Seeing shapes, not faces
- Turn your drawing upside down and force yourself to search for and draw the spaces around or adjacent to facial features.
- Simplify shapes
Simple Geometric Shapes
Make drawing easy. Look for the circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, and triangles that make up everything you see.
Choose one:
2. Draw a 1/2 grid over a photograph. Create a 1" grid in
your sketchbook. Transfer the image in the form
of basic geometric shapes only.
3. Cut your magazine or photo into the basic shapes.
Rearrange them and glue them in your sketchbook on one
side and draw them on the other side.
Choose one:
- Take a marker and practice drawing basic shapes over magazine pictures or 8 x 10 photographs. Do 5-10
2. Draw a 1/2 grid over a photograph. Create a 1" grid in
your sketchbook. Transfer the image in the form
of basic geometric shapes only.
3. Cut your magazine or photo into the basic shapes.
Rearrange them and glue them in your sketchbook on one
side and draw them on the other side.
What does is mean to see only shapes?
Beginning artists do not consistently draw accurate shapes of their subjects. When drawing people or faces they simplify and organize them into symbols similar to those in the pictures above and below.
Symbols persist until unsatisfied artists make a conscious decision
and practice with Herculean effort to draw what they see.
Why is it so difficult at first?
It has nothing to do with one's talent which many inspiring drawers believe they lack enough of. It's all about the left side of our brain, the symbol-making, analytical side that prevents us from making progress. Luckily, there are ways to override the left and switch over to the right side, which is where visual/spacial processing occurs and the ability to create resides. This is the part of the brain that allows us to see and draw the shapes that are really there.
Shape Drawing Strategy #1
Draw the negative shapes
Click here to view a hand drawing tutorial that uses the negative shape strategy.
Mike Sibley defines negative space
"NEGATIVE SPACE Negative Drawing involves the conscious creation of negative space so let’s study that first. The brain would seem by all accounts to store memory in the form of images, and these images, or symbols, are the mainstay of the it’s defence mechanism. Matching to stored, standard symbols offers a very speedy classification system. However, as artists, this facility works against us, because our brains automatically overlay the images we see with a range of symbols. This effectively disables the ability to produce realistic drawing because the information gathered is so basic – and often inaccurate if the brain’s ‘guess’ was incorrect.
Fortunately, there are many ways of fooling the brain into letting go of the desire to match symbols, to classify, during the act of drawing. For example, working faster than you can think serves to disable the argumentative side of your brain, which struggles to keep up and then loses interest.
To learn to see what is really there and not what you think is there, you need to take your brain’s automatic reaction out of the equation. Believe me, learning to see correctly really is a hard lesson to learn but the best way involves fooling your brain into not recognising the troublesome features. Fortunately, we have Negative Space as a supreme tool."
This description comes from:
Creative Spotlight
Fortunately, there are many ways of fooling the brain into letting go of the desire to match symbols, to classify, during the act of drawing. For example, working faster than you can think serves to disable the argumentative side of your brain, which struggles to keep up and then loses interest.
To learn to see what is really there and not what you think is there, you need to take your brain’s automatic reaction out of the equation. Believe me, learning to see correctly really is a hard lesson to learn but the best way involves fooling your brain into not recognising the troublesome features. Fortunately, we have Negative Space as a supreme tool."
This description comes from:
Creative Spotlight
This example comes from Connie Nelson's website Explore-Drawing-and-Painting.com
A negative space in drawing also can be found within “solid” objects, and they do not have to be enclosed.For instance, take a look at the sketch of an angel from “Virgin of the Rocks” by Leonardo da Vinci.
If asked to draw her face, most people will draw an oval outline first and place all the features within that shape. And somewhere along the way they get stuck, unable to get the likeness right.
But with your newfound knowledge of negative space, you can spot those intricate spaces between and among the edges and lines and add those shapes to the solid shapes that have already been placed.
By placing pockets of negative spaces as accurately as you can in relationship to the whole, your contour drawing of the angel will come easily. You are not only looking at the lines (edges) that frame her face, you are also working “inside out” by isolating and framing the shapes within the larger outline of her face.By paying attention to the surrounding spaces when you draw the edges of the nose, eye lids, and mouth, you will achieve a good likeness of your portrait subjects.
I use this technique a lot when I do portraits. You will be amazed at how the most minute change or shift in adjacent shapes changes the whole face. If drawing a portrait has been a struggle for you, then mastering negative space drawing is a vital tool to learn.
If asked to draw her face, most people will draw an oval outline first and place all the features within that shape. And somewhere along the way they get stuck, unable to get the likeness right.
But with your newfound knowledge of negative space, you can spot those intricate spaces between and among the edges and lines and add those shapes to the solid shapes that have already been placed.
By placing pockets of negative spaces as accurately as you can in relationship to the whole, your contour drawing of the angel will come easily. You are not only looking at the lines (edges) that frame her face, you are also working “inside out” by isolating and framing the shapes within the larger outline of her face.By paying attention to the surrounding spaces when you draw the edges of the nose, eye lids, and mouth, you will achieve a good likeness of your portrait subjects.
I use this technique a lot when I do portraits. You will be amazed at how the most minute change or shift in adjacent shapes changes the whole face. If drawing a portrait has been a struggle for you, then mastering negative space drawing is a vital tool to learn.