Reilly Method Book Pdf

[Niobe Hennigan]

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!

Containing over 9 hours of narrated video demonstrations, you'll learn from 4 expert instructors from the Watts Atelier. Jeff Watts, Erik Gist, Ben Young, and Brian Knox, will all walk you through each step of the method with instruction on structure, anatomy, advanced abstraction, and tonal rendering.

It can produce solid results for beginners quickly.Also, it allows you to draw the head from any angle:To do this, you have to rotate the sphere in perspective and draw the center lines around the sphere. You need to think in three dimensions instead of just two.

While the basic front view of the Loomis method is quick to learn, this 3D view is much harder. It requires some experience drawing simple forms in perspective correctly.The Reilly AbstractionThe Reilly abstraction was created by Frank Reilly at the beginning of the 1900s. Reilly never published a book on it, but he taught it in art school for about 30 years.

The Reilly abstraction describes the head differently than the Loomis method.Instead of being rather technical and focusing on straight construction lines like the Loomis method, the Reilly method focuses more on rhythm and flow.

The method uses a lot of circles and curved lines to emphasize the rhythms of the face.To do this, it incorporates not only the basic structure of the head, like the Loomis method, but also things like bones, muscles, wrinkles and other anatomical details.For example, it uses circles for the eyeballs and the chin and curved lines that kind of represent the cheekbones:

When you have drawn your head, you can use the Asaro head as a reference for how light and shadow fall on a head.Just put the Asaro head under a specific light source to achieve the lighting you want and use that as a reference:Apart from using it as a reference, you can also use it to create basic light and shadow studies with simple exercises:

The Reilly Abstraction is a constructive, graphic hybrid method that focuses on creating the shape of the head from scratch using construction lines and shapes that represent the proportions of the face. This system is replicable, in that it focuses on abstract shapes first, rather than the details of the features. This makes it easy to grasp for beginners.

This method takes a similar starting point to the Loomis Method. It starts by drawing a circle split into quarters to represent the cranium, position of the brow and centre of the face. However, it develops the concept somewhat further, concentrating on the planes and rhythms of the head.

Draw a square inside the circle. The corners of the square should be just touching the perimeter of the circle. This square is the Reilly equivalent of the inner circle in The Loomis Method and gives us the same measurements. The square gives us the width and therefore the sides of the head. Then, the top and bottom lines give us the hair and base of the nose lines.

Now, take the measurement from the middle of the circle to the nose line. Drop that same measurement down and mark it off to give us the chin line. This shows us that the face is roughly divided into thirds, between the hair to brow, brow to nose and nose to chin.

Divide the middle section between the hairline and the nose line into thirds. Mark them off along the vertical line, marking the middle of the face. The higher of these two marks, the one just below the brow line marks the bottom of the eyes line. Use this mark to draw a horizontal line across the head below the brow line.

From this bottom of the eyes line at the sides of the head, draw, a jaw line, flaring slightly inwards and curving in at approximately the mouth line towards the chin. This will vary significantly depending on your model.

Divide the bottom section between the nose line and the chin line into thirds and mark them off along the vertical line in the middle of the face. The opposite of these two marks should intersect with the bottom of the circle, and will mark the mouth line. The lower of these two marks indicate the top of the chin.

Along the brow line, divide and mark off the head into fifths. The second and fourth fifths will give us the width of the eyes, while the third middle fifth will give us the width of the nose. Draw vertical lines down these divisions to mark off the outside of the eyes at the eye line and the edges of the nostrils at the nose line.

Draw a stretched out oval or egg shape between the top of the chin line and the mark above the nose line. This will represent the rounded muzzle of the face. It will also indicate the corners of the mouth where this oval intersects with the mouth line.

Draw a larger oval outside of the one above. It should fit between the centre of the eye line and the bottom of the chin. This is largely analogous to the nasolabial fat pad which can be very obvious in some individuals and almost not at all in others.

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