Face/Eyes

I've wanted to do a face for a long time, and when I found this one I thought it was ideal, mostly because it only focuses on the eyes, which is the part I always start with, and partly because of us all wearing masks whenever we go out lately.  

The photo is from pixabay free photos, but it wasn't in the usual jpeg format and I don't know enough about graphics to get the actual photo on here, so I took a picture of my computer screen.  It's not as clear as the original, wo I'm posting the link to the actual photo if you want to see if you can use that.

https://pixabay.com/photos/people-girl-beauty-face-eyebrow-2605526/

(I wish my drawings would show up better)  There are a lot of instructions in books and online on how to draw a face.   I've tried them, and they work if you want to make a generic perfectly proportioned generic face, but they don't work for me when I want to make a specific face.  So here is my simplified version:

I start with the eyes.  I leave a space between the eyes that is approximately the same size as a third eye would be.  Then I draw in the eyebrows, taking note of how much space there is above the eyes, how long they should be, and where they end.  

Then I draw the sides of the face in relation to the eyes and eyebrows.  In this case, that's the hair line.  

The photo we are working with is wider in relation to the height than your paper is.  Don't worry about it, just draw what you see and you can crop or cut off excess paper on the sides, top or bottom after the painting is finished.  

The scarf is "almost" straight across, I used a ruler and then adjusted it so that it curves slightly around the nose.

For the face, mix up a pale wash of yellow ochre and cadmium red.  It should be about the value of the lightest part of my puddle, or maybe even a little lighter..

Put a wash of this color across the whole face - yes, even the eyes.  Is my wash too dark???  We will find out when I paint in the rest of the painting.  😉

More to follow......