Head Tutorials 1 & 2

[fredflickstone]

EDIT: by MikeCorriero
" I think this was a double post of the african male head tutorial.. and I can't for the life of me find the original post for this second head drawing tutorial I have by Ron so I will post it here since the African Male Head tutorial has been posted already. "

original text posted "Ok, so now we move on to another tutorial. This one focuses on head drawing, male african american. There will be more, with other situations..."

[fredflickstone]

Woohoo, I am back up. I hate it when the sight goes down like that. Time to call Tom for sure. Oh, Tom, I have pages being built too, so I will give you things...I just need to get em...hopefully within a week, the templates will be complete...

Here is head tutorial number 2....
Ron

[Signature]

Amazing result and great explanations as always.
Thanks again!

It surprises me that the relatively strong lines kinda disappear when you add values.
Did you erase them?

[fredflickstone]

No. The value of the line remains the same, the values added to the picture exceed that value, diminishing the strength of it as a result. Form over line in the end...


Ron

[Elwell]

Originally posted by Signature
It surprises me that the relatively strong lines kinda disappear when you add values.

The operative word here being "relatively".

[mentler]

This is an excellent tutorial <> it does have one major flaw which I see happen a lot that weakens many portraits of both beginners and professionals like Ron.

Many people do not understand the 3/4 view of the face and actually split the face in half as it has been done here.

This head is half face and half side of the head. The center of the face is at the cheekbone which divides it equally between side and front.

To be a 3/4 view of the head it should be divided so that it is either 3/4's face and 1/4 side or 3/4's side and 1/4 face.

These proportions do not have to be exact but it should be more of one than the other.

This technically is a 1/2 view which generally flattens out the face and confuses the viewer as to what part to focus on. Here Ron uses the lights and darks to overcome the problem but if this were a line drawing the problem would be very obvious.

Once again this an excellent tut.... ask your teachers and see if they know why it is called a 3/4 view and what that actually means.

Do 3 line drawings of the same face,

1) 75% face 25% side
2) 50% face 50% side
3) 25% face 75% side

You will note that 1 and 3 have more depth, more drama and are more interesting.

[Evxyza92]

This is a great tutorial I am gonna use this alot but do you have any tutorials for the female face?

[[void]]

Originally Posted by Evxyza92

This is a great tutorial I am gonna use this alot but do you have any tutorials for the female face?

The principal is the same, these are geared towards how to draw the human head not individual people.

[TinyDancer]

Thanks for the great tutorial, Fred! I could use a similar one for puppy faces, but of course that must be very different since there are lots of different-shaped puppy faces, right?

[C.G.]

Precisely what I was looking for. Thank you to those who made these tutorials.

[Ikarus14]

Looks very helpful

[Perenoid]

And thank you again! Going to start right now!

[Cory Hinman]

I initially wanted to take exception to Mentler's criticism of the 1/2 and 1/2 view. I mean, that's how a head is frequently posed, look at the reference for gosh sakes! We see it all the time! To back up my contention I looked at diverse portrait artists at ARTRENEWAL, including Leonardo and Singer Sargent, etc, but found--SONUVAGUN--Mentler's right! More often than not the portraits I looked at were in the 3/4-1/4 ratio he described, and that accounted for the strong dramatic sense of a form in space with definite receding and advancing planes. the experience made me feel even more jaundiced than previously about the uncritical use of photo reference, especially considering that the flattening effect of the !/2-1/2 ratio is seen as a virtue in a kind of documentary journalism-style photography, where the point is to provide as much information as possible, not necessarily recreate the visual experience of the 3-D world.

Also interesting to me on this thread was the personality of the artist coming through in the African-American head, in the subtle changes from photo to drawing which lend the subject more warmth, specifically the eyes being slightly wider and more focussed, and the hint of a smile playing about the lips, where the photo shows a more abstracted, even grave demeanor.

[deviant_x]

Is this tutorial from a book? If so, can I please have the name?

[Clock Face]

Thank you. I will try it out later.

[kopalipse]

Great tutorial you explain it very well

[MVN]

Really cool tutorial! Thanks!

[Glebz]

very nice tutorials, worth to try!
VEERY interesting...

[Ebony-chan]

Really great stuff here. What book is this tutorial from?

[Sleep-B]

Can't wait to get this tutorial a try

-Thanks!

[Yowza]

Very nice tutos, thanks much!

Just out of interest, in step 6 of the African head tutorial, did you use an eraser or a white pencil to make the highlights more obvious?

I prefer using a white pencil, but it sometimes blurs the image slightly, ruining the sketchy feel.

Thanks for posting man.