When you look at a face to draw it, what are some of the things you notice? How does that initial breakdown of info happen?



Okay I’ve put some gifs together to help explain this. My guess is most people who draw from observation do the same thing I do, but maybe a breakdown will help someone…

The thing to remember is 99% of drawing from observation is just plain old comparison. Like that’s what drawing is, you know? It’s constantly measuring things by comparing them to what’s around them, whether you’re comparing colors or shapes or lines. You’re always looking for contrasts and differences.

With that in mind, I think the very FIRST thing I notice when I look at a face is its shape and symmetry. I do this by partitioning things into chunks and quadrants, and I start from the biggest shapes and work my way down to smaller shapes…

At the same time I’m noticing and comparing these big shapes, I’m noticing the boundaries between then them. And those translate to actual lines I will draw…

And these boundaries, like the shapes, start out being very basic and broad, but then they become more specific…

So all of this happens pretty quickly

The other thing I do is measure the light.

This is where it gets harder to explain because… well, everything we see is already light.

Except that’s only part of it. If you close your eyes and feel your face, you’ll find it has shape even though can’t see it. Faces still have symmetry and shape in the dark. You can feel a face in the dark and do all the same measurements I’ve just explained without pencil or paper. Essentially, you can “draw” with your hands.

But to draw form visually—that is, to translate shapes you can feel into shapes you can see—you need to study what is happening to the light.

So when I draw, I’m measuring these shapes and comparing them to each other, but I’m also studying how those shapes affect the light. A cheekbone looks bright because a light source is hitting it, but it’s not just hitting it, it’s hitting it differently than it’s hitting a nose or a chin.

So shapes determine light. And light helps us figure out shape.

And where they meet is where I draw.

And all of that is very fun? Like. That’s why you draw. So you can understand how all this information works together to make a face—all of those measurements come together to tell us so much. It’s a fluid puzzle that fits together just so, and from it you can tell emotion, character, story. You measure and compare, backwards and forwards, until you’ve got a story. It’s miraculous!