Sharon
 

I agree with you and so would Sargent.

Michael G., I know and concede the point, I just think we here may enjoy deeper understanding and conversation. All knowledge is good and useful. Yet, I have never thought we needed to have human anatomy memorized in order to paint a person. Stuff is stuff, they still have unskilled art students in college attempt, usually in total disaster, to draw the nude human form from life, BEFORE they can do the most basic things, proclaiming that we should all learn to know anatomy! Never mind dozens of basic pre-requisite skills that ought to come first.

We are not expected to be automotive engineers to draw a car nor architects to draw a house, why must we know human anatomy to paint people? Stuff is stuff. Draw well and you can draw all-this is another Sargent idea.

LOL Mike! It is fun to tell people you can do plastic surgery!

When Sharon gave me the "classic proportions" it has been a great reference. Just to throw a wrench in the works, I experience two major problems with measurement:

1. If using the head measurement, it is very rarely I have someone standing completely straight - throws the whole thing off. Or is this where Peggy

Tim,

You're right, stuff is stuff. And we should be good enough painters to be able to paint anything. When a flower is slightly off or a vase is a little off in its shape, it is not noticed much. But when a face is off or the head is too large for its body, everyone notices. That is why the faces are now larger on US money, to make it harder to counterfeit.

I'd love to paint people that were life size. I guess I just need clients with bigger houses. :)

MWF 7.74 heads
 

MWF 7.75 heads would like to share with likeminded person of the opposite sex, long northlit afternoons over a jar of Webers Turpenoid.

Faves: Blockx oil paints, unrolling a new length of Claessens 13 DP canvas and a check that is actually in the mail.

Sharon, your post made me laugh out loud!

(It also reminds me that it's not so easy to find people who share my interests. Maybe an ad in the back of a Dick Blick catalog might do the trick. Talking with artists in person would be nice sometimes. Though this forum is a very good next-best-thing!)

Sight size
 

Beth,

Head size is one of the top priorities of all considerations.

I painted a two-story-high portrait in the past, (I was the size of the image's ear), also did a lot of mini sketches, heads were in size of one half of a finger nail. The later practice is not healthy for my vision, but does train my hands. Some craftsmen can carve a portrait on a hair with the aid of a magnifying glass.

I completed a girl's portrait with oversized head, did so for a pretty lady. The later one was risky, although she was very pleased and stopped me for retouching.

Here's another point to consider. If an artist starts measuring heads and does this thing with a formula, then what do you do with everyhting else in the painting? What about the table the hand rests on? What about the bookcase behind the subject? Formulas will get you in trouble-painting what you see will work out fine-if you take your time and see correctly and draw accurately.

There

It's simple
 

Heads are differing sizes. Some people have large heads although they are short. Some tall people have small heads. It's not reliable, not standard, so why even start. It's a art school trick, an interesting thing to show artists and to discuss.

If every time we picked up a measuring tape the things varied 10-20% both ways off standard we would not trust them. We would find a better way to measure.