What makes George drawable?

The things that grab me the most, are 1) the beard 2) the hair, 3) the nose and dark eyes.
Those are the three "firsts" that seemed caricaturable. And I know, most of the time you
can't just draw a recognizable person out of three features. (Though Hirschfield could.)


Hair

The hair grabs me since Mr. Lucas has got to have some of the thickest wiriest hair in
Hollywood's best known director's circle, heck in the solar system for that matter. The beard
is a fixture (ever seen this guy without it? I haven't). And not only is the hair thick, he can
hardly contain it!

That's why in today's drawing, he's almost got a pompadour / bouffant hair doo :-) I started
drawing all these crazy waves and plain started running out of space. (It's great wrist and
smooth-and-graceful-line-drawing practice drawing hundreds of these kinds of lines.) And you
can't forget about the trademark "arrow" of hair that's always dangling in front of Mr. Lucas'
forehead.

[Tip - when drawing long lines you can make them longer and smoother if you "follow through".
That is, keep drawing off into space after your pencil has left the paper. That way, the literal
end of the drawn line will end up out in space with no creaky lines left on the paper.]


The nose

The nose is relatively short (compare the proportions between his and Mr. Average's "middle of the eye" and "bottom of the nose" lines and this will be clearer...See lessons 14 and 15 for
that.) What's deceiving about the nose here is it's bulbous and slightly turned up tip. The bulbous
tip makes you want to draw the entire tip bigger and rounder than it is. (That's the way I went). The "turned up" part - the tip that is - makes for very visible nostrils.

Also study close the shadows and highlights that ring the tip of the nose - very subtle and
always slightly complicated contours - these add so much to your drawings if you can capture
them. Study enough noses and you'll see these common patterns.


The eyes

Mr. George has dark eyes, thick eyebrows and a fair amount of shadows around his eyes.
The shadowing gives him that slightly tired look he always seems to have (at least that's
how I see it) in an otherwise very youthful looking face.


So what else?

The overall shape of the face is roundish - a boyish roundishness and I think that contributes
to his overall youthful look. In the first drawing on the left, Mr. Lucas has a more square beard
and jaw - but I erased this in the second picture (on the right) and shortened up the beard as
well. The drawing loses some of the lumberjack look in doing this, but it's starting to look
more like a caricature and less like some campy realistic thing. And ironically, it's starting
to look more like George Lucas.


The neck

In drawing one on the left, he's basically got a goiter - a big round protruding gullet of
a neck. It's not real accurate (I was working fast :-) but it kept the idea of "goiter" out
front. In drawing two it just becomes more pronounced and the chin and neck are
becoming more of one and the same - which is closer to the effect I was looking for.
 

Other stuff

I want you to scan the picture for perspective and proportion. What are the most
obvious clues that exhibit depth? For me, the way the eyes portray perspective - going
from the larger eye closer to you to the smaller, slightly-hid-behind-the-nose other eye -
contribute the most.

The cheekbones in the picture on the right work better in this regard. Compare both
pictures for this (Note how little cheek and cheekbone show on the right side of the
picture on the right). The beard and jaw line demonstrate more perspective than does
the picture on the slightly more caricatured picture on the right. It's subtle - but look for
it and you'll see it.


More caricaturing

I'm not quite sure how much more I'll play with this picture - it's pretty "stiff" and could
use some "Jan Op de Beeck" inspired loosening up (check out his site -  it's really
amazing :-). Seeing the drawing with the nose crammed up more towards the eyes - and
still more bulbous, a still thicker neck, an even more crunched down forehead, a still more
peaked arrow of hair dangling down in front of the eyes...these are a few of the areas
ripe for exaggeration. My opinion anyway. What do you think?

Jan Op De Beeck's site:

http://www.opdebeeck.com/index.html


Lastly...

Today's drawing was drawn on inexpensive drug store bought drawing paper (70 pound
Canson Dessin Drawing paper). I used a 6b soft lead mechanical pencil. The overall size
was about 17 inches tall by 11 or so inches wide. (In fact, those lines you see in the picture
on the right are an 8 and 1/2 by 11 inch paper outline - drawing these on the paper make
piecing it back together after scanning it in parts much easier. The scanning glass is only
8 and 1/2 by 11 inches in size.)


Your Assignment

1) Recommit to drawing a certain minimum amount of time per week. Write it down. Put your
schedule, or drawing paper, or some reminder where you can see it and won't avoid it. Find
some inspiring books or sites or pictures - keep them within easy reach so you can get re-excited about drawing by seeing the kinds of things you'd like to someday paint / create / draw / emulate.

2) Look for the subtle signs of perspective in 3 pictures or photos a day you see in magazines or
the newspaper. Guaranteed you do three, you'll do a whole bunch more.

3) Concentrate on the nose the next 3 weeks. Focus in on the subtle lighting at the tip. Note how the apron of the upper lip throws light up on the underside of the nose. Where you expect it
to be dark and shadowed, you'll understand why it has all that complex stuff going on. Look for
all the subtle contours and surface shapes there. It's amazing! Note how even the roundest, most
bulbous nose has the most amazing contours right there on the tip.



So dive on in and don't be afraid! :-) Until next time...keep on drawing!


Warmly,



Jeff


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

Jeffrey O. Kasbohm
Executive Director
Kasbohm & Company Strategic Multimedia
home of http://www.YouCanDraw.com and
http://www.drawing-faces-and-caricatures-made-easy.com


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

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