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Part One – THE PENCIL
4.5.. 6.the face, and is the basis of the nose. At the
bottom of these two parallel lines, draw a line
between them and which then extends back
in space following the front plane or angle of
the face. Now draw a line tilting back in space
and following the side plane or angle of the
head. Join up this triangle by drawing a
straight line down the front of the face. From
both corners of the front plane of the
forehead draw two downward lines to just
below the bottom of the original egg shape.
Make these two lines slightly narrower at the
bottom to give a sense of form to the front of
the face. Join these two lines at the bottom
with a straight line that follows the angle of
the front plane of the face and then follows
the angle of the side of the head through to
the back of the original egg. If you look at the
drawing, you’ll see that you are repeating the
lines used to establish the nose, only on a
bigger scale. We now have the underlying
form of the chin and jawbone.
5/ Add spheres to denote the eye
sockets. One sphere lies in front of the nose,
the other directly behind it. Now we have the
underlying volume of the eyes.
6/ In the preceding five stages we have
built an overall sense of the volume that
makes up the head. Once this is established it
is your base over which you can draw in the
characteristics of the particular person who is
sitting for you. It’s important to allow this
under-drawing to remain, because it will
reinforce the illusion of form and guide your
over-drawing.