The Portrait chapter 11
When the form of the human head is broken down into its simplest terms, it most closely resembles a rectangular block. The
front of the face represents one side of the block, and the sides of the head represent the other sides of the block (a). As it is
rare for a person to hold his or her head completely vertically, there will inevitably be some tilt to the head in one direction or
another. This tilt or gesture is an essential quality to capture, as much of the mood and personality is conveyed through body
language. You can see in the diagram (b) how the three-dimensional rectangular block conforms to the gesture of the subject.
Also, to the surprise of many beginning artists, the most important aspect of achieving a likeness in a portrait is establishing
the overall shape of the head accurately; in this case, it would be the proportion of the width to the height of the rectangular
block. If this initial stage of the portrait isn’t well established, you can never achieve a likeness, even if you draw the features
perfectly. This is further discussed in the section “Drawing a Tonal Portrait,” later in this chapter.
Having established the large form of the head as a rectangular block, you can anchor the features, the forehead, cheeks, and
chin, into this framework. It is helpful to think in terms of breaking this topography down into facets or planes, as we did in
Chapter 9. Once again, this is all for the sake of helping the artist understand why the light falls on the form in the way that it
does, so that this may be clearly conveyed in the drawing being created.
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