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Portraits

Creating portraits is not easy. Much experience is needed to quickly assess the basic configuration of  head, and face, the relations in-between eye-brow and eye, nose and lips, mouth and chin, the form of the eyes, of  

the nostrils, of the lips. Resemblance requires perfect proportions, and finally to draw fast and accurate is a must, as most positions can only be kept for a rather short period of time.

To establish a firm frame-work of points of repair is therefore essential.

The outer contour of the face can mostly be defined by the cross-points in-between mandible and neck (or shoulder) and the exterior end of the eye-brows (fig 2b). Two additional points may be needed as a base to draw the nose (fig 2c), followed by four points defining the corners of the mouth and the interior positions of the end of the lids (fig 2d).

The basic set of points of repair (blue) together with some additional points (red) defining the outlay of the head is shown in Fig 3b.

Once the framework of repair is established and verified, the artistic intent should take the lead. Photo-documentation is highly advisable, if there is any doubt that the drawing or painting cannot be created in a single session.

Free drawing of faces is useful to learn to create facial expressions. Helpful is basic knowledge of the anatomy of the head and neck. Caution should be taken in regard of the use of "rules", as the individuality of a face is finally defined rather by "its deviations from" than by the "norms". It is worthwhile to keep in mind that in a given face the eyes are rarely on equal heights, the nose seldom straight. 

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