Portrait Tip #1

Next time you decide to tackle a portrait and you really want it to look like the photo you are drawing from, try this: Every once in awhile, turn both the drawing and the photo upside down and compare them. 

If you buy in to the "Left Brain, Right Brain" theories out there, which I do since I create art AND do programming (scripting for those who know the difference), when you look at a face right side up, your mind will fill in, estimate, react emotionally, etc. and make it difficult to OBJECTIVELY compare the two. When looking at them upside down, you are more apt to look at the spacial relationships of the different parts of the face.

Try it sometime! (Works with many other subjects besides portraits.)

-KH