Ron Perlman--- A Facial Deconstruction

I'll start by prefacing this with how difficult this assignment was. This week, we were asked to find a photograph of a celebrity and start by deconstructing his or her face into basic planes. Then, with only our original photograph and planar analysis for reference, we had to recreate that celebrity's head in 12 different angles, each with its own expression...as if he or she was our own character.

And like a dummy, I selected Ron Perlman as my model. You might remember him as Hellboy.

Let's just say this actor's face is a little too interesting.

 

So here is the photograph I selected as reference. I laid tracing paper over top of the image and located the planes of the face.

From here on out, these lines and this one photograph would be my only reference for reconstructing a 12-face expression sheet.

 

During today's critique, I felt a little frustrated. My drawings didn't quite resemble Ron Perlman as much as I'd have liked. I thought the facial deconstruction exercise was supposed to make my drawings more accurate, more recognizable. Instead they just looked plain weird. I wished I had drawn in my own style---I wanted the pictures to be pretty. I wanted to show the class I was a better artist than this.

My professor told everyone he was excited to see the awkwardness of some of our drawings. He told us "if they look ugly because you really struggled with this exercise, that's terrific. If they look like it's the first time you've tried this, I know that you're learning. And that's what matters." That made me feel so much better.

 I know if I constantly resort back to the way I like to draw, the way that is most comfortable for me, I won't learn anything. It's better to plunge into something and not worry about coming out clean.