Thursday, March 24, 2011

Face Contour Tip

Royal Academy instructor Solomon J. Solomon (1860-1927) offers this trick for head drawing.
 
By holding the straight vertical edge of a book adjacent to the model’s face, it’s much easier to accurately judge the far contour of a face seen in three quarter profile.
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Solomon J. Solomon, The Practice of Oil Painting and Drawing. Philadelphia and London, 1910.

5 comments:

Nathan T said...

One book I own recommends a string with a weight on one end to create a vertical line as well.

I didn't think about using this for face contours before. Thank you!

Matthew Gauvin said...

SOunds like a great tip! Now if only I could afford a model,LOL.

Anonymous said...

This reminds me a lot of Andrew Loomis! Too bad I lost Drawing the head and Hands!

Matthew Gauvin said...

dfa, Not sure if you would be interested but I have a link to free digital andrew loomis books on my illustration blog and "drawing the head adn hands" is one of them : ) it's under the "free books" tab.

Anonymous said...

Sounds good! I mean, I did own a copy in pre-historic times! Thanks for the heads up!