Drawing 

Newsletter

March 2005

Michael R. Britton

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Drawing from life is always better.  Especially for learning.  

Copying from a photograph is fraught with peril. Foremost is that 

you are working from a two-dimensional reference.  The other 

problem with drawing from a photograph is that the camera ‘s 

eye and the artist’s eye ‘see’ things differently.  The camera’s 

singular eye distorts and flattens, yet curiously when we look at 

photographs we accept them as being accurate and true to life. 

The essayist John Berger writes about this phenomenom indepth 

in his book ‘About Looking’.  Yet when a photograph is copied 

exactly and the resultant drawing viewed separately without the 

photograph present the distortions are readily apparent.

But there are problems, too, inherent in drawing from life.  These 

problems are mostly within our mind’s eye.  When we look at

an object what we ‘see’ can dramatically conflict with what we 

believe we are ‘seeing’.

Many times we simply refuse to believe that what we have just ‘sighted 

and measured’ is true.  Even after many years of drawing and painting 

I still experience this phenomenom – but I have learned to ‘give it a 

go’.  That is, I may believe that a certain measure just cannot be.  ‘It’s 

illogical,’ my left-brain will be shouting.  But I have to override my 

misgivings and always, always that weird measure proves to be the 

true one.

A case in point is this graphite drawing 

of mine.  I had the devil of a time cor-

rectly placing her eyes.  I kept insisting 

on placing them too high. The reason 

for my doing so was that, for some 

reason, I could not believe how short 

the distance was from the top of her 

alae nasi (wings of her nose) to the 

medial canthus (the inside corner of 

her eyes).  The root of this problem 

is my inherent symbolic preconception 

of where the eyes should be.  And this 

issue of symbolic preconceptions is a 

major factor is drawing difficulties.

Curiously, the placement of the sternal notch at the base of the neck 

caused little problems.  Probably because this model’s sternal notch was 

dramatically off-center.  That is the way she is.  A question to pose 

is whether one should ‘correct’ the model’s flaws.  That is a matter of 

aesthetics that you need to determine for yourself.  I prefer the ‘flaws’. 

They give a more human quality to the work.

There is a third element to ‘seeing’.  Master artists, in particular, the 

great Masters, often deliberately distort the proportions and gestural 

movements in their drawings and paintings.  A better term to use rather 

than ‘distortion’ is ‘dynamic construction’.  The finest artists employ 

dynamic construction to effect a poetic sense to their work through an 

undulating rhythm of line and tone.  Although their drawings look to be 

out of proportion they are deliberately stretched and pulled.

This is a study by the French master 

J.A.D. Ingres, Study for the Princesse de 

Broglie, 1853.  It is pencil on paper mea-

suring 11 3/4 x 6 1/2”.  The figure is delib-

erately distorted placing much emphasis 

on the standing hip.

The British painter Stanley Spen-

cer dynamically constructs an 

exceedingly delicate and poetic 

tone in this 1931 portrait drawing 

of his wife Hilda.  The where-

abouts of this exquisite drawing 

is unknown.  It may have per-

ished in the London blitz of 

World War II or may be stored 

and forgotten in an attic.

There is a difference between drawings that are dynamically constructed 

and those that are merely poorly proportioned.  Dynamically constructed 

drawings possess a rhythmic power that fully engages the viewer.  

The first step is to acquire the skills to draw realistically.  Once one has 

attained these skills then the greater issues of art-making can be explored.  

The rewards are immense.  Technical virtuousity alone does not produce 

effective art.  On the other hand, not having the requisite technical skills 

severely limits an artist’s growth.

How then does one begin to study portrait drawing?  Using the methods 

of skill development that I teach in the Mastering Portrait Drawing DVD 

Workshop your best solution is to work from the skull.  The skull plays a 

major role in determining the likeness of your sitters.  The muscles of the 

face are thin and stretched over the skeletal structures.  And, importantly, 

too, you are working from life, not a flat, two-dimensional photograph.

I am not dismissing the practice of working from photographs – they 

are an invaluable resource.  Artists as diverse as Ingres, Degas, Eakins, 

Sargent, etc. have worked extensively from photographs.  I will discuss 

the manifold possibilities of working from photographs in a later newslet-

ter.

Drawing the Skull – Part 2

This is the second part of Drawing the Skull.  If you did not 

receive Part 1, click here to download it.

Not a pretty picture.

This is what I call the ‘ugly 

duckling’ phase.  Using a 

small 1/2” piece of vine char-

coal I roughly blocked-in the 

primary dark values.  The pri-

mary darks are best seen and 

simplified by squinting down 

and looking through your eye-

lashes as if you were looking 

into the sun.

The vine charcoal is easily smudged down 

and worked with both my index and little 

fingers to better resolve the initial tone.  

A kneaded eraser is used to clean-up and 

paint out the lights.  This gives me a better 

idea of how to place the features.

The first feature to be placed is the Nasal 

Aperture.  (The base of the nose was estab-

lished earlier in Part 1.)  The small, ledge-

like protuberance at the base of the nose is 

called the Anterior Nasal Spine.  

From the Anterior Nasal Spine you need 

to take you best guess at where the apex of the Nasal Aperture is.  The 

brow ridge has already been established, therefore, your best solution is 

to ‘feel’ your way down from the brow ridge through the length of the 

bilateral nasal bones.  This is drawing with a tactile sensibility – feeling 

your way along the shortest distance of a form to succinctly place an 

element.  This skill takes time and diligence to acquire. And, yes, this is 

taught in the Mastering Portrait Drawing DVD Workshop.

Using my plumb line I can now verify the horizontal relationship of the 

nasal aperture’s apex to the condyle.  On the skull they are aligned.  So, 

too, should they be aligned on my drawing.

Now the zygomatic arch, external orbital apophysis and eye socket can be 

sketched in.  Again, you want to draw with a tactile sensibility ‘feeling’ 

your way across the form.  An excellent way to develop your tactile sense 

of form is to close your eyes and run you fingers lightly over the skeletal 

features.  Uttering the anatomical terms as you ‘feel’ them, like a Buddhist 

mantra, will train your sub-conscious mind.  This training will be reflected 

in your drawing.

Once the initial structures 

are correctly placed and pro-

portioned everything, well, 

almost everything, else will 

fall into place.  Just like a 

jig-saw puzzle, it is simply 

a matter of fitting in the 

pieces.  What I’ve done here 

is fit in the zygomatic process 

(the frontal part of the cheek 

bone) and my first placing 

of the alveolar process (gum 

line will suffice) and maxilla.

It is never a good idea to 

remain focused on just one 

element.  Discipline yourself 

to stop and move onto some-

thing else.  Everything should 

develop equally.  You do not 

want to find yourself in the 

position of having drawn the 

finest ear, for example, in the 

history of art, but finding that 

it is too large and in the 

wrong place!

At this juncture I’ve added 

the superior temporal line 

that runs along the upper side 

of the skull and have cor-

rected the arabesque.

Now comes the matter of the teeth and the lower jaw.  Drawing teeth 

require some discussion and are best focused on separately.  The April 

issue of the Drawing Newsletter will feature the teeth.