If your style incorporates line work, line weight is your primary tool.
If you are taking this class (or teaching yourself), listen for these specific pieces of feedback. They are the difference between amateur stylization and professional work.
Every face has a visual melody. A portrait of Taylor Swift has different geometric priorities than a portrait of Steve Buscemi. If your style incorporates line work, line weight
: Use models like the Asaro head to understand how the face is made of flat planes. This makes it easier to assign specific values and colors to different areas of the portrait.
Even in a highly stylized, cartoonish, or abstract portrait, understanding the underlying structure of the head is paramount. Every face has a visual melody
Trace five stylized portraits you love. Color them black. Look only at the outer edge. That is the "logo" of the character. Your class work should involve designing the silhouette before you paint the eyes.
Mastering stylized portraiture is an iterative process of learning the rules, breaking them with intent, and analyzing the results. Class work provides the perfect, low-risk environment to experiment with these fundamentals. By balancing solid anatomical structures with bold shape language, controlled values, and harmonious color theory, you will develop a striking, professional style that is uniquely your own. This makes it easier to assign specific values
Using blue pencil/line art, map the Loomis head. Then deliberately break it. Shift the jaw 10 degrees. Elongate the neck. This is the "blueprint."
Remember the standard facial divisions. The face is generally divided into three equal sections: from the hairline to the brow line, from the brow line to the bottom of the nose, and from the nose to the bottom of the chin.
The Andrew Loomis method serves as the industry standard for mapping the human head. Represents the cranial mass. The Oval: Represents the jaw and face plane.