Chapter 1 | OUR HEAD FROM THE FRONT
I think everyone has drawn a face at some point in their life. A round head with eyes, a nose and a mouth is enough. The circular emojis on mobile phones don’t even need a nose!
Exercise 1: Draw the oval shape of an egg. If necessary, improve the shape without erasing. Watch the lesson Helpful Drawing Tips, Level 1, Chapter 2, for relaxed drawing of shapes such as ovals.
Exercise 2: Draw an egg head of at least 10 centimeters high, with a neck and shoulders as in the example. Then draw a very light horizontal and vertical line through the center of the head. You’re going to use these assisting construction lines in the next chapter for the construction of the face. Check the horizontal line, it can easily be too high or too low.
Exercise 3: now give the head a neck and shoulders like in the following drawing. The arch from the neck down is the front side. The light gray arch upwards is the back of the neck, which of course you cannot see from the front. The shoulders are not too angularly. Of course, some have broader shoulders than others.
POSITION OF THE HEAD, NECK AND SHOULDERS:
If you want to draw someone from a photo or in real life, it is important to immediately pay attention to the position of the head on the shoulders. In the photo of Christiane Felscherinow, known for the book (1978) and the film We children of Banhof Zoo (1981) , you might quickly forget that her head and neck are slightly slanted, while that is very characteristic (see the vague assisting lines that indicate this).
Exercise 2: choose one or more close up foto’s of somebody and try to draw only the position of the head, neck and shoulders, without any further details.
EXTRA: Our head is not only roughly shaped like an egg but also like an acorn with the hat still on it. Make up your own figures with heads like acorns.
In reality, of course, heads do not have the exact shape of an egg or an acorn. Heads can be narrower, wider, rounder or even block-shaped. A striking block-shaped head, for example, has the dictator of North Korea, Kim Yong-un. This is further reinforced by the typical angular hairstyle.
