Profile Head Sketch

Sooooooo studying the head in profile! always been something i've struggled with big time but learned a lot doing this! that the head isn't shapped quite as i thought it was in my mind! funny how seeing everything in 3d everyday we have these preconceptions that are quite different to what they are in reality. Breaking things down helps this!

Oh look at that! it's Sokka XD was going to be some1 else but his hair style allows to show the shape a bit better!

7 Heads or 8 Heads rule?

So looking at an average human figure you'll see that the body is 7x the length of the head! that is to say take the length of the head, multiply it by 7 and that's how high an average person should be!

However the 8 head rule says the body should be divided into 8 heads! does that mean that the body suddenly becomes a lot taller? well i thought so at first but no! The 8 head rule suggests that the head becomes smaller and that the body should become elongated or emphazised accordingly to produce a more 'ideal' figure!

Look very closely at the picture below! both men are the same hight but the man on the left fits into 7 heads and the man on the right into 8! Also see that the man on the right has a slightly smaller head and a more slim/graceful appearance

The 8 head aproach i have found allows for easier body division. The divisions are:

1 - The Head

2 - From Head to Chest

3 - From Chest to Hips (this is also where the elbows should come to)

4 - From Hips to Crutch (where the hands should come to)

5 - From Crutch to Mid-Thigh

6 - Mid Thigh to bottom of the knee

7 - Bottom of the Knee to Mid-Calf

8 - Mid Calf to bottom of the Foot

The Same principal works for female bodies aswell! Again the 8 head principal works better due to it's even number! that the body should be divided equaly between top and bottom.

Shower Painting

Greyscale painting done in SAI, playing with the oil tool.

The Head Length

A simple rule of head anatomy that is crucial to remember is this: the distance between the base of the chin and the bottom of the eyes is exactly the same as between the bottom of the eyes and the tip of the head! so idealy the head can be divided exactly in half at the base of the eyes!

So the first thing i did was looked up a bunch of faces to see whether this was right! and sure enough it's true! even faces that look like they wouldn't adhere to this rule! then i looked at some digital art styles i really admire and they all seemed to follow this rule too, so maybe this is something worth remembering?

Finally i thought, this cann't be the case always! and checked some anime pics! well sure enough i was right! not every head divided into 2 but they were pretty darn close, even in an anime style!

Something so basic but remembering this rule will improve the anatomy of your heads!