apologies if you've ever answered this before -- and I'm sure the answer is ultimately to practice -- but how did you go about learning Rufus' face well enough to draw it so well and make him so recognizable for Darius? I have a new OC with an actual faceclaim and I'm trying to figure out how to break down the actor's features to draw him consistently but I don't have a lot experience. Is there a way you approached it or a way you think about it or exercises specific methodologies you used? Thank you!!
Hiya xx
definitely practice like you said....5 years of it for me so far. and likeness are very much a weak point for me.
And I STILL can never get it truly right, probs never will but it's okay, I have grown more comfortable with drawing his likeness far more loosely than I used to. I know some have commented that Darius has a Willem Dafeo look about him as well, which is totally fair.
I learned to pull-back and use lines that suggested key-defining features. This might sound very weird perhaps but you need to understand how your muse's face is constructed in a way, with shapes.
And how those features behave in light and shadow. Noir lighting emphasises them A LOT.
so DARK CITY (1998) is a very good example of this.
I'll try and elaborate here on what -I see and how is approached it- using this photograph and lots of lines, to show how I usually 'identify shapes, deconstruct and reconstruct'
Lighting - okay with the comic being monochrome like 20s/30s cinema I concentrated on the values of light and shadow behave. these elements on Rufus's face 'behave' rather interestingly as seen with the photograph above. light and shadow highlighting the contours, especially around his cheekbones, eyes/brows and nose. this is where I start identifying line shapes has displayed that defines someone in a unique way and I began concentrating on drawing them but then simplifying the lines.
Cheekbones - probs the defining feature apart from his hooded eyes. At the beginning I did over work these, but I learned to use less by suggest this with lines similar to what you see above and adapting it to meet the lighting. I found the shape of his cheekbone and like with my drawings just used one line. When I inkwash the shadows this is always the hardest to get accurate, especially around his mouth.
Eyes- again defining feature, important to identify. A feature I carried into Darius's ROOK FORM along with the cheekbones and curls. As with the below photograph, he has hooded eyes, where in some cases the light will hit the lid, but will create a deep shadow just beneath his brow, along with shadows 'bags' .
Jaw - Rufus shares a very similar face shape to Rutger Hauer and Bryan Ferry. To a certain degree Udo Kier and Christopher Walken also, in that their jaw-lines on profile sweeps like a bow, while crisp and pronounced especially in noir lighting they are not that pointy. like a square jaw for instance. It's important to understand the face shape wither it be round or narrow, square, or triangular.
concave cheeks- like he doesn't have any lol, but look how around his mouth it rises where his lips are and of course where teeth are underneath.
The lines just to the left and right of his mouth are dynamic in the light that sometimes they seem to rise from the shadow area or like the image below, it creates a darkened like at the bottom of the 'light triangle'
I'd say the hardest part is keeping up a kind of consistency. But finding a simplicity where one line works harder, (less is more) and with repetition it becomes easier.
