Trying to further my understanding of anatomy, starting with faces
© 2023 Roseaphile
Done as part of a practice session with poses of 10 minutes in length.
My current goal is: Hands and faces
Aunt Herbert
Gratz on your study. I like your clean decisive lines, and your embrace of using the Loomis method.
You had quite a hard motive to tackle. The head on the OG image is tilted backwards and to the side, with the chin pointing towards the camera, which leads to a perspective shortening of the face, which in turn makes it quite hard to properly apply Loomis' schematics.
I recognize that specific OG image well, because I cried bloody tears before I figured out all the hidden traps, that the perspective on this one poses.
Loomis method can be deceptively hard to apply to drawing from photography. The method is designed to construct heads from imagination first, fitting those construction lines to a predefined motif is a second intellectual task. It is useful to do it, but not as easy as usually advertised.
What helped me was picking up a routine of drawing a dozen or so Loomis heads daily freehand, without a motif, and keeping them quite abstract, like that:
,just as a geometrical assembly of circles, lines and plains, and getting used to how those geometrical forms change in different orientations in space.
After I got used to the schematic I found applying them to a motif frankly still hard, but no longer miraculously unsolvable, and only then did the foundational construction start to become useful for measuring size and positions of features and applying shading.
You seem to be still in the process of figuring out, what old Loomis can actually do for you. For now, I would recommend using filter options on the portrait selection, so you get fewer motifs with unfamiliar poses. If you still run into a motif, where for the sake of all sweat dropped by draftsmen, you can't figure out how those circles are meant to be placed, just skip Loomis and have a go freehand. The result probably won't blow your mind, but you will get a taste of how just the ideas of what to measure on a face slowly start getting imprinted in your mind, even when you don't consciously do the whole foundation work.
BTW, if at the end of a class section the 10 minute motif shows up with something, that you don't feel ready to approach, you can use the forward button to get a different choice, so you don't end up too frustrated.
You had quite a hard motive to tackle. The head on the OG image is tilted backwards and to the side, with the chin pointing towards the camera, which leads to a perspective shortening of the face, which in turn makes it quite hard to properly apply Loomis' schematics.
I recognize that specific OG image well, because I cried bloody tears before I figured out all the hidden traps, that the perspective on this one poses.
Loomis method can be deceptively hard to apply to drawing from photography. The method is designed to construct heads from imagination first, fitting those construction lines to a predefined motif is a second intellectual task. It is useful to do it, but not as easy as usually advertised.
What helped me was picking up a routine of drawing a dozen or so Loomis heads daily freehand, without a motif, and keeping them quite abstract, like that:
,just as a geometrical assembly of circles, lines and plains, and getting used to how those geometrical forms change in different orientations in space.After I got used to the schematic I found applying them to a motif frankly still hard, but no longer miraculously unsolvable, and only then did the foundational construction start to become useful for measuring size and positions of features and applying shading.
You seem to be still in the process of figuring out, what old Loomis can actually do for you. For now, I would recommend using filter options on the portrait selection, so you get fewer motifs with unfamiliar poses. If you still run into a motif, where for the sake of all sweat dropped by draftsmen, you can't figure out how those circles are meant to be placed, just skip Loomis and have a go freehand. The result probably won't blow your mind, but you will get a taste of how just the ideas of what to measure on a face slowly start getting imprinted in your mind, even when you don't consciously do the whole foundation work.
BTW, if at the end of a class section the 10 minute motif shows up with something, that you don't feel ready to approach, you can use the forward button to get a different choice, so you don't end up too frustrated.
The arguement behind this is because, your control and/or understanding of hands, feet, and faces will become the least stilted but the most freeflowing, spontanous, but most energetic. Not to mention to get away with most of your expression of the expressions and gestures and poses, so that you can give yourself most of the leeway.
For more information and all details, look into the Vilppu Drawing Manual, Walt Stanchfield Vols. 1 and 2.
Have a Happiest Thanksgiving.