15 June 2020 - So I might be wrong but then I thought I might be right but then I checked again it seems like I’m wrong?...

So I have the weakness of being very systematic; if there’s a rule for something, I want to follow it 100% to every letter. But For the process of trying to build up my skills in drawing faces, this is definitely something that would slow me down since each face is different (and art in general is meant to be expressive and unique rather than a factory copy). 

That’s why when I was so happy when I thought I’d made a personal breakthrough and figured out a rule I could apply to every face I drew. I always talk about the 1% increases in skill if you keep working consistently (even if you don’t feel like there is change), but here it felt like I’d made a tangible step forward with the rule: “The bottom of the base circle you draw rests on the cheekbones of the face”. And even better was that I thought I had a legitimate explanation for it in that when you look at a skull, the bottom of the generally spherical part is the cheekbones!

But sadly when I went back to look at the sketches I did in my first lesson on facial structure from Ethan Nguyen’s class, it’s completely different from what I was claiming. The cheekbones and the bottom of the nose does not rest on the circle line. Instead the line lies where the mouth is and the bottom of the nose is within the circle.

It’s so frustrating to think that I’ve made some progress and then see that it was just a wild leap that didn’t land. What I really want to have is a set guideline for drawing a generic face that when I’m practised enough at drawing it, I can then play with the rules to create more interesting face designs (like how Blad Moran does it on an awesome level!). I know that Ethan Nguyen does tell you the guideline in his lessons but that’s in a more superficial sense leading to I know the rules but don’t understand them and I feel that if I don’t understand then I can’t break them.

12 June 2020 - My big realisation on the structure of the face

So in my last post I mentioned that whilst doing drawing exercises of faces at different angles, I had a sudden realisation on a rule that I could apply on how the face is structured. Realising this makes me so happy because for me I think it’s now so much easier to draw out the guide for all future heads.

And this is the rule: The bottom of the circle rests on the cheekbones.

It’s literally just this simple. I know this is probably something that is so obvious to other artists but as a beginner in drawing faces, I was really confused about the positioning of the circle for the longest time. Even at the beginning of Ethan Nguyen’s class, I was still unaware exactly where the circle fits in relation to everything else (I had a bad habit of the circle being too high and the bottom resting on the eye line).

To test out this idea, I did a couple of reference studies focused on the rule to see if it works on different faces and I saw something else extra that just triple confirms the rule but at the same time, bonus rule! So pretty much for every face the bottom of the nose rests on the bottom of the circle. There are a few cases where the nose might be quite a bit above or below the circle (as seen in the old man face) but otherwise this is another rule to follow when drawing faces.

Doing the study on the skull was the important because it let me see properly what I was visualising in my mind; the explanation of why the circle rests on the cheekbones. So the skull is made up of two parts and the top part is loosely a sphere with a little bit sticking out at the bottom (where the upper row of teeth goes). You can see the bottom of the sphere aligns with the cheekbones and the bottom of the hole for the nose rest on this line as well, confirming the two rules.

Just taking a brief look at the structure of the skull has been so useful, I should have done this sooner! I’m gonna do more studies and I’ll post all findings and new knowledge in future posts (getting back to this blog being focused on a guide for people who want to get into a visual development career).  In terms of goals for visual development levelling up, I want to have a solid understanding by the end of the year on the structure of how the head is built up; to have extensive knowledge on the fundamentals of drawing faces.

These are the goals I want to hit (or at least be working on) by the end of 2020 which is 6 months away:

Study the structure of the skull and know the generic rules for where the eyes, nose, mouth and ears should lie in proportion to each other

Study and understand the breakdown on the planes of face so that I can apply it to every face (like Angel Ganev does in his art reviews)