Why you need constructive drawing to draw portraits
At Life Drawing Academy https://lifedrawing.academy/free, we received the following questions from John:
“I am not a member yet but is it ok if I ask you a quick question? Although it is very nice to see someone practicing faces and heads that are like Greek Statues, would it not be a good idea for learning portraits to do an actual portrait. Isn't it just as important to learn to see the exact distances and lengths on the face of the person in front of you? I feel no matter how much knowledge you have about what makes up a head, that is still an average head not a portrait. Generalized faces can be helpful but real faces are more complicated and subtle just needing lots of observation and familiarization. Could you please advise me if this comment seems ignorant or lacking. I would like to learn.”
Dear John, thank you for your question. From what you say, I guess you are a complete beginner who never had proper art education; please correct me if I'm wrong. Drawing classical canons of proportions, which derive from ancient Greek and Roman styles because those civilisations were the first to reach realistic art, is not about learning Greek and Roman art. Likewise learning how to draw a cube from life is not about drawing cubes. The same as rendering tonal values of a sphere is not about drawing a ball. Such exercises prepare an artist for constructive drawing, which is based on fundamental principles, such as perspective, proportions, rules of chiaroscuro, etc. After getting the needed knowledge, an artist might never draw a Greek profile, cube or sphere ever again, but this experience will give such an artist the needed skills to draw whatever one sees or imagines.