Foreshortening is so difficult to conceptualize at first. At least for me, it was. Though this is a really good video and book that explains how to grasp the concept.
This is so good, I’ve even been seeing so many videos now where they aren’t drawing the contours properly because if you finish the ellipse it doesn’t wrap around the circle 😅
Thank you! That’s awesome. You definitely won’t be disappointed with the book and I’m glad to hear your joining me in this learning process. As to the ellipse, yes it’s amazing how underlining of a form it is and in how many things it appears. When I really understand how the ellipse is and how to draw it, it is integral to so much!
I am currently studying loomi's book on how to draw head and hands in proportions using the loomis method and i am currently struggling on how to visualize the circle and it's subdivided parts to make it a sphere.God bless you sir thx for the help
Try to find ellipses in life and in nature. For example plates, cups, and dishes all have ellipses because they have circles, and an ellipse is basically a circle skewed by perspective. Doing some drawing studies from live observation may help!
The cube you drew is outside the cone on vision. That is why the bottom corner looks like a spike all you have to do is make your vanishing points wider apart.
Yes of course! As I said in the beginning of the videos they aren’t perfect, nor are they meant to be. I made them as I wanted in order to convey the principles of conveying the perspective of the sphere via a cube. Real perspective vanishing points are infinite and far wider spaced apart :)
Ok, so I have a question. And this might seem incredibly, well, dumb. But are you saying that (on the face, for example) that the "lines" created by the features all go to one vanishing point? So the "eye" line should NOT be parallel to, say, the mouth....that just like how the lines used to draw a box converge, so should the lines of the features?
Ok, your video reminded me of a Kim Jung Gi video where (I think) he's trying to explain the same thing you are...but in a slightly different way. Would love to hear what you think. My understanding of it is....basically, even the lines that make up a skull follow perspective. I think Im starting to get it. Or maybe not😂. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--5QIiubr10g.htmlsi=SF-sfRPRaahj8roj
I can see with many comments that there is a desire for a more thorough video on linear perspective and someday when I have the time to do it justice I will, but for now we are just dipping into the theory for the sake of Learning to Draw with “Fun with a Pencil”. Technically the “horizon” Depends on our eye level and where we are looking. Everything gets smaller as it is further from us in every direction. The face has symmetry and parallel properties, and depending on our viewing angle, the features closer to us appear larger and those further appear smaller, but the actual anatomy has horizontality and verticality. That’s to say that yes, in theory when the face is oriented upright, we can draw a vertical line from the midpoint between the eyes to the midpoint of the chin. And like you said the eye line is parallel to the mouth line (when we are talking about the horizontal lines that wrap around the face, like in the Loomis method). Hope that helps!
Reminds me of the scene at the beginning of the Stargate where Jackson is drawing on the board explaining how to find a point in space using six points, after he’s worked out the symbol for the point of origin for Earth. In all seriousness, geometry is definitely not my thing, but that was really helpful. Had to watch the middle section twice until my eyes adjusted and it clicked in my brain. Often I find the eye on the right hand side difficult when drawing people facing to one side slightly and I can’t get it to look right. I hadn’t thought of perspective in the sphere. Light bulb moment. If anyone wants to practice drawing lots of perspective and cubes, I recommend following draw a box. I started last year but got stuck on the 250 cube challenge. I need to start that again, as it was helping. Thanks for the video, I going to keep on drawing. Especially as my hardback copy of Loomis drawing the head and hands arrived yesterday, a great book, definitely worth getting a print copy.
Welcome to the channel! I’m glad you found this video helpful. I need to watch that scene from Stargate lol. Geometry is complex but helpful. I couldn’t agree more on drawing the second eye when the head is tilted, there’s a lot of complex anatomy that appears different depending on the angle. I have that one Loomis’ Drawing the Head and Hands and am looking forward to working from that! Happy drawing :)
A lot was covered in this video. If you break it up into ‘bite size’ pieces just practicing the initial steps until you are comfortable then move on you will more easily follow what he is teaching.
Great video thanks! I’m keeping up with you and have completed these pages. It’s lovely to look back through my sketchbook and see the progress over the weeks.
Thanks! I got in the habit of placing the ear too LOW -right below the senter line -causing me to elongate the chin and place the mouth incorrectly sometimes.
You’re welcome! I’m glad this video was helpful for you. The ear placement is challenging for a number of reasons: variation in ear size (depending on the individual subject being drawn), apparent change in size (due to viewing the subject from too close vs. farther away), and the apparent change in position (based off the angle/tilt of the head or viewing angle). That’s why it’s so helpful to have a method like this with axis and rules about placement that represent a consistent form despite rotation/tilt/angle change. That, combined with a lot of practice, learning to see by drawing, and through time and practice, recognizing the same patterns of forms and how they behave when all the variables change are what ultimately allow us to gain mastery in drawing them.
I’m glad to hear this was a helpful video for you. Hehe the ellipse is challenging but if you follow the technique with rectangle/square, drawing the ellipse within and not being afraid of having the curves come close to the inner corners you will have unlocked a sure way of drawing the ellipse (and in any perspective)!
I do not have the words to describe how genuinely ashamed I am to have been struggling with drawing humans for as long as I have.... and I never thought to freaking practice proportions and building figures with basic shapes by using rice paper over actual portraits...
Hello! I hear you, but there’s nothing to be ashamed about. Drawing people is the greatest challenge and we are always learning! I’m glad to hear this video was helpful for you :) welcome to the channel and happy drawing!
So the fact that you showed the side plane extending all the way to the orbit of the eye helped me immensely! I was drawing it far narrower and as a result in 3/4 views my chins were way too long. Thanks again!
@@Johnmccoyart It's really amazing how well it actually worked out as far as proportions. I've been meaning to do this myself with magazines, but all the magazines at the store are like $14 lol. But it totally worked on your pics!
Yes, it worked out really well! Yep magazines can be expensive, it’s better just to use some of your own pictures or if just for practice some license free images off the web
A side note. The stick figure that people think of as being how children draw is not natural but learned. They are literally taught or learn to draw that way by watching examples.
Hi, watching from the UK. Just got to this page of working through Fun with a pencil. Nice to be now attempting realistic female heads, but I agree it’s more complex, especially the hair. I will definitely need a lot of practice on this.
Buenos días, admiro su acción de enseñar a dibujar. Mi edad es de 64 años y siempre he querido desarrollar las técnicas de dibujo y estoy aprovechando sus explicaciones que considero muy valiosas y tomando en consideración el esfuerzo bien logrado en español. Muchas gracias y seguiré hasta lograr dominar esta tecnica
I like the modern look of comics and cartooning, however, this book is based off of older looking stuff which is not my style, how can I use this book to still learn and apply to the way modern stylized, comic or cartooning?
Welcome to the channel. That’s okay! First I would say that this lesson is an introduction and that the subsequent lessons lead us towards learning the divided ball and plane method which is widely used by artists with more modern styles. So if you stick around and follow along you will be learning one of the most widely used drawing techniques for faces and heads that exists. Secondly I would say that you can already exercise a more modern style even starting in this first lesson if you like. The style is largely determined by what type of features you may draw over the shapes. The shapes are here to give overall form and help with placement of features and symmetry. I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions.
@@Johnmccoyart Thank you for the reply, I have the book, so I will stick around and go through the series with you, can you do a video demonstrating the ball and plan method with a more modern stylize comic/cartoon look, but also can you do a video using the first lesson to create a modern look. Thanks again, I told another artist about your channel.
I watched a video recently, can't remember exactly what the take away was in detail but the gist of it was that an ellipse doesn't have it's center in it's center.. the center of an ellipse is slightly off center and I was watching your video wondering how that plays into this practice, is it something that just happens naturally or? Because I feel mine always end up having theirs centers in the center of the ellipse and that's why they don't look right but I'm not sure what I'm missing when pencil hits paper
An ellipse has a major and minor axis (an axis is like a diameter dividing the ellipse in 2 equal parters) the two axis are perpendicular at the center and the center is always at the center of the ellipse. The major axis is the longer one and the minor axis is the shorter one. So you are correct to imagine or draw the center as residing in the center. You can always look up a picture of the diagram of an ellipse as well to help. I hope that makes sense! If you have any questions let me know!
I think it was Walt Disney who said drawing pretty women was the most difficult. If I could add a couple of points to also watch out for from my experience. People tend to make eyes too large as you’ve pointed out in past videos and that’s especially true in drawing women. You need to watch that pupils are parallel. And last common mistake in drawing women is over emphasizing the amount of hair. Great video as always!
So, your comment at 09:05 really helped me out a lot. The thing is, there are "guidelines" to so much on the Loomis head. I expected some sort of guideline (or, as you said, mathematical way) of figuring out how to draw the side plane. I now look at it like a glass or cup....if you look at it as it faces you directly, it will appear to be a circle. If you begin to angle it away, it becomes an ellipse. So now I am thinking of the ellipse representing the side plane in the same way....if you are drawing a profile of a person, the side plane would be a near circle. But as soon as the person begins to quarter away from you, the ellipses' minor axis changes and the ellipse gets "narrower". I get it now! Thank you!
👏🏼 that’s wonderful! The glass/cup is a perfect 3D object for viewing how a circle changes into an elipse based off viewing angle. I’m so happy for you and honored to have been able to help with these videos. Happy drawing!
@@Johnmccoyart Might I offer a recommendation for future videos? And I'm going to try this for myself, but would like to see someone like you (with much more skill than me) do the same. And that is, what if you got pictures of people (like from a magazine) and drew the Loomis head on top of them? Has anybody else tried this?! And maybe also add the Asaro rhythms. It could work! I know it sounds kind of corny to trace on photos, but it seems to me that it'd be a good way to learn what Loomis was trying to teach!
For those of you interested in a video of drawing the Loomis method over photographs take a look at my video: “Divided Ball & Plane Method over Photographs”
