This was extremely challenging but very satisfying. I now realize there's a massive amount of information one needs to know to draw heads at a reasonable level. It was impossible for me to come up with a style variation of my own that looked even close to the beauty of Dave's face drawings. So humbling.

I found eye placement to be a constant struggle. So difficult to get it to look right and I never really did. Flipping the image in a mirror did help but I'm not good enough to always fix what I see. I found myself erasing so much that the paper turned to mush. I worked hard on the transition from rigid construction to something more finished.

Studying Dave's faces, as best I could, revealed a myriad of choices one must make to turn construction into an attractive face, especially what to leave out. This made rendering more difficult. It was so easy to destroy the beauty of the face by over rendering.

(oldest work at the bottom)

So I decided to take this a little more seriously and start measuring things for consistency. Doing this digitally for me was a challenge but allowed lots of little revisions without the issues of real paper. Also was able to use the horizontal flip which is very nice and shows your weaknesses immediately. Highly recommended. Student Project 1&2 - image 1 - student project

A take on an older Nightcrawler. Has a bit of a Morpheus vibe.

Student Project 1&2 - image 2 - student project

Here I tried to draw the Submariner. I always liked the exaggerated eyebrows and pointy ears.

Student Project 1&2 - image 3 - student project

Many thanks to Dave for the draw-over. Here's the "corrected" Project 2. I tried my best to capture the corrections. I don't think I quite got it but it looks much better now...at least to my eye. Done on 11x14 Bristol with brush, Zebra and micron pens. Oddly enough full traditional inks took me about 1/2 the time as digital. I don't get it.

Student Project 1&2 - image 4 - student project

Student Project 1&2 - image 5 - student project

Here's project#2. (Aquaman bust on 11x14 Bristol with H lead). I'm not good enough to use 2H...I'll drill holes in the paper. It was fun trying to put to use the things we all studied in this course. I actually feel like I learned some new things and the good part was it got me to draw again. This drawing took me much longer than I thought it would. Looking at it with fresh eyes on the screen I find that I actually like some parts of the hair. Rendering is always fun but I tend to overwork it. I'm guilty of trying to fix bad form with detail and I did my fair share of that here. I drew this as much with my eraser as I did with the pencil.

Student Project 1&2 - image 6 - student project Like many others I struggle attaching a head to a figure...especially an angled head. Figure based on Dave's pose pack #1. Cheap imitation at best.

Student Project 1&2 - image 7 - student project All five angles...I need to commit these angles to memory once I clean up the construction of each.

Student Project 1&2 - image 8 - student project Attempt at that incredible heroic/ideal male head Dave does so well. Impossible to get the same look and feel.

Student Project 1&2 - image 9 - student project

Working on the first pose here. Pretty standard angle but it took 5 tries before it was somewhat decent.

Student Project 1&2 - image 10 - student project

Considered not uploading this one but it shows my starting point. Hopefully there was improvement as you scroll up. (Don't waste your time trying to draw-over these. )

Russ Hicks (RHIXart)

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