2) and secondly, to eventually "resolve" the conflict - which requires the brain to somehow "discover" it's other method of looking at the world (i.e. the "r-mode" or artist's mode).

If you can switch between seeing the face as a face, then a vase, you're doing the switch. By drawing the second half of any of the pictures, you're starting to control that switch - it's like your first "brain mode switching/weight lifting exercise".

To flip the picture makes the face disappear and you start losing the overall effect. That's fine if you're right-handed and can draw all the right-hand drawings right side up.

Still, if you can draw the opposite handed pictures, and do them right side up too - all the more power to you - that means you're getting it - your brain has learned how to resolve the picture :-)



....and one more, is it ok for me to put a center lines on
the drawings to make it more symmetric?

Absolutely! :-) That says to me you're resolving it. Good work!

Thank you for your help in advance!

My pleasure Sanghoon.


Jeff

------------------------------------------------



Good morning Jeff.

Just finished reading your reply to Blossom and her anguish over
her drawing ability. Let me lay this on you. My problem with getting started into a
new and different drawing mode seems to relate to the fact that recently I went through my portfolio of caricature art that I did ten, fifteen years ago. I study it and marvel over how well done or how funny it is. And then I say to myself, "I can't believe I did that." Or, "that is great work, how did I do this." And then after my encounter with my past I have a difficult time coming up with a new piece that would equal or better my old stuff. Your comment will be greatly appreciated.

Have a great day,


Ed



My reply:

Hi Ed,

my first question I have for you regarding that is this: how long has it been
since you last drew, and in comparison to that period of your life,
how much are you drawing now? I'll bet if you put in the time you did back then right now and then jumped into the future a number of years you'd be amazed at what you
drew now - - and if you had maintained your pace, you would probably look back at
the drawings you're doing now, in 2002, you'd have to smile and say (in this future time) I sure have learned a lot since then :-)

Drawing really is like running - once you learn it you never forget how, but
you can't expect to jump out and run and marathon. Dive in there ED and don't
let past successes stop you. Those are just an inkling of what you're capable
of.


-jeff

Another note along these lines: even though it truly is possible to revolutionize your
your drawing skills when you truly learn how to see as an artist, it still takes practice,
practice, practice to master  - any art. (That's presupposing you can totally master
anything. Most "masters" I talk to say they're masters only because they're always
learning - and simultaneously they don't consider themselves masters of anything. Quite good at something sure. But total "know it alls"? Not to often. That beginners spirit truly prevails among the best.

To see Blossom's letter, click here:

http://ycdinsiders.digitalchainsaw.com/InsidersArtistLoft/
end02update-5dec2002.htm






----------------------------------------

JB Grant offers this tid bit for finding drawable faces:


A good source for drawing and practicing facial parts and hair is an Avon book.
Especially for women's faces.

Thanks JB! :-)


Here's Avon's web address - and there really are glamorous faces there to be drawn! As well as shampoo bottles, jewelry, (great for understanding shading and shadowing "life drawing" posed type photos:

http://www.avon.com




------------------------


from Mike Swift:


Jeff,

Quick question for you. I have been drawing stuffed animals for practice.
I am still having a little problem with the proportions but it's coming along!

The question:

When drawing faces (human) which feature do you feel is the one that brings
out the most likeness of the person? I tried drawing a picture of myself and
my daughter (from a photo) and it looked pretty good accept for the noses. It
"seems" to me that the nose (or maybe lower center of the face) is the determing
factor in the likeness of an individual.


Am I on to something here, or is my Left Brain causing trouble!? :)

Thanks for your time.


Hi Mike,

if  police portrait artists could answer that, a lot more crooks would get caught :-).
Seriously, that's an age old question. Is it the nose? The eyes? Mouth? The gestalt
of the whole face? Baby's track the eyes closer than any other part of their immediate
family - (of course especially mom's). People seem to be able to recognize each other
more easily at Halloween parties when the eye's are the only visible feature versus for
instance just the mouth. Seals recognize each other by there scent - and mostly by
the smell of the breath - dogs of course use scent as their primary sense of recognition.
Owls catch their prey by hearing - not their supposed huge eyes (I was surprised to learn that :-) In fact barn owls - the owls with the hugest eyes actually have their ears buried at the focus of those big discs around the eyes.

(Check out this link

http://www.owlpages.com/species/tyto/alba/Default.htm



and by the way, I'm  find animals as much fun to draw as people these days :-)


So is it nose? I think Tad Barney of The Nose ( http://www.the-nose.com/) would
probably have to agree with you - (his site is dedicated to caricaturists). When I think
of what I look at when I draw it "feels" like the combination of eyes, nose and mouth
that seem to dominate. Course that doesn't sound like any great revelation...: :-) That's
seems kind of like saying "I recognize the whole face by recognizing the whole
face"...which also seems kind of like saying What are celebrities well known for?
Well, for being well known of course.

Neurologists will tell you people who have traumatic damage to the right side of
their brains often times lose the ability to recognize  people they know, yet, they'll blurt
out the person's name without any idea that the name goes with the face. Talk about
freaky!

So Mike, I don't know if that sheds any light on anything, I'm certainly not the expert.
The BBC did a great program a few years ago about faces - I bought the book and
it's just plain fascinating. Check out this somewhat related link on attraction:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/specials/set99/298594.stm

And this one on face recognition software:


http://www.imagistechnologies.com/Product/ID2000SDK.htm


I also recommend running a search for  "face recognition software" and
look at all the negative headlines that pop up ("...it doesn't work...")

------------------------------------


Do me a favor :-)

Lastly, folks, I'd love to get your feedback on YouCanDraw's sister site:

http://www.drawing-faces-and-caricatures-made-easy.com/

it's an info site geared to "get the sale" for YouCanDraw.com. For those of you
running a business on the web are probably all finding out, unless you offer lots of info
to your prospective visitors (and hopefully future customers), and unless your information (site) gets some really good ranking in the search engines, generating traffic and sales will be a lot harder. So the this sister site is built for both: getting people's search engine queried keywords answered and being at the top of the list to answer them. (Did that make sense?) Let me know what you think! Love to get your feedback!

Take care, keep on drawing and talk to you in a couple weeks


Warmly,


Jeff

Jeffrey O. Kasbohm
Executive Director
Kasbohm & Company Strategic Multimedia
home of http://www.YouCanDraw.com

(952) 544-0657
1351 Hampshire Ave. So., #127
St. Louis Park, MN  55426

"Once and for all  getting you drawing faces and caricatures"
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