When you draw a face there are lots of tools to help. One I think of is using the width of the person’s eyes. It is not always right but it gives you an idea… All this is approximate…
One eye width between the eyes..
Two eye width for length of nose
Two eye widths for width of mouth
Three eye widths centre of eye to corner of mouth.
And one eye width from bottom of mouth to chin….
One eye width for bottom of nose.
Also if you draw a line down from the centre of the pupil it should hit the corner of the mouth.
Remember, this is just approximate. It depends on the face you are drawing, not measurements. Everyone is different! Also if you look closely faces are lopsided. One side of a face is often bigger than the other!
I miss my Mom, its been around ten years since she died, but I often wish I could just phone her up for advice. I did a painting of her in 2008 and I just did this sketch from it. I can see so many mistakes. I need to set an easle up. Trying to draw while holding the painting… Tired arms…
I was just talking about drawing glasses and how eyes look behind them and decided to do a sketchy diagram. I am drawing with my finger so the pictures are a bit wobbly….
When you draw the eye behind the glasses, always look to see if the face and eye look bigger or smaller. You can tell if they are long sighted (bigger) or short sighted (smaller). It makes it more realistic if you notice this sort of thing. If the eyes are the same as normal it means the glass is flat in the lens, not curved!
There is a film staring James Stewart called flight of the phoenix. One of the characters wears glasses. But the lenses are flat and the light glints off them like window panes!
I do like odd images that happen as a happy accident. This is our lamp shade reflected in the side window. I think it’s a bit like a floating jellyfish or an emoji? The two dark patches are the eyes and the bright patch the nose. Rather than dismissing it as an error I started playing around with it….
Now it looks like strange eyes and a nose… Sometimes it’s a fun idea to explore and use your mistakes.
She gave me the metal cat as a present, it was sweet of her, but I could not get over the staring eyes. Googly eyes. Glass eyes. It was like the cat had no eyelids.
I put my ‘present’ on the windowledge in the kitchen. As the nights drew in the cat was more noticeable. The eyes, staring. I would try and look the other way as I walked past it to the back door or the bathroom, and on my return I would look at the cooker or the fridge just to avoid its eyes. Her eyes, definitely female, feline eyes.
It was a few months later, September or October, when the nights began to last longer than the days. I looked over at her, but she was facing the other way? Looking out of the window? I asked my husband, no he hadn’t moved her. I asked him to put her back facing inwards. She’s heavy so he did it for me. But, the next night, the same thing. We moved her back… This was the same every night for a week. It kept happening.
The next night I looked and she wasn’t there. I looked around, she was by the cat flap! This was mad. Either my husband was doing it, or the cat had some sort of magical power? I was getting scared it was very strange. I wanted to tell someone, but my husband said if I told the police, or friends, they would think I was going daft.
Every time I put the cat back it moved overnight. So what else could I do? I stayed up after my husband had gone to bed. I looked in the kitchen, and as I did, the cat stretched, front legs, then back legs, arched it’s back, tail straight up…. And jumped… Jumped off the ledge, onto the kitchen counter and onto the floor! It looked back with those eyes…. I was mesmerised. It walked to the back door and I followed. It pawed at the door. What could I do? I opened it. As I did, ghostly black cat shapes poured in! All of them with staring eyes. I knew then I wasn’t safe….
Mallaband-Brown 