Faces

[Snowball]

Hello everybody! My concern right now with alot of my sketches are the faces. I feel pretty confident with my anatomy and general details, although I will always be improving. When I mention that I can't draw faces, I don't mean pure portraits, or life-like detail, I just find I can't seem to understand how artists capture the essence of the lady or male with certain strokes of the pencil. One person on here who I especially love the faces is Bengal and his ladies, I am sure there are others that I can mention and find links to as well but to recieve help on this subject would be fantastic. Thanks in advance!;)

[bonedog]

there is no knack. there is no secret. there is no style.

immerse yourself in information. study. practice. study. practice. draw from life. draw from photos. draw from your imagination. Read loomis. Look at Kchen's threads.

"ceaseless work, analysis, reflection, writing much, endless self-correction, that is my secret." - JS Bach

Follow this advice, my friend, and one day people won't understand how you capture the essence of a person with certain strokes of a pencil.

good luck.

-bone

[SicFrost]

ohhhhh....thank you kindly

_B0R1S

[AnarchyAo2]

I think that many people's "cartoony" (I mean basically mean styles) are based on their favorite artists or styles. Like, Bengal's style seems to be derived from manga. But, many artists gain their style by how they actually see people. Or its a distortion of their memory. Atleast thats how I am. I think your brain remembers people facial features. And everyone's memory is different, based on memory and biases(sp?). Atleast, this my take on the subject.

[Snowball]

Well thank you for your comments so far guys! I agree with you both about how people remember or use what they like, and to of course practice. If people still want to comment on the topic please do so, never too much info! Thanks again everybody!