Understanding the Planes of the Face Using Ellipses
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- In this video, I show you the method I use for defining the planes of the face. This helps me see the head as a three dimensional structure, and is useful when it comes to tilting the head, or lighting the head.
I reference moatddtutorials in this video. I think it's a great channel and if you're like me, you can learn a lot from Mark. Here's a link to his channel: / moatddtutorials
Tools:
Adobe Photoshop CS6
Wacom Cintiq 22HD
Camtasia Studio
For FREE art resources, like photoshop brushes, reference images, art books etc... check out the Resources section at www.sycra.net
The forum at sycra.net/forum/ is a growing community of artists all working to improve and help each other, it's free to join, so if you want to receive comments or critiques on your work, or maybe offer some advice, head on over!
Follow me on Facebook at / 155843997850744 and Twitter at / sycra
For full length feature tutorials on how to paint, how to draw, and more, visit PencilKings at www.pencilkings...
close your eyes and touch your head like crazy for a while. Bam instant knowledge aquired. Also sometimes i imagine myself from a different point of view. Try to ghost around yourself even imagine yourself as a different person and how youd look like.
Osjey you will turn insane but hey it worth it.
Osjey woogie boogy muugie
Osjey what... have you done?
I've don't the ghosting but I thought it was a weird thing I did
Not everyone has such a good spacial imagination
You are one of the main reasons I got it into art college. Thank you.
Is it hard to get into one?
i did too but i dont like it sigh it but idk wat else to do either
fr a sexist male pig like you , yes its difficult
Not really I just took a portfolio of work. Im in the UK not sure what its like where you are though.
Hugh Mungus its hard here if u want go to a government college private colleges take easily here but u still have to show ur postfolio n maybe a test
they accept most ppl tho
but its expensive
Hands down you are one of the most intelligent artists of our generation
One of my favorite things about your channel is the unconventional tools you’ve discovered to solve problems. The lightning bolt, the spirals, this. You use a lot of cool techniques that aren’t discussed anywhere else that I’ve seen, whereas plenty of people explain methods by loomis, bridgeman, Reilly, etc
ahhh I finally know why I've been struggling with drawing faces from different angles despite studying the skull thank you for making this!
For anyone confused about the "major" and "minor" axis portion: The major axis is the longest possible line you can make within the ellipses and the minor is the smallest.
Not quite, both axis are in the middle of the ellipse, they intersect in the center and the major axis is the longer line and the minor axis is the smaller line but the minor axis isn't just the shortest line anywhere in the ellipse
Your tutorials just resonate so well with me. I've been drawing for 3ish years and have stagnated and all your help has taught me things I never knew and I think will help me grow a lot. Thank you!
wow this is insane, my drawings have always been so flat, which has really bothered me. i didn't know what to search to fix this, so i'm so glad i came across this video.
Holy crap, I'm sketching while watching this and it helps so much. But I think first you need to have a decent understanding of anatomy or it won't fully make sense.
How much?
@@myneighborhedero9337 You need to know the rough basic shapes that the body can be broken down into.
Like?
Scourge I like how you responded 3 years later
@@MrNerdyBrit ngl, it's hella rare to see active old channels like yours 😳
Thank you so much! Your technique has changed my way of thinking things immediately. I've been trying to learn drawing for a while now, but didn't go well when I actually try to draw something. That's until I saw this video, then suddenly everything I read from textbooks start to make sense. I always struggle to get lighting and shadows correct without actually looking at the object, but with your technique, it's so much easier to imagine how the surfaces work just in my head. And the coolest thing is that i t really works not just for faces, but almost everything with complex surface divisions.
YOU ARE A KIND PERSON
rare in the WORLD
This is the best video for introducing how to understand the planes of the face I've found. Everything else just goes to expert mode expecting full knowledge of the skull and a calarts degree... or is just a ultra simple "draw a circle with a line through it" tutorial. This is a nice bridge, thanks man!
Sycra your a friggin genius. You simplify the hell out of things and its unbelievably helpful. Thanks for sharing your findings.
Bro,you just changed the way i used to see a human face,thanks for sharing your knowledge with us
This helps me understand the easiest form of constructing the body. Thank you, thank you and THANK YOU!
I L-L-L-Love this video! It's so useful in practice. It's nice to watch someone make step by step video where we can watch them draw, but this video brings understanding. Typical How-To videos generally make people copy the artist to keep up and to try their style. This video allows you to start improving your own art almost immediately. This video needs more views!
You’re one of the best art teachers on here
Idk what it is but your tutorials are just so easy to grasp
Wow, your videos are totally different from any other tutorial on YT! You're like an alien, this is AMAZING! You're really thinking outside the box.
Sycra...absolute master class!!! This is brilliant...for an untrained artist, this is the sort of instructive video that keeps one interested.This subject has eluded me, but you just made me better...THANK YOU!!!
Seriously my drawing looks 103928291929 times better thanks to this. YOUR VIDEOS ARE AMAZING. THANK YOU FOR EXISTING.
wow I watched this video in about one year ago and I didn’t understand how this could be helpful but right now I’m struggling with light and value and this is significantly helping me. just wow.
This is pure gold man. I'm worshipping you now.
Clear and concise instructions. Appreciate your obvious passion and knowledge. Thanks
best instructor ever
I've been hating how I've been drawing heads for some time now, and I feel this method is helping revamp my style. Thank you :)
I tried to watch this video last year and didn’t get it, but I got so much out of this this time! Thank you!
Lifesaver!!!! I love the simplicity and power of this. It already changed how I see my ladies in paint and I haven't touched a brush yet🤗. Thank you
Ladies in paint💭
i dont usually comment on videos but THIS IS PURE GENIOUS
this is really helpful. other videos didn't explain it well enough but you broke it down. can't wait to try it out later!
the flappy thing protruding as if to protect the auditory canals is called the tragus. we use it a lot when we set patients to receive head and brain radiation. love your teaching. ellipse theory makes good sense to me. thanks
when I draw faces, they tend to look flat, specially when I'm drawing frontal.
now, those ellipses really shows the form, very well done Sycra. thank you!
I love that you use a pretty similar approach to how I approach my 3D sculpting to translate position, proportions and approaches when constrained to 2D. I do automatically as well, but just hadn't thought of explaining it this way. Nicely handled and deftly shared as usual!
this helped me SOOO much , i'm applying it to the whole body now, i understand it better this way.AHHHhhhh
No way! I'm doing Andrew Loomis's Drawing the head and hands, and I've been memorizing the planes for the past few days but when I tried to actually add lights and shadows to them, I struggled because the head just didn't make a lot of sense.. THANK YOU SYCRA! Never stop teaching!
Same! The "plane heads" in the heads & hands Loomis book were very confusing to me...
Same as Sycra, I have an affinity for organic forms, and this method is coming much more naturally to me!!
Thanks Sycra!
I just drew a face without even thinking about it using this technique thank you and it does map the planes after you get going and i did just what you said to do i kept making the circles and stuff and then i turned and looked at a head with the planes it matches it just not as ridgid thank you so much this helped so much
I've never scene anyone do that before drawing ellipses, but it really helps when drawing facing! Thanks!
Wow, what a funny thing. Recently I started doing this on my own, trying to find a way to make faces easier for me and here this video came outta nowhere.
Thank you for expanding it and making it clearer for me!
This video helped SO MUCH!!!!! It really helps me understand where volumes are facing. It makes understanding where the figure is facing very simple.
Thanks, Sycra! These ellipses are really much more handy!
this is the most helpful video ive seen so far tbh
I recently watched the show Arcane and I’m just blow away by the gorgeous art style so now I’m trying to be better at drawing. This vid is super helpful!
cool way of getting more inviled with our art...it touches our imagination to go foreward and in dept...very nice to let us know this sort of knowledge..thk u
Really nice one, I think I like this method. That second oval trick makes it a lot more intuitive to size and place facial features. Thanks for sharing!
NOOO!! Oh man is would of been soo helpfully for my portfolio review today
😭😭😭
Sad
Jesus..... I was learning about Ellipses in Algebra 2 right when you uploaded this video xD
Good on you Sycra, our lord and savior
mark's drawing tutorials covers elipses and describing form really well, in his "drawing skills for industrial designer" if im not mistaken. he also has a game that helps you practice elipses and circles.
Strong, easily applicable and powerful technique. Thanks. You am the man.
Sycra you are the best!
Holy CRAP these videos are so helpful i cannot believe it. THANK YOU.
This is great, very useful. why would people thumbs down this video?
this really helps me as someone who gets really stiff with boxes (for constructing the face) buts still wants solid planes
This is sooooo helpful ! Understand the light and shadows is so important thank you !
Please make more videos about it !
Your fan
Another excellent explanation! Thank you so much for all the time and work you put into your channel! Very much appreciated.
This taught so much and changed the way I think about some aspects of drawing, awesome.
This tutorial is exactly what I needed. Sorry, I'm not speak English very well.
Thank you for going through the topic, it helps a lot.
I'd been trying to use the Loomis method to draw faces and not really enjoying my results. But watching this video, when you started to add the ellipses to the face, suddenly something totally clicked in my head. I'm gonna try doing this when I'm doodling! I know this video is a bit older, but thanks for making it!
Thank you, I still have to try this out but I feel like using elipses would for me work better than the usual boxes. Once again, thank you, your work is priceless.
Wow so now I'm in advanced level 'cause everything makes perfect sense in my mind!! Its so much easier to imagine the body as geometric shapes...
This was so helpful. Thank you.
I've been reading Bridgeman's book on drawing the head and hands but I've been having so much trouble with this. Really appreciate all the tutorials.
man this is the best tutorial i've seen,
i actually learned something really useful :D
Woah, i just tried this with more triangular shapes (to match my style) and it's helping so much. Thank you!
Omg this helped so much wow ... I learned sooooo much from this tutorial.
it helps, mostly with understanding and finding my light and placing shadows.
I enjoy the way you explain things! Definitely giving this a try!
I love this! It explains something that I wasn't getting. THANK YOU!
Exactly what i've searching for. Thank you so muuuucccch💕💕💕
Thanks a lot for those advices.
It's really helpful because I had a bit of trouble to shadow faces properly. I had it figure it out for some parts but the "ellipse thing" will make it much easier :D
i just tried this with a hand while watching this and i like it. :D
thank you! your method really helps emphasis it much better
That´s really helpfull!!! I have a lot of experience with perspectiv but I have never drawn people - Sycras "ellipses way" makes it really simple for me! :)
Wow thanks. I'm excited to explore this further
This was the most helpful method/tip that I've ever learned, thank you so much!
this video is really helpful and the concepts are well explained - thanks!!
your lessons are easy to understand
thank u so much
form all of these lessons about drawing i only take screen shoots from your lessons as it's worthy with this simple explanation.
this video just change my life thank you!!!!
This help me so much in my sculpture drawing art class,thank you !
Great technique. Really improved my faces and gave them a much more 3D feel. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks. This oval thing is really helpful
Another excellent tutorial as usual :) Thank you Sycra!
Really great tutorial, Sycra.
This was amazingly helpful!
Massive thanks for sharing this helpful method.
Man, how did I miss this one?! It was really helpful.
Thanks for the link.
Now, to czech out Pointy Chins 10.😉
Love all your videos. The flap on the ear is called the tragus.
Great Info Sycra!!! Thank you...
I'm not even 3 minutes in and already find this REALLY usefull as i find it quite easy to think 3 dimensionally, so this way of drawing the face is worth gold for me! I wonder what the rest of the video is about :P
Awesome stuff, keep the good work going! :D
Btw, would you use PTSai over Gimp?
really a for tip because getting a 3d look help a lot in initial stage.
Thanks
hi sycra you're amazing!
Gosh dangit you ARE TOO FUCKING AWESOMEEEEEE I can't believe I haven't found this method after so long, it's so genius, it's so intuitive! Your the bomb.
Different perspective.... Helps a lot 🙏🙏🙏thank you 😊
Thank you so much for all your tutorials, they really help me a lot! :)
Your videos are unique. Thank you for all of them. :)
This actually helped a lot. Thanks man.
It's just beautiful.
Thank you
Excellent content! Very helpful.
Figured this out a while ago, real helpful
Mark's Drawing Tutorials are the best in youtube (sorry Sycra...). I'm sad that he didn't do more.
starshkr46 crilley?
Well everything I ever wanted and needed to know in high school XD Thanks
Interesting. I'm more into using a mix between Loomis and some other method that Ron Lemen uses (the name escapes me). But! I've been using ellipses and spheres (balls, whatever) to use as a sort of guide for most of the shapes and forms of the body.
You know how we use a ball to describe the cranium? So I've been using a ball (stretched or not) to define the ribcage, another for the core, another for the hips, another for one shoulder and so on. They're not just floating, though, they overlap.
Some forms are more cylindrical, so I use ellipses for the sides of the cylinder then connect them. And when there's a cylinder that's bulgy I'll draw a ball first, then ellipses for the cylinder and complete the shape with more lines.
I'm not sure that it was clear, and it's a bit hard to describe without actually demonstrating it. I'll take a plane to Canada to show it to you, okay? :P
I have to force myself into thinking on planes, though. Especially those of the cheekbones, that I find super hard to understand.
allluckyseven I think the loomis method is very useful but to use it you have to have some sort of perspective knowledge, because you move spheres in a 3d space and stuff like that I guess, Keeping practice is the key to understand everything, so keep it up, I am going to do it too :D
Bless
I do think that you have to have some perspective knowledge, yes, but it helps that in a flat plane, a sphere is a circle from any point of view.
But speaking of perspective, that is usually seen as something boring, as all the fundamentals are... Until (in my case, at least) you watch Scott Robertson's drawing videos, which is something I can tell Sycra has watched, because what he says about ellipses axes and such is straight out of Robertson's.
Those techniques may not work for everybody, though. Different people want different things out of Drawing.
Totally agree man ¡¡¡ it´s a misconception to think in the basic drawing like a boring stuff, it´s not always fun but a constantly discovery process. Scott is very insightful, I have learned tons from him and also from Marshall Vandruff, they are great guys. summarizing .. You´re right :D