Drawing Heads Pdf

[Líbera Oehlenschlage]

Myinitial impression of the Reilly method was that it was too complicated for beginner artists. So I decided to learn the Loomis Method first in the hope of exploring the Reilly Method later. After gaining some basic understanding of the Loomis Method, I did study the Reilly Method to see how it compares with the former. So in this post, I share what little I have learned about the two approaches for drawing the human head, their similarities, differences, examples, and my final thoughts on which one is better for beginner artists based on my experience.

The Loomis and Reilly Methods are both very useful guides for portrait drawing. While the Loomis Method aims to help artists draw the basic structure and proportions of the face, the Reilly Abstraction helps to bring drawings to life by improving the flow, likeness, and accuracy of portraits.

In the following couple of sections, I try to sum up the steps involved in drawing the human head using each approach so those of you who are new to Loomis and Reilly can get a basic idea of the process.

Andrew Loomis developed a logical process for drawing the human head in space by using simple shapes to represent its complex forms in correct proportions. The basic idea behind the Loomis Method is that to draw the head correctly, the artist must be aware of the three-dimensional structure of the entire head and know how to place the individual features correctly.

The Loomis Method helps artists to recreate the human head in their drawing by forcing us to think of the underlying structure of the head and is an excellent way of determining where to place the different features of the face in a portrait.

The flattened sides are roughly two-thirds the size of the cranium ball, but the degree to which they are visible to the observer depends on the angle of the face relative to the viewer. When drawing the head from the side view, we draw a smaller circle within the cranium ball to represent the side plane.

The browline establishes the angle of the head in our drawing. We draw the browline wrapped around the center of the cranium ball (like a rubber band) by observing the relative angle of the brow ridge and the top of the ears.

The intersection between the browline and the middle line is crucial in establishing the overall perspective of the face and is critical in locating the different landmarks on the face. This cross marks the vertical and horizontal center of the head.

Andrew Loomis suggests that we draw the hairline halfway through the distance between the midpoint marked in Step 4 and the top of the head, where the hallway line and the middle line meet at the top of the cranium ball.

This step can be confusing for beginners, especially when the top of the head is not visible. I find it easier to estimate the hairline by drawing a line parallel to the browline starting from the top of the circular side planes drawn in Step 2.

The eyes are drawn just below the browline at the vertical center of the head. The gap between the eyes is equal to the length of a single eye, and their inner corners align with the wings of the nose.

Loomis illustrates some of the principal planes of the face and describes how using these blocky shapes can help balance the roundness of forms but does not explain in great detail how these planes need to be incorporated in the Loomis Method outlined in his book.

The horizontal midline across the face marks the bottom of the eyes. The upper corners of the ears are also adjacent to this line whereas the vertical center line simply divides the face into the left and right halves.

Similar to what we did in the Loomis Method, we mark the three main segments of the face, namely the forehead (browline to the hairline), the nose (browline to the bottom of the nose), and the mouth (the base of the nose to the chin).

The browline is drawn slightly above the horizontal midline to allow space for the eye sockets, while the base of the nose can be determined by dividing the distance between the browline and the chin into two equal parts.

In addition to the shape of the forms, the primary tonal shapes can also be structured into the drawing to see how they affect the overall composition of the portrait. Once we are happy with the overall abstraction, we can start drawing the secondary features of the face such as the eyebrows, hair, nostrils, details of the ears, and so on.

The main problem I encountered while trying to learn the Reilly Method was the apparent lack of good resources that explain its process, especially on Youtube. Despite this and the fact that the Reilly Abstraction seems to have a steeper learning curve and requires a greater time commitment from the artists compared to the Loomis, I think mastering it can really take your portrait drawing skills to the next level.

For the past two years, I have been teaching myself how to draw and making an effort to make art consistently. I love to document what I learn about drawing on this tiny art blog and sharing with others!

The sides of the head are flat, so we can slice off a piece from both sides of the ball. From profile, this plane will be a perfect circle, but when drawing it from any other angle, it will appear to be an oval because of perspective. Divide this oval into quadrants. The vertical line represents the beginning of the jaw. The horizontal line represents the brow line. The top and bottom of the oval help you find the hair line and the bottom of the nose.

Attach the shape of the jaw. The top will start at the brow line and the back will start at the center of the oval. This is a 3-D volume with a front plane, side planes, and bottom plane (bottom plane is seen from some angles).

After establishing the angle of the ball, divide the face into thirds. The distance between the hairline and brow-line should be the same as the distance between the brow-line and bottom of the nose. Add that same distance to find the chin. Notice how the hairline and nose-line align with the top and bottom bottom of the oval when wrapped around the face. Imagine the head as a box. The thirds must be wrapped around the side plane and front plane.

A common mistake at this point is to make the jaw too long in comparison to the ball. Make sure to measure your thirds correctly and that they relate correctly to the ball. Notice how the shape of the jaw changes from various angles.

My answer to this is to play around with it. For the most part I would say roughly 2/3 of the height of the circle. Personally, I think that this part will effect the rest of the drawing so I like to try various sizes.

The other factor that you may consider is how far to cut into the sphere, thereby making the head wider or thinner based upon your placement. Again, I want you to experiment here so that you can develop a nice variety with your characters.

In this case, we will be drawing someone resembling Alfred from the Batman comics. So we will use a much taller area for the height of the nose. I am also going for a more slender head template for this character type.

Circles for the eyes are a great way to help you draw eye lids that wrap around the eye ball area and also help with the foreshortening. Without places the spheres below the brow line, I usually skew things a bit.

For the nose you can use a larger pyramid like shape or in this case a small upside down triangle. I find this to work well by simply keeping the shape of shadow in mind. It allows me to perceive the nose from there.

Now with those primitive shapes in place, try drawing your line work around and through them. Remember that these are just guides, you need to practice seeing past them and letting your imagination run wild.

Practicing head shapes and the individual features of the face has helped me tremendously. They are all tricky in their own right but with lots of sketches from different angles we start to find the patterns that resonate with us.

These individual studies can really add up over time. Plus, if you find that you do pretty well with the face drawing until you get to the nose, then drawing the nose over and over from tricky angles will more than likely get you past that problem area in your work.

Although learning the method is easy, drawing the head and the face almost never is. This is because there are lots of different individual factors that must go right: the perspective, the proportions, the structure of the individual features, their placement, and on and on.

However, great progress can be made with diligent practice and attention to detail. In this tutorial, I will discuss everything you need to know to get started with the Loomis method of construction of the head. If you are looking for video instruction on Loomis head construction, head over to the Academy, where I teach my course, Learn to Draw in 18 Steps. In it, I cover all major points in painstaking detail in Step 13.

To draw a head with Loomis construction, first start with a ball, then divide it by drawing a line in the middle, separating the ball into two vertical halves. Then draw another line separating it horizontally. Given the direction of a cross that has formed, slice off the excess on each side and begin to place features: brows at the cross, hairline half-way to the top, and the tip of the nose half-way down.

The Loomis method of construction is a technique using simple forms and measured landmarks to construct the human head, in any angle. The method starts with a ball, breaks it into four equal sections with two lines and then uses the created measurements to place facial features.

The jaw section is later attached, so the ball represents the upper part of the head, or the section that houses the brain. Andrew Loomis looked for a shape that could most resemble the head, even though he knew the head is not really like a perfect sphere at all.

Once we have the ball drawn, we draw in a line through the vertical center of the face, which will represent the line where we will draw the nose. We will also draw a horizontal line through the ball, representing the eyebrow line. Together these lines form a cross and are of utmost importance to getting the Loomis construction right.

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