When we begin to study portraiture, one of the most important early goals for any artist is to develop a clear, simple and consistent plan for building a generic head. The more precisely we can have this basic head plan in our mind, the better.
This model will serve as a useful departure point for developing a specific likeness. If we usehead we paint or draw. Through comparison to this basic model, we can quickly and efficiently approach capturing the specific character and likeness of a particular model. We can, through this comparison to our imagined ‘normal’ head, make specific statements about the model. For example, does the model have slightly wide-set eyes? Or are they slightly narrow? Does our subject have a short or long nose? And so on.
