I recently finished a face drawing project with my Grade 8's. This is the first year I've taught this class, so I started from the basics and had students copy facial features from magazine photos. We started with eyes, (I did a demo on the board for each feature), then the nose, then the mouth and finally ears and hair.
I then go through the basics of proportions.
For the photos to use as reference, we went to to the computer lab to choose portraits to print off. I encourage kids to choose front facing photos with fairly neutral expressions- this is easier for beginners, in my opinion.
Print out full size photos so kids can really observe the details of the face and understand the proportions.
I find this age group is really ready to draw realistic faces are are very engaged with this project.
We drew the good copies in pencil and tortillons (blending stumps) were available for students who like to blend with these.
Here's some sketchbooks showing facial features practice:
Noses- less is more.
Working on their good copies...
I was really happy with the results- the class really worked hard on these.
Ta da!
4 comments:
These are wonderful and I love how you had your students tear different features form magazines to draw from! Do you use any particular books or guides for drawing the face?
Thanks so much Melissa. No, I don't use any books. I designed my own handout showing the basics on how to draw face proportions correctly step-by-step. I'm sure you could find something similar online by Googling 'how to draw a face' or 'facial proportions'.
Wow, I wish someone would have done this with me when I was younger.
Courtney: Yes, me too! I didn't have art in school until Grade 10 and even then we didn't study portaiture. I taught myself how to draw faces just by practising by copying photos from magazines everyday after school. Even during university, no one once taught us facial proportions. Actual technique is often overlooked in art schools...
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