How Do I Feel About Drawing the Human Face?

Drawing the human face is something I struggled with during my adolescence. I enjoyed drawing faces of pretty girls and turing them into princesses as a child but it became my belief that if I was going to draw faces and figures as a serious artist they had to look realistic. One of the journal prompts given to us in Suzi Blu's La Serina Mermaid tutorial was this: How do I feel about drawing?

first face drawing on a grid

What was revealed to me in my writing was why I gave up drawing the human face in the first place. At the time, because I couldn't get it right, I imposed a self created belief that went something like this: I can't draw the human form realistically so I give up. I'm just not going to try to draw them anymore. Did you get that? -A self created belief! WOW! That was an eye opener.

2nd drawing with higher nose placement

Perhaps what I didn't understand then was that they don't have to look realistic as long as the proportions were correct.  Shouldn't that have been in the book I was using to study from back then? I think I was so hell bent on realistic that I must have missed that message entirely. Just like so many things in life, we don't hear the message until we're ready for it.

3rd drawing - narrowed eye width

Suzi Blu, Kelly Rae Roberts, and Gritty Jane have made it okay for me to draw pretty faces that don't look photo realistic and use them in my art. The message finally got through and Suzi Blu delivered it in exactly the way I needed to hear it.

eyes only - getting them both the same shape

What you see here are exercises in learning. There are differences in how I approached each face from the standpoint of layout. Those small, subtle changes have made the difference in every face. I am excited about drawing pretty faces again and I'm excited about combining mixed media painting with my paper art.

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