Achieving a recognizable likeness
Have you ever tried to draw or sculpt a real person but in the end it just does’t look like them? Understanding facial likeness and being able to reproduce it requires lots of practice. The goal of this short course is to help you develop such skills by exploring the artistic style of caricature! In this episode of the “Art of Sculpting” series we are using hyperbolic stylization known as “caricature” to better understand and capture facial likeness. You will practice discerning things like head shapes, big noses, pointed chins, and crooked smiles which all contribute to a person’s distinguishing features. Here’s a breakdown of the lessons:
What You Will Learn:
- Before we overwhelm our brain with the third dimension, first we should study photos of faces and make notes about distinguishing features. Once we’re able to identify them two-dimensionally, then we can take it to the next level of realizing such features in 3D. We will use dynamic topology to block out our caricature.
- With our caricature blocked out, we can focus on nailing our short list of distinguishing features.
- After we feel confident that we’ve achieved the likeness of our main facial features, then we can fill in the remaining secondary details to complete the face. And since sculpting takes a long time, this video is time-lapsed.
- Once the face is finished we can stylize the hair to complete the overall caricature. Caricature is an excellent exercise in understanding facial likeness. If you can do a caricature, then it should be easy for you to dial back the exaggeration to realistic proportions to reproduce a non-stylized portrait.
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