no, not a grid. I hate grids. I use eyeballed distances relative to each other, but I don’t measure it’s all eyeballed. I have the line measures in my sample for demonstration purposes only. Once I have the basic shapes and form, I start to detail the drawing . For me the most important thing are the proportions and shapes, since you can almost forgive anything else.
Here is a quick sample.
This helps me when I am on canvas when I have a sitting. It’s quick and I get a sense if I am on the right track quickly.
I see! Seems like a good method for observational drawing.
What I’m trying to do now is improving my understanding and visual library so that when I’m drawing from imagination things won’t look so generic. So I think I need a slightly different approach. Estimating distances, absolutely. But perhaps not in relation to the canvas. Perhaps using nose-lengths instead. Like the chin is about 1.5 noses below the nose.
Oh I see, For imaginational facial drawings I use a standard formula . FIrst I draw an oval, then half line for the eyes, then thirds below eye for nose and lips. Then I use three eye lengths for the eye separations . The width of the nose is adjustable but I usually use inner eye for the nostrils. I apply this in any dimensional view.
Exactly. I feel like I’m drawing the same guy over and over when doing that. Need a larger data set in my head to get more variation. 
Inner eye for nostrils is a good tip! I’ll try it next time.
Adjust the formula and your there. Close set eyes will have smaller thirds, but i means the niose is more narrow as well. Eyes can be bigger or smaller. I play around and always end up with different faces. What i enjoy doing is figuring out where the light source is and how that might impact the shadows. Also, another thing that I find @kynlo does really well, is adjust shadows to variant colour sources so seamlessly. He is someone that could really add some insight here to learn from.
That’s good advice! I do think there’s a little more to it. A couple of observations I made when painting sir Hopkins is that the eyes have quite different shape. The nose looks a bit crooked. The nose thing might be because of the lighting. In your image it looks pretty straight. Nonetheless it’s one thing that can make faces original.
His left eyebrow has a wrinkle that goes straight through it. Never saw that before, but it’s another thing that can be used when drawing from imagination.
Practicing with lots of reference will definitely help you with visual memory, but I’ve found it doesn’t necessarily help with fitting features together. A single reference image is nice because all the parts have already been fit together by nature 
if you take 2 or 3 images, use one as a base and take 1 feature from the others, it forces you to fit things together - and it becomes harder to copy it exactly because you generally have to make adjustments to fit it into a new face. Like if you took a photo of a person with sunglasses on, but drew them without sunglasses using another image for the eyes.
I’ve made some hilarious disasters trying to put a smile onto a face that wasn’t smiling - i feel like doing that really helped me understand what makes up a happy smiling face vs one that looks forced or fake.
I have used that method as well. The trick, which I am sure you have already mastered, is to match the lighting and colouring between the two as you morph into a new image.
Thanks guys! Sorry for not replying earlier. I’ve been just exhausted and I’ve had to make some 3D models for work during the weekend.
Combining a few references at once sounds interesting. I’ll have to try it soon!
I really like your doodles. Particularly the woman on the right and the grinch-like monster on the left.
Thanks!
Yesterday I had a bit of fun designing a mascot and logo for the Kockatoo project:
Probably a few months too late.
Today I thought I’d see what Kassandra, the mascot, would look like in use.
Pretty sloppy rendering, but eh, it’s half past two in the morning. Why do I always feel like doing these things after midninght… 
I think this one is my favorite
Makes sense, it’s the darkest one. 
Thanks! I’m quite pleased with it myself.
Trying to come to grips with Ramon’s charcoal brushes. We’re not quite friends yet. But once mastered they seem to be a fast way of drawing.
I think I like it… but I have no idea what it is! 
It does look a bit Cthulhu like. 
