Newbie head drawings critique

kasool

It was suggested by a friend that if I wanted to do character sculpting (my goal) I should do some drawings of this head. I'd appreciate any comments for these first two sketches. I felt much more confident with getting the general shape and proportion down on the second front-view. I ended up getting it down a lot faster.

TrinityTextures

The biggest piece of advice I can give you since it seems to be a fairly common problem in both sketches is this:

If you take a look at the sculptures they have very symmetrical proportions and lines, while the general shape of the head is very proportionate the inner details such as the cheekbones and eye sockets are designed to give you an idea of how they protrude. You can see that on the left side the sculpture looks almost 2 dimensional, but on the right side it is very 3 dimensional having more depth and shape to it.

The one thing I see you struggling with in your sketches is the symmetry, I would recommend using some measuring tools or you can do rough outlines of the areas and then go in and adjust them until they're symmetrical. But as it stands right now the shapes are very rough. Another thing that is going to help you is working on your stroke, every line needs to be done confidently and with precision this will also help you create symmetry. Your proportions are almost there but because there's a lack of symmetry it's also affecting your proportions.

Here's some advice for technical drawing:

Don't be afraid to look up references of real human heads, there are plenty of pictures that can describe proportions to you for things like the eyes, nose, ears, etc. Every part of the body corresponds to another. It's okay to have slight disproportions or areas that aren't perfectly symmetrical because nothing is perfect. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:



You'll notice how the top of the ears align with each other, as well as the bottoms of the ears, but there are also other pieces of the face that align with the position of the ears which are illustrated in the picture. Just pay very close attention to detail and ask yourself: what aligns with what? How big are _____ in comparison to _____. Things like that. Just be patient, these things take time especially when you're focusing on realism. Best of luck

kasool

I see, I guess I just need to spend more time on the sketches then. After the head should I just move on to other limbs and kinda repeat the process?

Muzzoid

yes main thing is to slow down, and take care and draw what you see as best as you can.