Face Characteristics

        Hello everyone, and welcome to my last blog! As my final blog, I decided to do something more challenging - the face. Since I felt that my skills are still not strong enough to draw an entire face, I decided to just focus on a part of the face instead.
        Because everyone's faces are alike yet so different, it's hard to make a portrait actually look like your model. I decided to focus on the nose and lips. Garcia, in her book shows that a nose isn't as easy to draw as it seems, "Since you're apt to focus on eyes and mouths more often than on noses, take a really careful look at the feature before you start drawing" (Garcia 114). It may be hard, but it's a start. 


The nose and lips I drew

        What I drew above is not anyone's in particular, it's just what I drew to try and make it look somewhat like a real nose and lips. Again, I used the advice of Claire Watson Garcia to help me draw this. In her book she advises to start at the bridge of the nose, then go on to the fleshy end, to the base, and finally to the nostrils of the nose (Garcia 115). You can't see it in my end drawing, but I started as she said, at the bridge of the nose. First, I made a line, but once I had the whole nose drawn out, I went back and adjusted the bridge of the nose, making it more gradual, like it's connected. With the lips, I made sure to use what I learned about shadows from my third blog. I also added creases along the lips, to make it more realistic, similarly like I did with the drawing of my hand. At the corners of the mouth, I also added the little creases, making the appearance of the mouth being tied in a bit.
        Overall, this IRP blog project has definitely helped me become a better artist, from sketching, to shading, to the face. Through this I think I also have found myself a new hobby, because I noticed that I may have a slight talent. As I have seen evidently through this project, practice helps you get better, by a lot!


        How did you enjoy this IRP project? Do you also feel that you've gotten better through even just these 5 posts?


Garcia, Claire Watson. Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner. New York,

     Watson-Guptill Publications, 2003.