Read an Excerpt
Drawing the HEAD
Four Classic Instructional Guides
By Walter T. Foster Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 2009 Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-13824-4
CHAPTER 1
How to Draw the Head
Draw a slightly curved line, placing line for nose half way. This is the best way to start.
Now the eyebrow and the chin line. The mouth is one-third from nose to chin.
If head is tipped, start line from eyebrow and nose. This will give you the placement of ear.
The distance from eyebrow to chin will give you back of ear, and it fits in an oblong box.
The head is beginning to shape up so now form up nose, mouth and chin, as well as ear.
Erase your guide lines and soften your outlines so it will be easy to draw over them.
You will, and should, make many changes to get the right expression on face, shape of nose and mouth, etc.
It does not make any difference what the size of the head is, the method is the same. Try drawing all sizes.
Your outline is ready for color or shading. It is most important that this be right.
The PROFILE of head is the best way to start. If you are right-handed you will generally pick the left profile and if left-handed you will naturally choose the right profile. Why? That is a good question, but see that you do not do all rights or lefts but be able to do either equally well. The same with the front and three-quarter views of the head. Your life does not depend upon a masterpiece so just have fun and enjoy doing each pose. Yours Sincerely,
First draw a curve line (, then decide on length of nose you want.
Extend lines back, measuring two nose-lengths from eyebrow, giving tip of ear—draw line parallel, to nose-line.
Draw vertical line touching ear-line, as shown above. This gives center of head.
Distance between vertical line and the ear-line will give you center of head and eye-line. The ear width is two-thirds its length.
Two nose lengths from center of head will give you chin and top of head. The head being four nose lengths high.
From nose-line to center of head will give you back of head. Back of collar is on a line with the mouth. The mouth is one-third the distance between nose and chin.
THE Head is the most interesting of all objects to draw. Your drawing can express joy, fear, hate, sadness and run the gamut of emotions. It is well to start with the profile, memorizing the proportions. This will not take long and you have it right here on the margin. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.) Do it now before you start on a drawing. It will be SUCH a help to you, and your progress will be SO much faster.
DIRECTIONS ON PROFILE
Yes, the ear looks simple, but even well-known artists fumble around for something that looks like an ear. If you will draw this form and make a dozen or so ears, step by step, you will have accomplished much in your first lesson.
The layouts of the profiles of men and women are the same, also of the front view. It will be time well spent to study the main differences between male and female heads. It is so easy to pass up memorizing a few simple measurements which may mean the difference between your drawings being good or just mediocre. Eliminate guesswork, study proportions and really know your heads.
Noses come in a great variety, but there are two things to keep in mind: the feminine nose is the same as the male, only more refined, being narrower and often shorter, with smaller nostrils.
If you know how to draw the eyes, mouth, nose and ears separately, you will have much less trouble fitting them into your head proportions.
Think about these few simple fundamentals and do a lot of practicing upon them.
A valuable point to remember about the eye is its oblong shape and that the top curved line repeats itself for the lower lid, only upside down.
Note the circle and the side lines that form the face; see how the point of the nose rests on circle center; the ears on a line with the nose and eyebrows. The eyes are in center of head. The mouth is one-third the distance from nose to chin. These measurements are not hard to remember and are all you really need, but you should know them.
One of the greatest assets an artist can have is a keen sense of observation and this must be developed by studying people. Notice the shapes of noses; large or small ears and their shape. Surely, carry a pad and make quick sketches.
Good luck and happy looking.
The effect you obtain with pastels depends largely upon the surface of the papers you choose.
THIS IS A MORE COMPLETE LIST IF YOU WISH TO START IN WELL EQUIPPED FOR SKETCHING TRIPS, AS WELL AS STUDIO USE ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 20 ASSORTED PASTELS, SOFT. 24 ASSORTED PASTELS, HARD. 12 ASSORTED PENCILS. DRAWING BOARDS. STUDIO AND SKETCHING EASEL. T-SQUARE. FIXATIF AND ATOMIZER. 6 SHEETS OF ASSORTED PASTEL AND CHARCOAL PAPER. DRAFTSMAN'S DUSTING BRUSH. 6 THUMB TACKS. I ROLL OF SCOTCH TAPE. 2 PENCIL SHAPED ERASERS, HARD AND SOFT. I KNEADED RUBBER ERASER. I CHAMOIS SKIN. 6 ASSORTED STUMPS, LARGE AND SMALL.
Pastels and pencils are generally our first venture in color and is a very direct way of finding out about colors. When using pastels one does not depend so much upon the blending of colors by mixing, as in water colors and oils, but you choose the color from your box of pastels and apply it directly to your paper. This is the reason for having so many colors and tints.
IF IN DOUBT AS TO WHETHER YOUR MEDIUM IS WATER COLOR, OILS OR PASTELS, TRY THEM ALL. I FlND THAT IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT EACH, THE SUBJECT YOU CHOOSE WILL SUGGEST WHICH MEDIUM IS BEST. BY THE WAY, CAN YOU DRAW WELL? DO NOT NEGLECT THIS PART OF YOUR TRAINING.
SO IT WILL NOT BE CONFUSING, THIS LIST WILL YOU A START, THEN ADD SOME OR ALL THE OTHER ITEMS AS YOU PROGRESS 24 ASSORTED PASTELS (HARD OR SOFT.) 3 SMALL AND I LARGE PAPER STUMP. I KNEADED RUBBER. 6 THUMB TACKS. 3 SWEETS CHARCOAL PAPER (COLORED OR WHITE.) I DRAWING BOARD. I RED OR LIGHT GREEN PENCIL, FOR BLOCKING IN ON WHITE OR TINTED PAPER.
ON THIS drawing I have kept the shading lines running mostly the same direction, going over and intensifying the lines for contrast and using only brush and grease crayon, not using a stump to blend the shading. If you are left-handed slant the lines down to the right corner. Sure, you can tell a left-handed person's work or a right-hander by the slant of their lines.
WHEN working with charcoal you can easily change your highlights where it is more difficult with brush or crayon. On this drawing I have used litho crayon and brush for the darks and charcoal for the middle tones so I can change.
You can use finger or stumps as I have on the forehead, nose and around the cheeks. Cut out highlights with kneaded rubber, pinch off a piece and roll between thumb and finger.
SEE, I can draw a straight line, but on this work I like a nervous brush line. They are much more interesting. A Number 3 watercolor brush was used, the drawings on cold-pressed illustration board, drawings made same size.
SURE, this old fellow may scare you to death but you should try expressions of all kinds. You can use a wash drawing if you like after making your brush drawing with India ink. With this you use lamp black or ivory black and a good Number 6 watercolor brush.
CHAPTER 2
Heads from Life #18
The essential first line you draw should be the right side, is the same line you use for the profile view of the face on first page, and the line reserved for left profile and opposite side of face. Your drawing may be mussy at first but you can always clean them with eraser.
The Drawing on next page was made on Medium Cold Pressed Illustration Board with HB and 4B or 6B chisel point pencil, rubbed with paper stump or finger and high-lighted with kneaded Rubber.
The more you practice drawing the easier all subjects will become to paint and draw. Have fun sketching different things, people, still life, animals, etc. It is just like writing, the more you practice the better you become. Think of drawing as a language in itself and that you are telling someone a story who does not understand your language. This is a smiling girl in all lands.
These step drawings were made on Coquille Board. Try different papers. Your dealer will be glad to help you. Charcoal paper is reasonable and another paper you should try.
Let your drawing be simple—try leaving out all unnecessary details, in this case ear, only enough hair to suggest that she has lovely hair, a beautiful complexion and all we have outside of an outline drawing is a tone around eye, nose, and hair. Now you try for the same and if you wish to bring out the head suggest a dark background fading it out down around the mouth ... well, you will find out. OK let's go.
The face in shadow is not too hard to draw if you will forget the half-tones or middle-tones in the shadow part of the face and have a good drawing of the eye, mouth and nose. You can also try this with the profile, showing all in shadow but the cheeks and chin, or just reverse it leaving nose, chin, mouth and eye dark as I have done with Albert Schweitzer on Page 53. This you will find great fun. A No. 3 water color brush and India ink were used, rounding out the edges with pencil or charcoal, rubbing with fingers or stump. All drawings in this book of the large heads were made same size. You can make them smaller if you choose but best not to make them larger. Much better results can be had by drawing heads under life size.
With a head like Mr. Lincoln's of so much character and contrast, where the bone structure is close to the surface, and every feature is pronounced, you should not have much trouble in getting a fine likeness.
The paper used was cold pressed water color paper, (very rough), same used as on Shiek on page 69; only this drawing was rubbed with finger, stump and chamois skin.
Make this head with pencil if you have no charcoal or red chalk handy. You will have just as much fun.
GETTING and holding a likeness is not easy and there can be many changes in the expression from step to step as you can see with this head, and this trouble is more prevalent on the sweet young ladies' head then on older people, so just take your time and keep trying. A little change in the eye, mouth, nose, chin or even the ear can change the character of your drawing. We often defeat our own success by feeling the other person has a much better chance than we have. We all have ability but in most of us it is buried deep and takes a lot of trying to bring to the surface, and the one you may think a genius has just been trying harder and longer.
ALL defeats in life are giving up when just a little more trying would have turned defeat into success.
It isn't necessary to draw a skull under every head you draw but it is necessary that you memorize it so you can see and feel that it is there. Take a good look at my book on "Anatomy." It will give you lots to think about.
The finished figure on next page was made on a brown board of very coarse paper. Try all sorts of paper which you can practice on with pencil, brush or charcoal using Chinese White to paint in highlights, or chalk will do. Experiment, you will learn much through mistakes if you wish to call them mistakes but it is just good trying! Wonderful!!
JUST think of the thousands of heads one can make and no two need be alike, so what more interesting subject does one need to work with. When I am off on trips I love to sit in the lobby of a hotel or learn along the street just looking people over then draw them from memory later. You can use sketch pad until you learn to memorize them. Try it.
What is real success? It is the great desire to do something for which our fellow men will be proud of us accomplishing. Sure, we all like to bask in the spotlight of our fellow friends admiration for our accomplishments. What's wrong with that! It gives them pleasure and helps one's ego.
Bye, Sincerely yours, WALTER FOSTER
ON some drawings of people you will have more trouble than others, like this little girl. I have felt several times that it was lost but I kept working and changing, changing and erasing so here you have it and a little confession. I always have had and still have trouble getting little kids to look their age. They always look like little old ladies. Maybe because I much prefer drawing the very old men especially. Now you know all.
SUCH profiles as these are not only interesting but very helpful and sketches of people can always be made on trains, busses, hotels, etc. without your model being conscious of being your model and of course no charge is made for services rendered. Throw in a few ears while you are drawing. A knowledge of them is always useful. By sharpening your pencil to a chisel point, will give you a thick and thin line that gives character to your lines and with practice can become very useful. Surely, you will feel a little self-conscious at first but you will soon get over that as interest in what you are doing grows.
The three-quarter view of the face is about the same as the front view. Both take an understanding of foreshortening, the nostrils must be drawn so it gives the nose the effect of protruding from the face, and the lips must have the roundness, through formation of lines as well as highlights that give them life and expression.
I enjoy making the large head but the last one of the breakdowns looks sad and forlorn but with a few changes and a good eraser it could be brought back to life. As you will notice I have used black brush strokes to bring out the side of the face. This is often a great help and well worth trying.
EACH drawing is a challenge and each should be an improvement over the last. Of course, that is asking a little too much but it is well to try for. When you get to the stage where you do not have to think, think "Which way should these lines run" but forget everything but the effect you are after. Now that is the day and it will come after much practice and many drawings spoiled, but it is so worth trying for. Shall we get busy and make some mistakes? Fine.
DIMIER was a famous artist of France away back when, and very good too. I have made these step drawings as well as the large one on the next page from one of his drawings, not holding to the same line technique and I have learned much from his drawing. Louis Dimier is the artist that made portraits of all Royalty during his very active life, and you can buy books or get them from the library with many of his pencil sketches he made for likenesses to be used in large oil portraits he did of the Noble Men and Women. So you think we have funny-looking characters. You should see the ones he had to work with and they took themselves very seriously.
The different parts of the head are so essential to learn separately so you may assemble a head in any angle and of any age, male or female. Surely you can not do this at once but you can start trying. You will notice that when you are looking up at the head or if it is tipped back you make curved guide lines as in drawing No. 2 and 3 so it will help you place nose, mouth and eyes in the right perspective, and if the head is tipped so you are looking down then your guide lines curve in just the reverse.
Ethnic children are interesting to draw, both for contrast in shading as well as the wonderful expression of sadness or great happiness. This Fall I am looking forward to a trip I have had in mind for several years through Africa and one that will wrap up a book now in the making "Around the World and Then Some." This will be of sketches and short stories of things I have seen and happenings in the different countries. This I hope will give my many friends throughout this old world of ours a few pleasureable moments, a few laughs and a desire to take in and enjoy some of the wonders of this Earth.
OLD people with whiskers are interesting subjects, and often what you suggest is much more interesting than trying to put in the whiskers, wrinkles and eyelashes. So, take your time and simplify this head or one of your own choosing from life, photo, or good drawing. It is all wonderful practice and will make you a better artist.
CHAPTER 3
Heads from Life #18A
Directions
The drawing on the inside front cover was made on Medium Cold Pressed Illustration Board with 6-B pencil, rubbed with paper stump and high-lighted with kneaded rubber. These step drawings and one to the right were made on Coquille Board. Try different papers. Your dealer will be glad to help you. Charcoal paper is reasonable, and another paper you should try. Yours for success,
101 Heads
THE BEST thing at first is to work on the profile. If you are right-handed the head facing right will be easier for you, but do both right and left and memorize the proportions of the head and think when you are drawing. A line placed in the wrong place is a hindrance, not a help. Start with a pencil.
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