Drawing Details

By the time we make it out of elementary school, the majority of Americans have learned the basics of drawing. In my last post I explained to my best knowledge, how I create a simple guide line before I start my illustrations. With a basic knowledge of drawing mixed with an organized guide line to follow, we can spend less time worried about proportion and more time on the details. 

Let's take a look at a front on, human head. At this point most might think we should draw the entire head all at once. But I urge you to look even closer. With a few quick guide lines to map out our face we are ready to spend time and focus on the things that matter. for example, when after guides are created I can focus on JUST the eye and only worry about the eye, because I already know it will be the right size. I only put my focus into making this eye the best eye I can make for this project. 

Since faces are cemetrical (at least for the most part) we are tasked with splitting our focus for the second eye. we want to mirror the eye while still keeping the eyes looking in the same direction. as you might be able to tell I did a slightly bad job of this in my example above. If you look at a picture or a live human (with good eyes) you will easily realize the drawings left eye should come down a smidge and the right pupil should move a hair or two to the left. Critiquing your own work is as important as complimenting your own work. This will take a lot of practice and you will hate it at times. But we can't get better without trying new things and trying difficult things. So stick with it!