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If you’ve been following along for very long at all, you probably know that I am not that great at drawing, and it is a skill that I would like to improve. So I’m setting myself some drawing challenges, the first of which was to try to really draw a face.
This was inspired by some reading I was doing. Specifically the book Art Journal Courage: Fearless Mixed Media Techniques for Journaling Bravely by Dina Wakley. The book addresses common fears that people have when preparing to create an art journal page — or anything else, really — and one of them is not knowing how to draw.
She explains that artists use templates and models when they draw so you don’t have to start from scratch with an image out of your head.
And she provides a tutorial that includes a formula for where to place elements on a face to make it look right.
Don’t fault her instructions for the wonkiness of my attempt, which is actually pretty good for me (though the hair kind of looks like a turban).
She explains that heads aren’t really round, for starters, and how to divide up the face area to place the elements in a way that looks natural. Beginners tend to put the eyes too high on the head, for instance.
Drawing along with her instructions did make me feel more comfortable, though I still need to figure out how to draw a pair of things that look the same.
If you want to try to really draw a face, too, you can also find tutorials online that will help you with the proportions and spacing. This piece from Craftsy offers a good overview, too.
If you try this I’d love to see how your face comes out.
Most of all, it was really lovely to take some quiet time in my day, sit outside and draw. I may have to do that more often!
