The Artist's Complete Guide to Drawing the Head

343 Pages·2004·15.67 MB·English

by  William Maughan

The Artist’s Complete Guide to
DRAWING THE HEAD
WILLIAM L. MAUGHAN
W -G P /N Y
ATSON UPTILL UBLICATIONS EW ORK
Front cover model: Tweed Conrad A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
All of the heads in this book were drawn life-size, between approximately six
and eight inches.
Copyright © 2004 by William L. Maughan First published in 2004 by WatsonGuptill Publications,
Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York
www.crownpublishing.com
www.watsonguptill.com
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Maughan, William L., 1946–
The artist’s complete guide to drawing the head / William L. Maughan.
p. cm.
Includes index.
eBook ISBN: 978-0-77043473-1
Trade paperback ISBN: 978-0-8230-0359-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-8230-0359-4
ISBN 0-8230-0359-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Head in art. 2. Drawing—Technique. I. Title.
NC770.M38 2004
743.4’2—dc22
2003020387
Senior Editor: Joy Aquilino
Editor: Holly Jennings
Designer: Jay Anning
Production Manager: Hector Campbell
v3.1
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Without valuable help from my wife, Susan Maughan, and her sister,
MaryAnn Webster, in the preparation of this book, it would not have come
to pass. I am grateful to Lorser Feitelson, the father of hard-edge abstraction
and post-surrealism, for teaching me to analyze and draw the
representational form. I would also like to thank Richard and Elisa Stephens
and the Academy of Art College for giving me the opportunity to develop
this material into the curriculum. I owe a special word of thanks to my
editor, Holly Jennings, for the countless hours of phone conversations, e-
mails, and rewrites.
This book is dedicated to my children,
Brittany, Meagan, Weston, Tyson, Matthew, Bradford, and Bryant.

C
ONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Dedication
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
THE DRAWING METHOD AND MATERIALS
CHIAROSCURO
Sfumato
THE MATERIALS
Substitute Materials
WORKING WITH THE PENCIL
Drawing Shadow Shapes
Sharpening the Pencil
CHAPTER ONE
PRINCIPLES OF CHIAROSCURO
LINE VERSUS VALUE
“Lost-and-Found” Line
VALUE AND FORM
Paper + Two Pencils = A Full-Value Range
THE SHADOW SHAPES AND THEIR EDGES
Form-Shadows
Cast-Shadows
The Shadow Edges
THE FORM IN LIGHT
ANALYZING FORM
Negative Shapes
CHAPTER TWO
PRINCIPLES OF DRAWING THE HEAD
TWO MASSES OF LIGHT AND SHADOW
LIGHTING THE HEAD
Artificial and Natural Light
Light Advances; Dark Recedes
SINGLE FOCAL POINT
PERSPECTIVE AND THE THREE-QUARTER VIEW
Perspective
Planes of the Head
Foreshortening
VALUE PATTERN
ADDRESSING THE BACKGROUND
CHAPTER THREE
THE DRAWING PROCESS, STEP-BY-STEP
SCULPTING THE HEAD
GESTURE
The Tilt
PROPORTIONS
Placing the Features
THE ANATOMY OF THE EYES
The Orbicular Cavity
The Natural Slants of the Eye
The Eyelids, Pupil, and Iris
Positions of the Eyes
DRAWING THE EYES
Highlights on the Eyes
Using the Paper Value
Examples of Eyes
NOSE AND MOUTH
The Structure of the Nose and Mouth
Examples of the Nose and Mouth
EARS
Placement of the Ear
HAIR
TROUBLESHOOTING EXAMPLE
CHAPTER FOUR
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
THE FIVE ESSENTIAL DRAWING STEPS
Review
The Demonstrations
GOING FORWARD
Practice Ideas
Self-Critique
Taking Your Skills to the Next Level
CHAPTER FIVE
DRAWING FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES
COMBINING REFERENCES
A Demonstration