Starving Artist Forum

 
My page is completed and submitted and will appear in the latest version of this clever diary. Click above or the following link to get more information regarding this idea and pre-ordering. There are still a few spaces open.

http://www.fantazya.ca/diary2011.html

Ingredients:

1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup white glue

• Projects can be air dried.
• Dries like china or fine porcelain
• You may color, but will have to decrease the glue content a bit or need to add more starch. It is also possible to paint after dry.
• Applying hand cream before working it will create smoother creations
• Skewer to create beads
• Dries in 2 days or cures in oven (Heat to 350 degrees then turn off and place in oven while it cools
• Can also be used to make rigid molds, they will create smaller pieces than original due to shrinkage

The Major Planes

When drawing the nose, I’ll usually start by indicating the 4 major planes - top, 2 sides, and bottom. Getting the angles of these planes correct is important to show the proper perspective of the nose in relationship to the rest of the head. Keeping it this simple in the beginning helps to ignore the details and focus only on the width to height relationship of the entire shape of the nose and to compare it to the rest of the features. Once the big shapes and the perspective are solved, it’s much easier to add the details on top.

Anatomical Information

I think the anatomical shapes in the nose are really interesting. It’s made up of interlocking pieces of cartilage and fat attached to the bone of the skull. Half of the bridge of the nose is bone and the other half is cartilage. The lateral cartilage on the bridge wedges between the two pieces that make up the ball of the nose. The nostrils connect to the ball like curled wings.

Bridge The bridge of the nose is composed of the nasal bone, maxilla, and lateral cartilage. The nasal bone connects to the brow ridge at the glabella. The edge of the nasal bone and lateral cartilage has a thin, sharp ridge as it transitions to the side plane and then connects to the maxilla. The maxilla is usually slightly convex and gently transitions to the cheeks.

Ball The ball of the nose (Greater Alar Cartilage) is actually made up of two halves with the lateral cartilage wedging between the two. This separation of the two halves is not always visible. The cartilage curves downward and tucks under itself to connect to the skull.

Nostrils The nostrils (Alar Fat), made of fatty connective tissue are like wings attached to the ball of the nose. Viewed from the bottom, the nostrils connect to the face further back then the septum because of the protrusion of the tooth cylinder.

The Minor Planes

It’s important to memorize the subtle plane changes in all the different part of the nose. These subtle plane changes are usually seen as halftone shapes which to the untrained eye appear to be random. Once familiar with the minor planes, you can easily figure out what each halftone shape represents and how to design it in your drawing.

Minor Planes of the Bridge

The Glabella is shaped like a keystone. This keystone shape is slanted downward and will usually have some halftone on it connecting the eye sockets together. Immediately after the glabella, the nasal bone turns upward and then back down after the connection to the lateral cartilage. This area of connection between the nasal bone and lateral cartilage tends to be the widest part of the bridge and also creates a subtle ‘bump’ seen from the side.

Minor Planes of the Ball

The ball of the nose isn’t perfectly round, but has very distinct plane changes. It has a top, front, and bottom plane as the septum curls under itself and connects to the skull. The side plane acts as a step down to the nostril. The shape of the greater alar cartilage varies drastically from person to person. It can be soft, chiseled, large and bulbous, thin and pointy etc…

Minor planes of the Nostrils

The nostrils, also called wings, curl under themselves similar to the septum. The nostrils are not paper thin, so an indication of the front planes is crucial to give them some thickness. Don’t forget to show the curve by separating the top and side planes, usually with a gradation of tone.
The hole of the nostrils often appears as a sideways comma shape with a sharp edge at the top, and softer edge at the bottom.

Drawing the Nose

The reference photo.

1. I start drawing the nose the same way I start drawing anything: analyze the biggest shape first. Make sure the placement on the face is correct and that the size and shape is working in relation to the other features. What’s the point in drawing any details if the underlying drawing is crooked, too big, and in the wrong place?

2. When I’m happy with the big shape I’ve established, I will lay-in some of the smaller plane indications and some anatomical information. All my lines at this point are very light, so that I’m able to easily erase them when making adjustments.

3. When beginning to shade, the first thing I do is separate the lights from the shadows. Stay simple and don’t lose control of your values.

4. At this final stage I’ll use a lot of the information we learned about the minor planes of the nose to shade in subtle halftone shifts in the light areas and reflected lights in the shadows. I try to visualize the interlocking anatomical shapes and make sure all the volumes look accurate:

Related tutorials: How to Draw Lips, How to Draw Eyes and How to Draw Ears

This tutorial is a continuation of How to Draw the Head from Any Angle. I will go over the structure of the eye and detailed information on drawing the brow ridge, eyeball, eyelids, eyelashes, iris, cornea, and pupil.

The Basic Forms

As with the head, it’s important to understand the basic structure of the eye and the brow ridge. The brow ridge can be simplified to a box tilted back slightly. The front plane of the box represents the forehead and the bottom plane represents the plane directly beneath the eyebrows. The eye itself is a simple sphere that sits under this box.

The Eyeball

The part of the eyeball that is visible (technical term is Sclera) is commonly called the ‘white of the eye’. However, a common mistake is to literally make it white. The eye ball is a round volume and it needs to be shaded like one. Depending on the light source, usually a gradient on one side or both will do the trick.

The biggest mistake you can make is to leave the ‘white of the eye’ white, when the entire eye is in shadow. That makes it look as if the eye is glowing. Not good…

The Iris, Cornea, and Pupil

Structure of the Iris and Cornea

The iris and cornea sit on the eyeball like two bowls. The iris is a slightly concave bowl (like a crater) and the cornea is a convex bowl (like a hill). The cornea is much like a transparent contact lens, so the iris and pupil are visible behind it. The shape and angle of the iris is commonly overlooked. It will only be a perfect circle from front view. When the eye moves around, the shape becomes an oval and the angle changes depending on the direction of the gaze:

The further the iris is from center, the narrower the oval will become.

To find the angle of the oval, draw a straight line from the center of the eyeball to the iris. The angle will be perpendicular to this line.

The Pupil

It’s important to remember that the pupil is on the iris, not the cornea. In fact, the pupil is a hole in the iris that lets light in. The pupil dilates to let in more light and contracts to let in less light. So, when drawing the pupil from a side angle, be sure to draw it on the iris.

Shading the Iris, Cornea, and Pupil

Understanding the structure of these forms is important for when you start shading them. The pupil is easy. Its always a black dot on the iris. When we describe the color of someone’s eyes, we are describing the color of the iris. The iris must be shaded like a concave form. If the light source is from the top, the bottom of the iris will be lit. If the light source is from the left, the right side of the iris will be lit, and so on… The cornea will be the exact opposite, because it is a convex form. This is easier to understand with an image:

Since the cornea is transparent, the only part that will be visible is the highlight. So, an easier way to remember all this is… The highlight on the cornea will usually be on the dark part of the iris.

The Eyelids

Eyelids Are Not Flat

Try not to draw the eye lids as if they are flat on the face. The eyelids must wrap around the eyeball. Think of two beanies on a soccer ball.

Also, the lids have some thickness to them, so showing the bottom plane of the top lid and the top plane of the bottom lid is very important. If the light source is above the eye, as it usually is, the top lid will have a shadow on its bottom plane and the bottom lid will have a highlight on its top plane.

The Shape of the Eyelids

The shape of the opening between the eyelids is one that confuses most of us at one point or another. It’s complex and it changes as the eye moves. From the front, in a relaxed position, it looks something like this:

Notice the angle of the peaks. The top lid peaks closer to the nose, while the bottom lid peaks closer to the ear. Do not draw a generic goldfish cracker. The tear duct shape also adds some complexity. It is not centered between the lids, but is a bit lower towards the bottom lid.
From the side, the shape resembles a triangle with the cornea poking out. The tear duct is hidden at this angle since it is behind the eyeball.
Another factor that will change the shape of the lids is the cornea. Since it is a convex form, as the cornea moves it will push the lids out. Notice how the shape of the lids changes as the eye moves.

Eyelashes

The trick with eyelashes is to simplify them. I like to group them together into chunks and draw them as simple dark shapes. From the front, the dark shape of the lashes will merge with the dark shadow under the top lid. If the lashes are long and curl up enough to be seen as individual lashes, still try to simplify them rather than drawing each lash. I like to draw them blurry as if they are out of focus. From the side, the shape is like a curly triangle.

The Brow Ridge

The brow ridge acts like an awning to protect the eye. Similarly, the top lid extends forward further than the bottom lid. The eyebrows sit on the brow-ridge and peak towards the outer end. The outside ends tend to be lighter, thinner, and have less hair than the inside ends. The shape of the eyebrows varies from person to person. Men tend to have fuller and straighter types while women have thinner types that peak higher.