22 August 2002


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Your 22 August, 2002 YouCanDraw.com
every other week communique

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In today's e-zine:

Short "Flash Interactive" rotating 360 degree head for understanding
and constructing the "three-quarter" view

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Howdy all,


Approaching the three quarter view

In today's e-zine you'll be seeing a fun little exercise. It might not make sense just by
itself - it'll make much more sense when you see it in the next issue (in two weeks).
The topic: approaching the three-quarter view. What's a "three-quarter" view? I won't
give you any malarkey about it being worth more than a "two bit" picture, and I won't
nickel and dime your time over it right now, but suffice it to say it's a view somewhere
between a profile and a front view. Half way between the two is a "true" 3/4 view, but
in reality, it's anywhere between. (I said that.)


Why's it a "tough draw?"

3/4 views are tough - especially in the beginning because you have to have a pretty
good feel for the effects of proportion, scale, and perspective. Well, you don't, but it
sure helps. Actually it really helps. :-).

Things change in the 3/4 view: the relation of the eyes to the nose, the relation
of one eye to the other (you go from two eyes to one when traveling from front view
to profile); the nose certainly changes, perspective becomes important through out
all the features. Most of the changes are subtle but your mind notices these unconsciously
so it helps to be able to identify those changes and not have to always ask "what's
wrong with this picture?".


So what helps?

I discovered two things that helped me. First was just plain observing people as they
turned their heads: having someone slowly rotate their head (while sitting in a swivel
chair), and actually using a human skull (borrowed during medical school) were a good
help. But people get sick of being looked at and skulls don't have all the detail of
the face. And we don't draw bones, but rather we draw everything that's covering the
bones when we draw a face. (Besides, walking around with a skull is just plain
WEIRD and it's not something people always have access to. Hopefully.)

The second tool I came up with somewhere in-between the two above: using grids and
the "mitre box". Neither is covered in the small Flash Interactive this email is linked to -
but both will be in the next communique (after the next "Every Other Week Caricature"
of  course). It's actually an extension of Lesson 14 and you'll see it fits there nicely.


Get yourself a copy

So here's the deal. Download the Flash Interactive (to a file location on your computer
you can find - eg the "desktop" or the "downloads" file), and study it as preparation
for some real hands on work in a couple weeks. Watch it several times, play around
with it, DO the suggested exercises (especially where you visualize the vanishing
points of all the different geometric shapes within the face/neck shoulder form).


Now go for if and we'll see you soon!

Just click and put in a safe file (if the link is broken, copy and paste this
into your browser...it's about 1.2 megabytes in size):

http://www.youcandraw.com/ycd-lesson14-xtra.exe


Warmly,


Jeffrey O. Kasbohm
Executive Director

(952) 544-0657
1351 Hampshire Ave. So., #127
St. Louis Park, MN 55426
http://www.YouCanDraw.com

"Once and for all getting you drawing faces and caricatures"
mailto:comments@youcandraw.com