An essay on face proportions (reference)

Not so long ago, I started a topic in this very forum asking what would help newbies to understand the great wonders of the dollmaking world. I would like to thank all of those who suggested tutorials, and more precisely Illyrimur who woke me up (kind of) about what is really the starting point of it all: human proportions!

Proportions are very important. Not enough that they have a lot to do with your doll's balance, did you know the human brain is programmed to recognise other humans instinctively based one some basic datas? Which means one tiny mistake is enough to make everyone say "there's something wrong...".

I will start with the adult face, and later I'll add a body to it.

You can copy and paste this on Word if you want. It might be of some help for some of you, as much for drawing, painting, or sculpting. I will ask you though to not copy it on your website without my permission. Thank you.



First of all, let's find a willing model. We could take anybody but I chose this nice ladies-man because his proportions are ALMOST perfect (remember: nobody's perfect, that's what makes you so unique, so don't be scared to play with those proportions, that's what most cartoon and caricature artists do on a daily basis).



Now this is what the mathematical part of your brain should see instinctively. I know it's easier said than done, but don't worry, I'm here to help you disect this mad grid.



Let's start by drawing a rectangle where the head should be. He has a fairly long facies, but it works just as well on a roundish head. Now, cut this rectangle in two part to find the eyes.



Another rectangle, from start of the hair to chin. Divide this in 3 parts. The first line is for the eyebrows, and the second is right under the nose.



Let's come back to our first rectangle. Take the bottom half and divide it in 4 sub-sections. The first green live usually applies to older people who have a baggy skin part under their eyes, but it can also be used for the ears. The second one is again for the nose. And the third line is right under the mouth.



Now that we have a bunch of horizontal lines, we will draw a few vertical ones. Divide our gentleman in 5 parts, each of them around the same size as one of his eyes (which means his face = 5 eyes!). Also observe that his nose fits perfectly in one of them.



Similar story here. Divide his face by 3 to find his pupils and the corners of his mouth.



Voila! You have the golden formula! Good luck with your characters...


Coming next (hopefully): children's proportions! And later, a body under those heads.

 

Children...

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a golden rule for children. As we grow up, our body changes A LOT and depending on the child's age, the proportions will vary. But this anyway is only a reference to give you an overall idea of what's going on.

First of all, I'll present my willing model. This time, I chose this child based on cuteness, and you'll see that what we consider "cute" has a lot to do with our body's geometry.



Similarly to our gentleman, we'll trace a rectangle around the head and a line in the middle of that rectangle. The first and most important observation to make is that her eyes are not centered, they're actually much lower! In this case, the middle would be her eyebrows.



From beginning of hair to chin, divided by two, we finally find the eyes. The bottom part divided by two again will show the bottom of her nose.



Back to the red rectangle. The bottom part is divided in 3 parts. The first line is where some children's noses start, and the second one is her upper lip.



Things get even more interesting! You remember that our face width = 5 eyes? Eyes do not grow (or barely) with age, which means we are born with the same size of eyes than we have right now. A young face will be different accordingly to this. Observe that the middle part is the same size than the eye, but the sides are much smaller. If you draw a character with this caracteristic, it'll look cute and childish (this is actually overdone in cartoons and mangas, I'm sure you're familiar with it).



Same thing with pupils. The sides are much smaller than the middle.




That's it for the face! Stay tuned for the next tutorial about... the body!

 

Thanks.

Strange, I thought I saw all the Disney cartoons, or almost all of them... When was it produced?