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These are the portrait conventions I am familiar with. If you are talking about traditional rules for head size:
1) No heads bigger than life size.
2) No monkey sized people, (...who said this? Richard Whitney? Kinstler?)
3) The only exception is the 10 inch corporate head.
4) If you are cropping body parts, crop at mid-arm, mid thigh, mid-calf, not at the joint (...i.e., elbow, wrist, knee or ankle.)
5) In a head and shoulders portrait, place the head two inches from the top of the canvas, and place the eyes in the middle of the canvas.
6) The eight head figure is based on the way the painter views the subject when painting from a close position He looks up at the face, straight at the chest, down at the knees, and way town at the feet. This creates a natural elongation. Look at Sargent's paintings. Even in seated figures, he is looking up at the face and down into the lap, way down to the feet.
7) No candid's, even if working from a photograph, pose the subject in a position they can hold for 40 hours is they needed to.
That's a start.
Peggy
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