Proportions to the Human Face

When creating a drawing of the human face, an artist will use a layout grid to determine the placement of the individual features. With slight variations for either extremely wide faces or very narrow faces the head is contained in an eight unit high x five unit wide rectangle.

Each unit to this rectangle is equal to the width of one eye. From this basic unit each individual feature can be place with great accuracy.

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Mark the central vertical line of the grid. This will be the dividing point for the face from left to right. Mark the central horizontal line of the gird, this becomes the dividing line between the forehead and the facial features area.

The upper half of the grid contains the brow ridge, forehead and skull area of the face. This area in the carving of a Wood Spirit will be used for hair and accent ornaments to the work. The brow ridge lies at the bottom of this portion of the grid and is about one half unit high.

The facial features area of the face takes up the lower half of the grid. This area contains the eyes, nose, mouth and chin area, and most of the ears.

Working from the grid lines:

• The nose is created in the central top two units. It is one unit wide by two units long. The nose tapers from one half unit thick at the bridge point to one unit thick at the nostrils. The nostrils are about one half unit high.
• The eyes are one unit wide by one half unit thick. They are separated by one full unit which holds the nose. The bottom half of this eye unit contains the fullness of the lower eye lid.
• The pupils of the eye lie on the center line of the eye unit. They are a half circle that disappears into the upper eye lid. The pupils are a total of two units apart from each other.
• The mouth is two units wide and directly placed underneath the pupil lines. It lies in the bottom half of the unit beneath the nose. The lower lip is fuller than the upper lip. The corners of the mouth curves to a point two third down into this unit.
• The chin lies in the last unit underneath the nose and fills just a little more than one unit wide.
• The jaw line begins at the middle line of the lower half of the grid. This is a slowly curving line that angles at one unit down and then reaches across the drawing to the chin area.
• The ear begins at this middle line also reaching up into the forehead area of the face. The ear mass stops at the center of the brow ridge.
• The highest point of the cheek bone lies where the bottom line of the unit that contains the eye is crossed by the central line for the pupil.

In this example it is the nose and cheek areas of the face that has been exaggerated.

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