theDrawing

NewsletterNovember 2004

Understanding Planes: Achieving 3-Dimensionality in Your Portrait

DrawingConvincing portrait drawing has six requisite elements: shape, proportion, value, anatomy, texture and planes.

Shape is the arabesque – the entire head and each feature and component within; proportion is the sizing and place-ments; value, the relative light/dark patterns; anatomy, the underlying structures of bone and muscle; texture – flesh, hair, clothing; and, last, the planes that define the sculptural dimensions of drawing.

Michael R. Britton

© All rights reserved.

In portrait drawing the single largest error students make is thinking of the head as being an oval, it is actually rectilinear. Think of it as being more like a squarish box. That thought, alone, will significantly improve your portrait drawing!

The face, particularly with beginners, is usually ren-dered as a large, flat, one-dimensional disk. Com-pared to the entire head the face is quite small. Your hand can fit the entire face, but place your hand on top of your head and you immediately know how large the head is relative to the face.

To begin understanding planes and thus obtain a sculptural sensibility in your drawing simple geo-metric shapes must be understood and used.

Let’s begin with framing the skull within a rectangle.

To better illustrate the 3-dimensionality of the head our rectangle-box must be ‘customized’ to fit the skull. The result is a phalanx-like cube where the face and forehead is the smallest side.

The skull tapers towards the front, the face.

This is the basic shape of the head in the frontal view. Think of this shape as being a block of clay that can be ‘chiseled’ down into smaller planes.

In the profile view the skull is generally a square, however it is better thought of as a cube, which is 3-dimensional. The differ-ence is the facial angle (the ‘muzzle’) that slopes slightly forward at the chin.

In the 7/8’s profile view, in my opinion the most beautiful of the head poses (also the most dif-ficult to draw) our ‘cube’ has simply been rotated in space. I cannot stress enough how important it is to think in terms of simple geometric shapes. From these large simple shapes, smaller simple shapes can be placed. Pretty soon that collec-tion of simple shapes becomes quite complex.

I’ve applied this thinking to the sketch of this model. First, I struck the arabesque which is the entire outside shape of the head, hat included. From there I broke-down the arabesque into its various components such as the hat, hair, ear, jaw and neck. [Striking the arabesque is a learned skill that is com-prehensively taught in the Mastering Portrait Drawing 1 DVD Workshop.]

Blocking in the major darks while treating the entire head as a cube renders a 3-dimensional effect even at this very early stage.

Of course at this juncture I have accurately estab-lished my primary proportions such as the relation-ship of the head’s height to width.

The key is to think simply and large. Don’t get trapped into the details, they will mislead you every time. Once the major elements are established placing the features (eyes, nose, etc) are relatively straightforward. Fail to establish the major elements correctly and your drawing will never succeed.

The frontal view of the portrait poses a unique challenge. If you’re not careful you can end up with a flat, 2-dimensional face.

In this close-up view the subtlety of the plane changes demanded careful attention on my part.

The forward tapering sides of the face are critical to achieving the subtle 3-dimensional effect.

From the very simple framework, above, the tapering rectangle can be elaborated upon to more accurately describe the major planes of this head.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the nose has been ignored. And for good reason – it is just an append-age at this point. The planes of the nose are very similar to that of a ‘door-stop’. It is the underlying structure of forms that you should be devoting your sole attention to. The features are for later.

When the head is distilled to this basic matrix, your drawings will have a sculptural, 3-dimen-sional sensibility. It isn’t necessary to draw out the planes (it isn’t a bad idea either, at least for a while), but you must be studying, or at least considering, the plane changes of your model when you are drawing or painting.

I hope this helps you in your portrait drawing and clarifies various issues you may be strug-gling with.

The title of this drawing is Portrait of a Woman. It is drawn with sanguine conte. White conte was used in the face. The paper used was Fabriano Ingres, ivory colored.