Eyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose (Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes)

This week, we focused on the different elements that make up the face. We started out with a lecture on the eyes and nose. Amy does such a great job in making the techniques for drawing the different body parts as uncomplicated as possible. We got a really great in-depth lecture on the facial features this week, which were so helpful when it came to drawing from the models. I found the nose to be the hardest of all the facial features because the plane changes didn't seem as obvious to me. I didn't really get a decent nose drawing until we started learning about the mouth on Friday. I found that it's much easier to understand the plane changes if you draw the curve of the upper lip first and use it as a sort of guide for the rest of the nose. I also noticed that it's very easy to make the nose too small, which is something Amy pointed out during her lecture. Like we've been taught through out the semester, it's better to exaggerate the features than to make them too small or flat.

The plane changes with the eye were easier to recognize and I ended up getting a much more complete drawing of an eye than of a nose. As soon as I tried adding the cornea, however, my eye started looking strange, so I just left the eyeball blank with no cornea or retina.

The mouth was somewhere in the middle as far as difficulty. It was nice to have already learned the nose which acted as a started point for drawing the mouth. I had more of a three quarter few of the model's mouth, so I had some difficulty figuring out where the front plane of the lips transitioned to the side plane. One thing I tried to focus on was making sure the lips were of different widths so the drawing would feel more realistic. As always, I'm a really slow drawer so I think I ended up with a fairly complete nose and top lip, and a somewhat rushed bottom lip that still needs some adjustment.

We learned about the ears this week too, but I didn't get to any ear drawings in class. Amy has a way of making everything look really easy because she's obviously very experienced and talented, so my first impressions of the ear were that it wouldn't be too hard. I'm sure I'll think differently about that once I attempt my first ear drawing.

I'm anxious to start putting my final portfolio together, and I'm curious about what Amy wants us to include. I feel like we've rushed through the past few studies due to time constraints, so I'm not sure that all of us have drawings of every single facial feature. I guess I'm hoping that we'll just be able to pick our ten best drawings again, which ever body parts they may be. Ugh...so much work in the next couple weeks!