen you should stick with it.
Now hoist your pencil so that your thumb is on your place on the brow ridge and make note of where your pencil tip is. It should be a tiny distance above the top of the head. Mark on your drawing where you can best place that point above the head. This point is called the "check-point".
Remember that whenever there is a choice, you should always size the shortest distance because doing so tends to be more accurate.
Your place on the brow ridge should, if it was placed properly, be exactly halfway between the bottom of the chin and your check-point. If it is not – then improve the placement of your brow ridge.
* Jaw Hinge - Now you can fix the width of the head. In the 3/4 pose the hinge of the jaw is an essential landmark. Again, take your best estimate then check by sighting horizontally from the hinge of the jaw to the outer edge of the cheek bone and vertically relating that measure from the bottom of the chin.
* Top Nose Bone - Since we have already located the brow ridge we now only have to approximate a small distance to fix the top of the nose bone. If you established the hinge of the jaw properly, it should equal the distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose bone. If you are off a little, then correct the placement of the hinge of the jaw. Again, presuppose that the shortest length estimated is the accurate one.
Now that these principal landmarks are located you can continue drawing the arabesque. I find it best to further resolve only the back, less, part of the head at this early point.
* Facial Angle - Lastly, you have to locate the facial angle which is the center line of the face. Draw a slightly arching line from the middle of the mental tubercle up through the center of the brow ridge.
The positioning of the facial angle is very essential. You have to feel your way through this as there is no way to rightly measure it.
Once the facial angle is located continue resolving the arabesque carefully observing the form of the mouth region, the forehead, and all the other features that are articulated in the form of the arabesque.
With this, we have located all the essential landmarks that will aid us with the mapping of the rest of the features such as the nose and teeth.
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Course. Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and skilled drawing teacher. See his work at Pencil Portraits by Remi: http://www.remipencilportraits.com Visit Tips on Pencil Portrait Drawing - Positioning Head Landmarks.
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