Guidelines for Finding Correct Proportions with Katie Blackwell

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Hello! In this segment I'm going to be showing you how to start out a portrait using correct proportions and how to find that in every face.

When you're doing a portrait, it's very important to get it exact. If it's off by even a centimeter it's not going to look like the person you're going to paint.

The best way to look at this is to not think of it as a face. If it's easier for you, you can flip your photo upside down - and suddenly it becomes a group of shapes rather than features.

For now I'm going to show you the easy way to think about it--which is face on.

Everybody has a head, kinda oval-shaped. If they're looking straight at you, imagine a line going down in the middle, then cut in across the other way in the middle which is where the eyes go.

Everything on the head can be measured in eye-widths. There's usually 5 eye-widths across for the eyes. You can get out your picture and measure the length of one eye, and take that measurement all the way across and that will give you the width of your face on your painting.

If you cut the two top and bottom halves of your face in half again, we have the hairline, and the bottom of the nose.

If we cut the bottom section again, we have the bottom of the lips. Cutting the section above the eyes in half gives you where the eyebrows are.

Of course, this is on an extremely proportional person - and what makes everybody unique is how different they are from these exact proportions.

But this is at least a good guideline. Now the top of the ears go from the top of the eyebrows to the bottom of the nose. The fun little measurements right here.

If you cut the middle of the pupil and down, you have where the corner of the mouth usually is.

If you go to the inside corner of the eye and down, you have where the outside edges of the nostrils usually go.

These are just little things to make sure you're in the right direction if you're getting lost.

Over here we have a different angle for the face, and it's the painting we'll be using for demonstration purposes.

I usually use my brush handle as a form of measurement. Here the eye width is measured, so I know her other eye will start about here.

I can line up the inside of the pupil, and that's where the corner of her mouth is, same for the inside corner of the eye and the outside edge of the nostril.

So you can use all these measurements no matter what the angle of the face. If it's up, down, sideways, these guidelines will help you stay correct in portraying proportions.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• correct proportions
• painting tips
• tips and tricks
• artist tips
• artist instruction
• cheap joes art stuff
• katie blackwell
• instructions
• arts

[TerryTheKidd]

Very Helpful. Thank you :)

[scyllaandcharybdis]

Thank you so much Katie Blackwell! this helps! x

[SmoofyToons]

Nice!

[RYANgills]

im a fan of you katie great work again :)

[maggoli67]

That's an awesome idea...upside down so you're just thinking about shapes. Great way to eliminate pressure.