Hey there fellow artists. These past few months, I’ve been diving into portrait drawing, focusing on the Loomis Method. And I have to say it’s been a game-changer for me when it comes to the art of drawing faces.
So in this post, I’m excited to share what I’ve learned about the Loomis Method. I’ve condensed the insights I gained from reading “Drawing the Head and Hands” by Andrew Loomis into 13 straightforward steps. These steps will guide you in drawing faces from various angles – be it the front view, side profile, or the 3/4 view.
Additionally, I’ve added some helpful tips for practicing the Loomis Method. These are strategies that I’ve personally found super effective in quickly grasping the technique. Also, I’ve included my take on Loomis’ approach to drawing individual facial features, like the eyes and nose, based on the remarkable drawings of Andrew Loomis himself.
So let’s dive in!
What is the Loomis Method, and why you should learn it?
The Loomis Method is a systematic process for drawing portraits devised by Andrew Loomis, an American illustrator and art instructor. This approach to drawing portraits simplifies the complex task of capturing the human head from any angle in three dimensions. It all starts with a basic ball shape, and from there, you’ll pinpoint key measurements to map out the facial features.
Loomis emphasizes that accurately placing these features on the fundamental shapes representing the face and head’s planes is more crucial than focusing solely on the features themselves. This approach challenges how most beginners start drawing faces by trying to copy the contours of the face without considering its basic structure and proportions, which is why learning the Loomis Method can help budding artists draw more accurate and impressive portraits.
The brilliance of the Loomis Method lies in its ability to break down the intricate process of drawing the human head into simple, repeatable steps. Even if you’re a beginner, these steps are designed to be easily learned and applied.
Now on to the magical 13 steps that will empower you to draw the Loomis Head from any angle. For reference, here is the final drawing so you know the angle of the head I have chosen for this demonstration if you wish to follow along.
Step 1 Draw a ball to represent the cranium (skull)
Loomis suggests kick-starting your head masterpiece with a simple circle. This circle symbolizes the cranium – the upper part of the skull excluding the jaw. Think of it as a ball with slightly flattened sides.
With the foundation in place, we will transform this circle into a three-dimensional sphere by drawing some curved guidelines over it in the following step.
Step 2 Indicate the middle line, brow line, and halfway line.
Get ready to transform your circle into a three-dimensional ball by sketching three essential guidelines. These lines provide the framework for your masterpiece, dividing the face into distinct sections.
To complete this step, you need to first observe the angle of the head and then place these three guidelines wrapped around the curvature of the ball:
- The middle line is a vertical line dividing the face into left and right sides. To determine the angle of this line, you need to focus on the angle of the center of the face and extrapolate.
- The browline follows the horizontal angle of the brow ridge and the upper edge of the ears.
- The halfway line is a vertical line dividing the side of the head.
Don’t be disheartened if nailing these lines seems tricky initially – practice makes perfect, and you’ll soon master it.
Step 3 Flatten the ball’s sides to depict the skull’s side planes.
As the human head isn’t perfectly spherical, it’s time to flatten those sides. By doing so, you’ll achieve a more realistic representation. Remember, the side planes should be roughly two-thirds the radius of the cranium.
The browline and the halfway line we drew in Step 2 will need to be flattened out as well in this step.
Step 4 Draw a cross at the browline and middle line intersection.
This cross is one of the most critical steps in the Loomis Method. It’s your compass for placing key landmarks on the face.
Besides defining the perspective of the head, the cross helps us locate vital facial landmarks like the nose line, hairline, and base of the chin in Step 5 so it is crucial to get this right.
In his book, Loomis explains why this is such a useful measurement tool to locate the different features of the face because this particular point on the head is not only at the conjunction of major landmarks of the face but is also always fixed.
The cross only moves when the whole head moves unlike other landmarks of the face such as the base of the chin which can move independently from the rest of the head when the jaw opens or closes.
Step 5 Mark the hairline, nose line, and base of the chin.
Loomis divides the face into three equal segments: the forehead, the nose, and the mouth/chin.
To draw these segments in equal proportions, we start from the cross marked in Step 4 and work our way up and down to find the hairline, nose line, and the base of the chin.
The hairline is roughly placed midway between the browline and the top of the head. The top of the head is where the middle line intersects the halfway line. The area between the browline and the hairline is our first segment (the forehead).
Once we have figured out the hairline, we move the same distance downwards from the cross to find the base of the nose which gives us the second segment of the face (the nose).
An equal distance further down helps us locate the base of the chin and the last segment of the face (the mouth and the chin).
Step 6 Position the ears on the cranium’s side planes.
