How to Draw the Head from Extreme Angles

Lesson by

Mark as Completed

Assignments 195Lesson NotesDownloads 2

How to Draw the Head from Extreme Angles

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Portrait Drawing Fundamentals

Mark as Completed

Assignments 195Lesson NotesDownloads 2

Draw the Loomis Head - Extreme Angles

Now you can draw the head from ANY angle. Start by drawing some extreme head angles from imagination. Test yourself to see if you fully understand the loomis head forms. Then check your work with the 3D Loomis Head model. Practice drawing a few more angles by placing the model in angles you are having trouble with. The goal is to challenge yourself and overcome your weaknesses.

Amani Noor (Amu)

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5mo

I had a some trouble with the eyes on the side tilt. Any advice on that would be appreciated!

@artcart

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4mo

Amu, very nice drawings! Regarding the eyes on the side tilt, I think it may be an alignment issue. If I hold up a straight edge such as a pencil to the line of the lips and the line under the. nose and then carry up to the eyes, that is where I see the eyes are not in total alignment. For example, I think the indentation by the left eye may be too low and the left brow lower than the right. Try it and you might see what I mean.

Brandon

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5mo

line quality is good as always, for eyes in different angles, I think u can imagine the eyes as an oval with different degree(we learnt that in basic course) when u re doing head studies. Although I don't see any issues in the side tilt, except for the neck(stretching side) could be less curvier to emphasize it's stretching, you can do a tracing, focus on the eyes for the side tilt to find the oval. Hope that helps.

faye zhang

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7mo

I tried my best and my inadequate perspective knowledge might be the problem, but can someone tell me if these are okay? I have no clue where the edges of the circle should be in these pics. I try to draw a circle, and sometimes parts of the head or the face don’t fit in it. I.e. in the pic where Stan is looking down, I had to draw the circle lower, but then the top of the head isn’t included anymore.

Melanie Scearce

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7mo

I think the issue could be that you aren't covering the entirety of the head with your boxes/loomis head. Remember that the center point of the side plane is also the mid point of the entire head. Hope this helps!

WS R

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7mo

great

Vera Robson

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8mo

I understand how having some sort of scaffolding helps with drawing portraits, but when I try to fit a real person into a Loomis head, every time I feel like I am cheating. Maybe I should have done imaginary heads in this section, but I don't have enough experience to draw heads from imagination.

Gannon Beck

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8mo

As Glenn Vilppu says: "No rules--only tools." You can't cheat if there are no rules, so horde these drawing tools with abandon! Very nice drawing here. I'm looking forward to seeing your continued progress.

Rachel Dawn Owens

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8mo

Beautiful drawing!

Vera Robson

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8mo

I have realised that I was struggling with these heads because I misunderstood the construction of orthogonal slices on the sphere. I used up half a sketchbook trying to understand why my construction lines don't meet 🤦🏼‍♀️ I so much look forward to the new perspective course!

@sharpjab

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9mo

So I tried sketching heads from extreme angle from reference. I realised I don’t know how to handle areas in shadow without going into shading and details especially for extreme angles. So I tried to create heads from less extreme angles from imagination. I can see when I draw out of imagination I don’t face the shadow area problem because I’m not drawing considering any particular source of light.

@ollieb137

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1yr

CAMERA ANGLE Am I right in saying that as we change the view of the loomis head 3D model, it isn't actually the 3d model that's rotating but the camera's position that's changing? As Stan mentions in this video, if the head tilts up or down the centre line will be at an angle (more noticeable from a slight side view), however, if it is the camera that's changing position - above or below the head - the centre line will remain vertical. As you rotate the model, the centreline remains vertical (sometimes slightly angled due to foreshortening). Please correct me if I'm wrong!! I'm still learning :)

@colinml

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1yr

I don't know if this is the answer to your question, but I have been confused by the 3d model because you can't position it in the pose that Stan often uses in these videos. Your question lead me to realize that the reason is that, in Stan's examples, he is, indeed, tilting the center line off of vertical, while the model cannot do this (it remains vertical, or nearly so, no matter the position). The screen captures show a grab from the video in this lesson, and a grab from the model in as close a position as I could get it to other grab. Note the difference in tilt of center line.

Jack Mills

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1yr

Extreme Angle sketches.

@dcordes

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1yr

Pretty difficult exercise. Heads themselves were not too difficult, but their attachment to the neck could use greater instruction.

@grugrugru

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1yr

First and third page from imagination went better than expected. Real life reference was harder than I thought. The ones with circled numbers I had more trouble with. Critique or advice is appreciated :) challenging exercise this one.

Jesper Axelsson

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1yr

Nice! It might help to pay more attention to the overall shape of the head. In #16 you've drawn the shape less compressed than it is in the photo. What's your art goal? Drawing like animators might help a lot if you want to draw from imagination. In these drawings https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/508/2740/1600/ariel04.jpg by Glenn Keane, the character is built with large shapes. Starting with that, the major shape that you then break down, working outside in, is something I've found to work better when drawing from imagination than working inside out, arriving at the shape through a construction method. You might appreciate this lesson video How Animators Use Basic Shapes with Aaron Blaise Cheers!

@ern1s

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2yr

Hi guys, sorry for bad quality pic, its the best i could get from my scanner. I struggle to understand where to position and what size i should draw cranium. Hit and miss every time for me.. any suggestions?

Martha Muniz

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2yr

Hi there! Since we start drawing the head with the cranium, it's more of the surrounding shapes we add that influence whether it feels in proportion, and we can use the cranium as a base for those measurements. You seem to have good proportions already though, so the only thing to work on would be the alignment/placement of the landmarks together. It helps to think about the shape of the head as whole simplified into a box, with each side of the box representing a side of the head. You can practice starting out with a box, then drawing in the head, or just using a box to check your work. Boxing things up helps find and correct perspective mistakes, which is key to making a drawing appear believably three-dimensional. Below is a quick drawover and an image from the first head drawing lesson. Hope this helps!

S R

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2yr

Nine from imagination and nine referring to the 3D model. Low angles are very difficult, I think I might be drawing the front of the face too long.

*Reworking Profile* From The Game.

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2yr

20/8/2023 How about more?

*Reworking Profile* From The Game.

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2yr

20/8/2023 Some More.

*Reworking Profile* From The Game.

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2yr

20/8/2023 And more.

*Reworking Profile* From The Game.

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2yr

20/8/2023 Posting some left extra angles I didn’t know I had.

@nightfall

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2yr

extreme angles, i dont have enough time to draw today so this looks messy

Marco Sordi

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2yr

2023/8/15. Good afternoon everybody. Just having fun with some extreme angles head study. The last one is the worst case to me: almost front view but upward looking face. What’s your worst case? I’d like to know😉 Thanks and have a good evening.