Analyzing Faces in Planes

"Planar analysis" is what my life drawing instructor calls this sort of scribbling, which makes it sound pretty darned impressive.

Basically, the notion is to see the human face as a collection of planes and tones. 

Supposedly it helps with proportion and proper shading. 

My first efforts drawing from a live model showed how hard this is--at least for me. My brain kicked and screamed. And screamed. 

So then a friend of mine and I thought that maybe our brains would grasp the concept better if we drew the planes on top of photographs. 

We loaded some photos into a wonderful iPad app called Paper by 53. Then we drew over the planes, using the color picker to match colors. 

Then I used a photo editor to make it black and white so I could study the tones more clearly. 

This really did help my understanding of the planes and tones in a face. 

The next step seemed to be to try another drawing.  Instead of plunging into another with a live model, I thought I'd try drawing this piece first. 

The result showed me that I still have a lot to learn about proportion. 

I will try again soon!

There is so much to see!!