(Asking for critique) Heads are giving me a headache

[Agesus]

Hey, its been a while since i've posted but recently i've been struggling with drawing and studying heads recently but I'm not exactly sure what's wrong with them, i worry that the images are a little blurry but hopefully that wont be the case. I'm particularly looking for proportion and form problems but anything's on the table. Thank you

[Skoops]

These aren't too bad, honestly. All the proportional inconsistencies are within an acceptable margin of error. Only "issue" I see is you're doing roughly the same angle a lot. You'll help yourself to better visualize the 3-dimensionality of the forms if you start rotating them. I see one attempt at a steeper angle, but it looks like you kinda gave up on it. Lean in to that difficult stuff; that's where all the EXP is hiding.

[lucifertan]

assuming this is not the finished product and you want to eventually draw the whole face, think about how this structure helps you place the facial features or contributes to the contour of the face. so to get a sense of what's wrong, you need to try finishing a face out of it.

[Czyszy]

I never understood people doing these weird out-of-context study sketches. I personally never found that fun. My way of studying is to always put the stuff I'm learning to draw into a finished piece.

[Skoops]

At 11/30/23 08:59 PM, CzySzy wrote: I never understood people doing these weird out-of-context study sketches. I personally never found that fun. My way of studying is to always put the stuff I'm learning to draw into a finished piece.

I don't get what's not to get. If you want to get good at construction, you practice construction; the fun comes from improving at a faster rate. You can spend all of your time polishing up your practice mannequins before you're comfortable with them, but everything that follows is going to carry that lack of practice forward.

[Czyszy]

At 11/30/23 09:22 PM, Skoops wrote:

At 11/30/23 08:59 PM, CzySzy wrote: I never understood people doing these weird out-of-context study sketches. I personally never found that fun. My way of studying is to always put the stuff I'm learning to draw into a finished piece.

I don't get what's not to get. If you want to get good at construction, you practice construction; the fun comes from improving at a faster rate. You can spend all of your time polishing up your practice mannequins before you're comfortable with them, but everything that follows is going to carry that lack of practice forward.

What you've just said made it even more confusing to me but OK.

[Czyszy]

At 11/30/23 09:22 PM, Skoops wrote:

At 11/30/23 08:59 PM, CzySzy wrote: I never understood people doing these weird out-of-context study sketches. I personally never found that fun. My way of studying is to always put the stuff I'm learning to draw into a finished piece.

I don't get what's not to get. If you want to get good at construction, you practice construction; the fun comes from improving at a faster rate. You can spend all of your time polishing up your practice mannequins before you're comfortable with them, but everything that follows is going to carry that lack of practice forward.

The thing is I personally get the most enjoyment out of finishing up a project. And I'm aiming for each next piece to be better then the previous one. But I'm not gonna derail this thread. Feel free to PM me Skoops.

[Skoops]

At 11/30/23 09:32 PM, CzySzy wrote: The thing is I personally get the most enjoyment out of finishing up a project. And I'm aiming for each next piece to be better then the previous one.

You do you then, let's see how that works out for you.

Maybe you could try to understand that, in a thread with someone asking how to improve what they're doing, coming in just to say "I don't get why you're doing it at all" is not really helpful.

[Czyszy]

At 11/30/23 09:40 PM, Skoops wrote:

At 11/30/23 09:32 PM, CzySzy wrote: The thing is I personally get the most enjoyment out of finishing up a project. And I'm aiming for each next piece to be better then the previous one.

You do you then, let's see how that works out for you.

Maybe you could try to understand that, in a thread with someone asking how to improve what they're doing, coming in just to say "I don't get why you're doing it at all" is not really helpful.

You're right. I'm sorry.

[PerKGrok]

At 11/30/23 05:43 PM, Agesus wrote: Hey, its been a while since i've posted but recently i've been struggling with drawing and studying heads recently but I'm not exactly sure what's wrong with them, i worry that the images are a little blurry but hopefully that wont be the case. I'm particularly looking for proportion and form problems but anything's on the table. Thank you

Personally I prefer a simpler way to use guidelines for making a head. It is not completely different from the Loomis method (which looks like what you are using), it just have fewer parts to it.

Mainly an oval (egg shape, ellipse) for general head shape, and lines for position of eyes and bottom of nose (which also is top and bottom of ears). Possibly also a center line for 3/4 profile.

Works for me, but not necessarily for everyone.