Constructive drawing of a human head:
Tone pattern of human head Automatic translate

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Tone pattern of human head

We turn to the second part of the work on the drawing of the model of the human head. This part is a logical continuation of the work on the volume of the shape of the head, its character through light and tone.

Light directed to the form has the property of being reflected from it. The strength of the reflected light depends on the position of the portion of the form relative to the light source and you (that is, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection), as well as the ability to receive and reflect light. This ability is different for objects, it depends on the texture of the object, its materiality, color in lightness.

The item may have a matte or polished surface, be made of glass, be light or dark. All this greatly affects the strength of the reflected light. The lightest (highlights) will be the sections of the form to which the light rays directed from the source fit perpendicularly (that is, they abut against the surface of the form). Where the rays of light from the source glide over the surface of the form (halftone), it is less illuminated. Gypsum is a white (in color) and porous (in texture) material that can well retain light rays.

An important feature of the constructive tone pattern is that the object (and in this task is the human head) is in an environment that has its own state. In a constructive linear drawing, the lines are in the space of the sheet, in the tonal drawing, the volumes of the head shape are in the created environment.

Your goal is tone painting. Return to the completed sketch. In the sketch for a constructive tone drawing without a background, you found the size of the tone spot of the head pattern proportional to the space of the paper sheet; then in the tone spot they found the amount of dark tone corresponding to their own shadow in the figure of a person’s head, the amount of light and halftone.

We got a number of harmonious, proportional tone relationships. A deeper knowledge in the field of harmony of proportions can be obtained by studying such an object as the “foundations of composition”. Recall: harmony is the agreement of the parts of the whole, and in regular proportions.

Proceed to the tonic study of the shape of the human head. Strengthen the tone of your own shadows of forms, trying to bring them to a generalized integral state, thereby laying a tone spot that is harmonious, proportional to other spots in the composition of the picture. Building the harmony of tone spots, you build the tone structure of the composition of the picture.

It’s best to start with a dark spot, because by determining the limit of possibility of a graphite pencil, you set the tone scale. Such a scale gives the layout of the tone, from the lightest to the darkest. The more black and white spots are removed from each other on the scale, the more spots of halftone relations will arise between them, the more possibilities of modeling the form in the light.

The lightest tone is the tone of the paper. But it will not be possible for you to convey the true aperture of nature and the whole palette of tone relationships. Therefore, limiting yourself to the scale of possibilities of tone (which depends on the materials of the picture), you will simply strive to truthfully convey the tone relations in the picture (or illusion).

Next, connect the halftone. Follow from general to particular, expanding the range of tone possibilities for modeling the shape of the head. You already laid the tonal design of the picture when you introduced a partial tone horizontally and vertically relative to the light source. Now there is not enough plasticity of forms.

Get the illusion of volume as you did by drawing geometric shapes like a ball, cylinder, and others. They are similar to the forms that make up the human head. To the right of chiaroscuro (if the light source is on the left) is a shadow, reflex, contour line. To the left of the chiaroscuro is a semitone, tone, highlight, contour line. Also remember the aerial perspective!

Reminder: Avoid the falling shadows that destroy the shapes they fall on. Use only those shadows that reveal the plastic form. If the destructive role of falling shadows cannot be avoided in any way, then the line of the contour of the shadows needs to be blurred, in extreme cases, change the position of the light source.

Performing a constructive tone drawing of a person’s head with the inclusion of a background in the composition, you also previously completed the sketch. Mark the generalized shape of the person’s head on the sheet, according to the selected sketch, on which you found the proportional relationship between the spot of the illuminated part of the head and the background, the shadow part of the head and the background, the shadow part of the head and its illuminated part. Find, checking with nature, the proportional ratio of height to width in the intended figure. Draw a midline center line and find proportional segments on it that correspond to the size of the forehead, front, skull, lower jaw, and so on.

Draw the auxiliary transverse center lines through the points marked on the midline of the line. All of them are carried out taking into account the perspective and symmetry of the face. Next, determine the proportional relationship vertically as well as horizontally.

On the horizontal centerlines, find the width of the front pads of the head shape and build them. Then go to the third dimension and build the shape of the head in space, observing the proportions; get a constructive basis for the shape of the head.

Make sure that the position of the drawn base of the human head in space and the proportions are correct, continue the constructive drawing of the parts of the form (they can be the nose, eyes, lips, and so on). Gradually more detailed in these parts, without destroying the whole, bring the drawing to a complete constructive solution. Keep track of linear and aerial perspectives; in the process of working on a constructive pattern of the head, you can enter lighting (it will help to more clearly identify the volume of the form and its position in space).

After completing the constructive linear drawing of the human head, proceed to the constructive tone drawing of the human head from the shadow. Modeling the volume of the head shape is carried out almost the same way as you led it, drawing the head without turning on the background. With the addition of a background image for the head, the problem of tonal relationships appears. It is necessary to correctly convey these relations between the illuminated part of the head, the shadow part and the background.

Introducing a tone into the background and getting rid of a significant proportion of the light spot, we thereby create the effect of the glow of the illuminated part of the head. This effect also works on the transfer of material gypsum form.

After modeling the form with light and shadow, proceed to its generalization. Pay attention if the whole does not crumble from the recounting of details, highlights, reflexes; look at the model, slightly squinting your eyes, as you did when working on the still-life drawing. You will see a generalized state of the model and how the form plunged into the environment.

At this stage of the drawing, it is very useful to look at the works of old masters, not only graphic, but also picturesque. Understanding and realizing the role of tone construction in the formation of the compositional space of a sheet, you are sure to make discoveries for yourself, because you will see these works in a new way.

So, to summarize and see what stages the process of creating a constructive drawing of a person’s head consisted of.

Stages of a constructive drawing of a human head:

1. Composite search of graphic space of a picture;

2. Work on the proportional relations of parts and the whole in the figure;

3. Constructive analysis of the shape of the human head in space;

4. Constructive construction of a generalized form of the human head in sheet space;

5. Constructive study of details in the figure, submission of parts to the whole;

6. Partial introduction of tone, revealing the volume of the shape of the head with light;

7. Black and white modeling of the shape of the head;

8. Determination of the tone design of the picture;

9. The tonal solution of the volume of the human head in space according to the tone design;

10. Generalization, completion of the figure.