On Saturday our job was to catch the likeness of a portrait printed in black and white.
FEATURES VERSUS LIKENESS:
We practised looking differently at faces, to look at the head and shoulders as shapes and patterns, not individual features. Our brain maps the features of the head in the same way as it would a continent. The outline of Africa is the context for the puzzle pieces of all its countries, and so also the shape of the head/shoulders is the context for the smaller shapes of the individual features.
There is a difference between observing the context of the shapes (of the features), and the detail of the features. How big, tall, wide or small they are and where they fit in the broader shape in relationship to each other.
Firstly capture the biggest shapes, observe what is distinctive about them before looking at the various features that fill the broad outline shape. We have to tackle capturing a likeness the same way our brain recognises people, it recognises a unique combination of shapes and patterns. Test this by looking at an old fuzzy family photo wher one can still make out who is who simply by recognising the broad shapes of the face. The particular shape of an eye socket shadow, nose and mouth shadows and the proportion of the head as a whole, whether it is tall or wide, square or heart shaped. Without any detail visible in those shadows – that shape will still be recognisable as a specific person.
Interresting fact:
Heads get bigger and smaller, but the eyes stay the same size. We often draw eyes and the iris too big.
(Credit: Gary Faigin from “Craftsy”)
