Thanks, Liandro!

Hi Arnaud. The likeness is pretty good in the final sketch. But some more practice carefully drawing the abstraction would be helpful, I think. Its big problem is the main vertical center line of the face. You drew it projecting far off the front of the face. Or perhaps you just did not draw the eyes and nose rhythms in the proper relationship to the center line. Either way, the center line should represent the front plane of the face. It should touch the entire length of the forehead, then it should touch the septum of the nose, where it meets the upper lip and then should end at the front plane of the chin. And the eyes should sit equal distance from the center line (but with perspective taken into consideration when the head is turned away, as in this drawing). Also, the final sketch does not feel very final. It seems more like a loose rough sketch. Partly because of the problems with your construction, but also because of the quick, spontaneous feeling to the line work. Maybe the quick spontaneous look is what your goal is here. I'm not sure. But if you want to do more realistic painted caricatures, the final drawing should have more attention paid to the quality of the shapes. And you will need to shade them more like a painter and less like an inker. The more you practice tonal drawing techniques, the better prepared you will be to move into color painting.

Hi Arnaud. The Abstraction sketch is pretty well done. It's clean and easy to see your construction rhythm lines. However, I think you would benefit from adding horizontal rhythm lines for the central axis of the eyes and also the line of the mouth opening. And maybe for the small circular nodes at the corners of the mouth. Because in your final drawing of John, the eyes are not aligned properly with the angle of the head. And the mouth is not centered well under the nose. Smiles can often be crooked. But if it is an accident and you didn't mean to make it crooked, you should go back and do your abstraction more carefully. Remember, the purpose of the abstraction is to help map the face and place the features in the correct positions and orientation, relative to the angle of the head. Also, his nose does not look to be at the correct angle in your drawing. It seems to be pointed down to the left too much. And his head seems to be looking slightly to the right.

Thanks, Mr. Bill!

Thanks, Zoungy!

Sorry I just now saw this post. In your original drawing it appears that all the facial features line up with each other. But the eye on the left is very close to the nose while the eye on the right is much farther from the nose. In your abstraction, it looks like you moved the eye on the left higher, so it's not aligned with the other features any more. Also, in the abstraction, you did not correct the distance of the eyes from the nose. Look at the muzzle rhythm. On the right side, the eye sits just outside of the muzzle rhythm. Which is good. But the eye on the left is placed well inside the muzzle area. So it doesn't match the placement of the other eye in relation to the center line of the face. Remember to abide by the guide lines you create with the abstraction. Don't draw the rhythm lines and then simply ignore them. Personally, I think it's the eye on the right that's drawn too far out from the nose. The eye on the left should probably stay where it is.