Live Portrait Model

Drawing a two-dimensional portrait out of a book is tough, but a three-dimensional model is even more challenging.

You have the left brain interfering and dictating what you should see and draw, and your right brain trying to draw what you see. Putting all the learnings into practice is challenging. Therefore, this is a learned skill, not a God-given talent you have or don’t have.

It is tough, but I am continuing to work through it. I think I have made a 1% improvement from yesterday’s drawing to today.

Madame X

Today's drawing is day two of developing my portrait skills. Today was a warm-up exercise of drawing John Singer Sargent's Madam X. Focusing on the proportions and how the eyes, ears, and head proportions line up.

Putting aside what you see, people are even more alike than you think. There are infinite unique faces and features, but almost everyone is the same in many respects. For example, the eyes are halfway between the top of the skull and the chin, and the back of the eye to the back of the ear is the same distance as the front of the eye to the top of the head. In this crazy world, another example of what we have in common.

Learning the isosceles triangle of the head, eyes, and ears is fantastic. Progressing 1% a day.

Eyes Have It

After a break for health reasons, I am back working on and enjoying drawing. The next chapter of my Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain book course is portraits. The first section deals with proportions and precisely where the eyes fall o the skull.

Interestingly the eyes fall equidistant from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin. So even though our eyes (left brain) challenge this thought, it is accurate.

Today’s sketch is a basic shell with the axis and horizon drawn in on both the front and profile views of the head. I was getting comfortable with the placement of the eyes.