Supplies
Pencils
White
Mars Eraser
1 sheet
of 18” x 24” drawing
Mirror
with grid
This self portrait must be done from a mirror and
include your head, neck and top of your shoulders. The focus of this portrait
will be to define the mass and planar shifts that make up your face using
line and line weight to show volume. You will begin the drawing in class and
finish it for homework
To help visualize the planes shifts that make up your head you can study the planar head cast available to you in class room 300.The right half of the in-class planar head is more simple and basic. Use this to help visualize how you should begin your drawing. When you begin, do not focus on the individual features but rather the major planes and mass. Start by drawing the overall mass of the head and how it connects with the neck and shoulders-not with the face and its features. After you have established the shape of your head the next capture the depth of the eye cavities and the planes of the nose.
Although it is important to begin with simple blocky shapes as the drawing develops make sure you are not generalizing but studying your own particular proportions. This drawing will require rigorous proportional measure and horizontal and vertical measuring. This is difficult to do when working from a mirror. Use the tape grid on the mirror to help with your proportion. Include the grid that is on the mirror in your drawing. Pay close attention to the intersection points between the grid and the planes of your face.
Always consider the quality of line in your drawing. Use line weight to show volume, mark and organize intersection points and give richness to your drawing. Use line only.
Grading will be based
- Fulfillment of requirements on time
- Quality of line
- The specificity of the major mass and planes in the head
- Likeness and specificity of the portrait
- The aggressive reworking and development of drawing
Please pay close attention to:
- The overall volume of the skull
- Consider the ratio of thirds: the hair line to eyes, the eyes to in between the lips, in between the lips to chin the forehead to the eyes, nose and mouth
- Notice how many planes make up the check area-
- Both the forehead and mouth curve around three planes
- Ears are an important intersection points, they are where the major muscles that make up the neck join the head and where the jaw connect with the skull.
- Consider the ear’s horizontal relationship with the eyes and mouth
- Consider that eyeball is a sphere located inside a cavity.
- The eyelids have a thickness that often cast a shadow
- The nose has a bottom plane
- Consider the vertical aliment of the nostrils to the corners of the eyes
- Consider how the bridge of the nose meets the brow
- Think of the hair as a large mass
