Do you have any tips for getting Kirk's face right? You draw his likeness so well, and it's something I've heard others also struggle to get his face to look right, so I would love some tips if you have any 😅
First of all, thank you! And I'm glad you asked *pulls out a 50-slide powerpoint presentation*
I've heard a lot of people say that Shatner's face is difficult to draw because of his soft features or because his weight fluctuated throughout the show. I actually have a theory of my own that I haven't really seen discussed before.
Why Does Kirk’s Face Keep Changing?
Outside of drawing middle-aged men from the '60s making out, I actually work in film. And if there's one thing film school gave me, it's an obsession with focal lengths.
A camera lens doesn't just determine how much of a scene you see—it also changes how faces are rendered. Generally speaking, the smaller the focal length, the wider the field of view (and the stronger the perspective distortion). In my experience, people with softer facial features seem to change appearance more dramatically across different focal lengths. The transitions between planes are softer, so perspective changes become much more noticeable.
During filming, the cinematographer switches between different lenses depending on what the scene needs. For example:
25-28mm — wide shots of the bridge, corridors, establishing shots.
40-50mm — medium shots and the majority of dialogue scenes.
75-100mm — close-ups and reaction shots.
It might be a bit difficult to grasp the difference between focal lengths if you're unfamiliar with the concept (at least it was for me when I first started filming, lol), but once you start noticing it, it becomes automatic.
One of the best examples can be found in Is There in Truth No Beauty?
This is Spock's distorted POV. We can see the entire bridge, several characters in full body, and Jim standing very close to the camera. Notice how his proportions are exaggerated: his head appears much larger, his body smaller, and the center of his face is enlarged (see how the ears almost disappear?).
My best guess is that this shot was filmed somewhere around an 18-20mm lens to create that unsettling feeling.
Technically speaking, this perspective distortion isn't created by the lens itself—it's created by camera distance. Wider lenses placed closer to the subject make the distortion much more noticeable.
Now compare that to a standard dialogue shot from later in the same episode.
Here, we only see part of the background, and the characters look much more natural. Perspective distortion is minimal, so this is probably somewhere around 40-50mm.
And finally, the classic close-up (Space Seed).
Most of the background disappears, and Kirk's face gets slightly flattened around the cheeks and temples area (and ears are much more prominent!). This is probably an 85mm, which is why it feels so intimate.
Sourcing References According to Focal Length
This realization genuinely helped me a lot and changed how I use references.
I work in a semi-realistic style, so I try to get as close to the actor's actual appearance as possible. That means I spend... an unhealthy amount of time digging through hundreds of screenshots on TrekCore (seriously, if you draw Trek fanart, I can't recommend it enough).
The problem is that you'll almost never find one screenshot with exactly the expression you need: one might have the perfect smile, another has the eyes, and the third one is the perfect inspiration for the hairstyle.
The trap is that those screenshots might all have been shot on completely different lenses.
You can end up referencing Kirk's lips from an 80mm close-up and his eyes from a 25mm wide shot. Individually they're correct, but together they don't quite look like Kirk anymore.
Now, whenever I'm gathering references, I try to match the focal length to the type of drawing I'm making. If I'm drawing a full-body piece, I mostly collect references from wider shots. If I'm painting a portrait, I mainly look at close-ups. Of course, subject distance from the camera also matters, since it can be used stylistically.
But a rough rule of thumb is:
25-28mm — Full-body shots with lots of visible environment.
40-50mm — Medium shots. This is the workhorse lens throughout TOS and generally the closest to natural human perspective.
Just keeping that in mind made Kirk's likeness way more consistent for me.
Beyond that, Kirk actually has several really distinctive facial features that are worth emphasizing:
the forehead muscle lines
When I'm studying references, I pay close attention to how those features catch the light in different lighting setups.
Then, I simplify everything into large blocks of value. I outline those shapes, cross-hatch the darkest areas, leave lighter transitions where the light diffuses, and then do the blending... a lot of blending... like... a lot of blending and building up the values...
I personally try to avoid using the airbrush as much as possible because I find it gives me less control over the tiny planes of the face. But that's definitely just a style preference and part of my own shading process.
Shatner is still a surprisingly tricky person to draw because light behaves so softly across his features. But understanding focal lengths made an enormous difference for me over the last two and a half years I've been drawing him.
Hopefully this was helpful!
And sorry for the accidental TED Talk 😅
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