Facial Features

Perhaps the most complex human body part to draw, and my personal weakness: the face. Some unknown aspect about the face makes it extremely difficult for me to draw, and all my faces end up looking unrealistically cartoon-like, unproportional, and 2-dimensional. I aspire to create faces that are realistic and can convey some kind of emotion or feeling to the viewer.

As usual, my medium of usage will be pencil, as it is, to me, the easiest medium to use. For novice artists, it provides good control, and you don't have to worry about selecting the appropriate colors and shades, but only focusing on the values used. Also, pencil is easily erasable, which is a feature I'm certain I'll be using quite thoroughly in this particular drawing. As Bridgman states in his book, when first sketching something that a person is uncertain or uncomfortable with, it's best to pick the medium they're most comfortable in. This provides a way of easing into the process without imposing too much of a learning curve (Bridgman 35).

As shown below, I started with something that many people have probably seen before. It's essentially a circle with a straight line down the middle, and then two lines curving from the sides of the circle to meet the end of the vertical line. This creates the basic face shape for a view of the face straight-on. However, if the face were at an angle, I'd curve the line towards the right or left. The vertical line serves as a helpful center line for the face, and helps with placement of the facial features.

Now, in this particular post I got a little too concentrated on drawing the face and didn't take pictures of the overall process. However, a tip that I have is to not dance around it. Don't nervously draw lines and contemplate if that one line is perfect! Just go for it and do what you think you need to do in order to achieve your desired result. There's no right or wrong place to start or finish.

Bridgman also explains how the facial features should follow the contour of the face. He exemplifies this when he states, "The shape of the mouth and lips is controlled by the shape of the jaw. The more curved the jaw in front the more curved the lips; the more flat it is, the straighter the lips" (Bridgman 106). In real life, there are certainly exceptions, and this is not meant as a generalization, but as a tool to utilize when drawing.

I personally decided to begin with the lips, as they seemed the simplest to draw. However, to my surprise, the nose was the easiest to draw. As expected, I spent the longest time on the eyes, simply because they held much more detail than anticipated. Once I looked closely at the photo I was using, I realized that a lot more detail goes into the face than I had previously thought. Everything, even the whites of the eyes, had shading, angles, and shadows. If I wanted it to be realistic, I needed to draw every detail I could find.

As for photo selection? If you're just starting out, I'd recommend a straight-on photo. This is typically how we envision faces, and you also won't have to worry about making the features protrude out or sink into the face, but simply showing this depth with varying values.

Overall, this is the finished product! I found that I'm quite satisfied with it, and that it's turned out much, much better than any other of my face-drawing attempts. Its not perfect of course, but it's quite a large improvement. The drawing probably took me a total time of four to five hours, from drawing the starting base to adding the final touches of shading. This clearly exhibits how time-consuming art can be.

However, I found that I strangely didn't mind it. For one, I was drawing something I actually enjoyed (the woman I drew is one of my favorite actresses), which helped quite a lot with the process. I actually had quite a bit of fun drawing this, and it was quite relaxing. I put on a TV show for some background noise (I personally cannot stand working in total silence), kept some snacks on hand in case I got hungry, and wrapped myself in a cozy blanket, and it created a very warm, comfortable experience.

Do you use art as a relaxation technique? Do you find that you draw better when you're passionate or inspired by something? Does your environment impact the quality of your work?

Bridgman, George. Constructive Anatomy. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 2016. Print.