Instructions on Pencil Portrait Drawing - Positioning Skull Markers
Posted: Friday, January 16, 2009
by Remi Engels
Remi's Arts
A pencil portrait sketch from life starts with the "drawing" of the arabesque. Striking the arabesque means sketching the outer contour of the skull with the accurate proportions, form, and theaccurate symmetry.
Once you have drawn a reasonably accurate arabesque it is time to place the main landmarks of the skull. That means that we will accurately place the most significant places of the skull. These places will then be used as references for mapping out the rest of the skull features.
Let us presuppose that we are working from a 3/4 skull pose.
* The Brow Ridge - is the first critical landmark. To place the brow ridge you must first take your best guess at where you think it is and only then check it by sighting.
Note that to coach your eyes it is better to first guess distances, angles, etc. and verify them later. There is nothing to gain from pre- measuring.
Sighting denotes to use your pencil with fixed arm and marking distances along the pencil with your thumb and index finger and one eye closed.
So then, first sight from the bottom of the chin to a place on the brow ridge (just choose an arbitrary place on the ridge. But once chosen you should stick with it.
Now hoist your pencil so that your thumb is on your place on the brow ridge and make note of where your pencil tip is. It should be a small distance above the top of the skull. Mark on your sketch where you can best place that point above the skull. This point is called the "check-point".
Remember that whenever there is a choice, you should always measure the smallest distance because doing so tends to be more right.
Your place on the brow ridge should, if it was placed accurately, be exactly halfway between the bottom of the chin and your check-point. If it is not then correct the placement of your brow ridge.
* Jaw Hinge - Now you can tag the width of the head. In the 3/4 view the hinge of the jaw is an important landmark. Again, take your best estimate then check by sighting horizontally from the hinge of the jaw to the far edge of the cheek bone and vertically relating that measure from the bottom of the chin.
* Top Nasal Bone - Since we have already located the brow ridge we now only have to guess a short length to place the top of the nose bone. If you placed the hinge of the jaw accurately, it should equal the length from the bottom of the chin to the nose bone. If you are off a little, then correct the placement of the hinge of the jaw. Again, presuppose that the smallest distance estimated is the right one.
Now that these prime landmarks are located you can further work out the arabesque. I find it best to further resolve only the back, least intricate, part of the skull at this early point.
* Facial Angle - Lastly, you have to place the facial angle which is the center line of the face. Draw a slightly bending line from the middle of the mental tubercle up through the center of the brow ridge.
The positioning of the facial angle is very critical. You have to feel your way through this as there is no way to correctly measure it.
Once the facial angle is located proceed with drawing the arabesque carefully observing the form of the mouth area, the forehead, and all other features that are articulated in the form of the arabesque.
With this, we have located all the fundamental landmarks that will assist us with the mapping of the rest of the features such as the nose and teeth.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)This article was very helpful..in drawing landmarks for facial drawing. Thank you
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