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mafiefFrankles “Will you be taking your skills into the fandom world?”
My original thought: No! Too scary. And then the idea wouldn’t leave me alone, and I couldn’t sleep, and I spent the night researching how to do it. I looked into painting a face with watercolors. Ha… To do that I need to draw it. To draw it out I need to be able to sketch a face. I haven’t sketched faces…
To the internet! I found some decent tutorials for sketching front and side view of faces. Sketches below the cut.
That’s all well and good, but these are not real people. How do I find change these proportions and make it look like an actual person? Who am I going to sketch first? I wanted a long, angular face with interesting wrinkles and you can all guess why I chose that criteria. I immediately thought of Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars. (It also helps that I’ve been watching a lot of Star Wars with my boys.) And it helps that he was cast as Holmes. ;) There is even an iconic side view! I can sketch a side view!
Remember this one?
Sketch
Whelp, it's a start. AND I even did something within a fandom. ;)
Apologies to Peter Cushing for feminizing him (oops). But, this brings up the thing that intimidate me with faces - to get an iconic face right, the proportions need to be right or they look strange and unnerving. We all know what a face is supposed to look like. This is why robots with nearly human faces look so creepy because it’s close but not quite there.
I made mine too narrow and I’m not entirely sure how to fix that. The back of his head is also oddly shaped. But that's a highlight in the pic and I'm giving myself a lot of slack there ;). The line of his brow and nose are fuzzy because I erased and redrew those A LOT. He has a really distinct brow and nose!
Those are about the only views I can do so far. I’ve looked into how to rotate a face, and that is where other skill sets are involved. How do you keep the proportion of a nose? Or how much of an eye to show? Now I need to think about this a little more to get the proportions correct.
My original thought: No! Too scary. And then the idea wouldn’t leave me alone, and I couldn’t sleep, and I spent the night researching how to do it. I looked into painting a face with watercolors. Ha… To do that I need to draw it. To draw it out I need to be able to sketch a face. I haven’t sketched faces…
To the internet! I found some decent tutorials for sketching front and side view of faces. Sketches below the cut.
That’s all well and good, but these are not real people. How do I find change these proportions and make it look like an actual person? Who am I going to sketch first? I wanted a long, angular face with interesting wrinkles and you can all guess why I chose that criteria. I immediately thought of Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars. (It also helps that I’ve been watching a lot of Star Wars with my boys.) And it helps that he was cast as Holmes. ;) There is even an iconic side view! I can sketch a side view!
Remember this one?
Sketch
Whelp, it's a start. AND I even did something within a fandom. ;)
Apologies to Peter Cushing for feminizing him (oops). But, this brings up the thing that intimidate me with faces - to get an iconic face right, the proportions need to be right or they look strange and unnerving. We all know what a face is supposed to look like. This is why robots with nearly human faces look so creepy because it’s close but not quite there.
I made mine too narrow and I’m not entirely sure how to fix that. The back of his head is also oddly shaped. But that's a highlight in the pic and I'm giving myself a lot of slack there ;). The line of his brow and nose are fuzzy because I erased and redrew those A LOT. He has a really distinct brow and nose!
Those are about the only views I can do so far. I’ve looked into how to rotate a face, and that is where other skill sets are involved. How do you keep the proportion of a nose? Or how much of an eye to show? Now I need to think about this a little more to get the proportions correct.
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Date: 2020-06-08 07:45 am (UTC)And since Holmes and Watson are book characters, they don't need to be an exact copy of anyone.
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Date: 2020-06-10 03:17 pm (UTC)I was thinking about that loop hole and that it'll probably be easier if I make up a character by blending features from a few folks and call it my version. Hmmm...
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Date: 2020-06-08 03:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-10 04:06 pm (UTC)I didn't either until someone pointed it out to me. I grew up watching A New Hope, and didn't make that connection until way later.
Sketching:
I have a few things started, and I'll post those soon.
Star Wars:
I sort of worry about my parenting if I'm showing my kids overly violent things like Episode I and II of Star Wars... :/ I refuse to show them Episode III because it's too dark and sad. Rogue One is also a no. Clone Wars was marginal, but I think it would be better for 10+.
I've listed the kid friendly Star Wars shows I've shown my kiddos. Maybe one of these would be more approachable?
We really liked LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures. It's LEGO, so it's cute and silly. My boys loved it and have spent hours trying to make replicas of the ships with their LEGOs. There are so many Easter eggs to the Skywalker Saga which I giggled at. I found the plot and character's interesting enough that I enjoyed watching it and didn't want to poke my eyes out. The female character is clever and awesome. They have a reprogrammed battle droid (named Roger), who is the comic relief that is used well. It's available for free from LEGO here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XByxuGPoprw
There are two seasons. I'm not sure if there will be more.
There are also LEGO versions of the Skywalker Saga that retell the story in a different way. They are The New Yoda Chronicles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAQd5idrkeQ I'm sure we've watched all of these, but I don't remember them exactly.
Another one we are currently watching is Star Wars Rebels. It's TY-7 - there are some intense parts, but it's more geared towards kids, so they aren't bad. It's set after Episode III and shows how the rebellion started. What's nice is that they bring in characters from Clone Wars (which I do not recommend because it is scary and intense and deals with war themes) and Freemakers Adventures, and it fills in the background for the Skywalker Saga. They're available on Disney+.
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Date: 2020-06-11 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-11 07:00 pm (UTC)Mine watched Superwings and that show was not my favorite. It was better than Thomas, but not by much. Octonauts were tolerable. I just had to reimagine it as a really bad Star Trek episode. I didn’t mind Curious George because of the problem solving and there was a Holmes episode. However, now my kids save almost all of our recycling because they were inspired and make stuff out of it. Mr Five spent a day rolling papers and declaring he had a newspaper route.
But yah, none of these shows I’d willingly watch by myself.
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Date: 2020-06-11 07:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-13 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-11 04:34 pm (UTC)I do see what you mean about your sketch of Peter Cushing - you have made him a little "prettier" and younger looking ^___^ But as a sketch on its own terms, it's beautifully done. So accomplished looking.
But, this brings up the thing that intimidate me with faces - to get an iconic face right, the proportions need to be right or they look strange and unnerving. I absolutely appreciate this. But you seem already well on your way with getting to grips with faces - I imagine it will all come with practice.
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Date: 2020-06-13 04:47 pm (UTC)I think you are more encouraging with my new attempts at things that I am of myself. Ok! I will practice and I'll see where this takes me.