Head Drawing, Part 1: Gesture and Construction

Head drawing starts with construction — four specific steps that give you complete control over mass, tilt, rotation, and perspective before you add a single feature. This lecture walks through the full system used to pose the head at any angle, drawn from fine art tradition and refined through years of teaching. These four steps form the gesture of the head: cranial mass as your starting shape, tilt to establish the two-dimensional lean, jaw and T-cross to control rotation, and the ellipse to lock in perspective. Everything that follows — features, anatomy, likeness — builds on this foundation. What this video covers: — The skull as the basis for construction: why abstraction matters before anatomy — Cranial mass: designing the largest shape of the head, sphere vs. egg — Tilt: assigning a two-dimensional lean to the cranial mass, neck, and shoulder line — Jaw + T-cross: the symmetry line that controls rotation in any direction — Head poses across all views: front, three-quarter, profile, back, and back three-quarter — Perspective and the ellipse: finding the equatorial center and wrapping the brow line — Under and over: how perspective changes the chin placement and T-cross relationship — Customization at every step: character, animal, and realistic variation from the same template ——— CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction and references 2:57 The construction framework 4:03 Step 1 — Cranial mass 8:06 Step 2 — Tilt: head, neck, and shoulder line 11:03 Step 3 — Jaw shape and T-cross 14:48 Head rotation: front, three-quarter, profile, and back views 18:58 Step 4 — Perspective and the ellipse 26:46 Applying the ellipse: from below and above 29:31 Completing the template ——— FREE DOWNLOADABLE TUTORIAL → figuredrawing.info AVAILABLE COURSES: Head Drawing and Construction → https://www.proko.com/s/NQRY?af=543975 New Gesture Course → https://www.proko.com/course/the-gest... Introduction to Figure Construction → https://www.proko.com/s/FLC2?af=543975 BOOKS: Figure Drawing: Design and Invention → https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/... Gesture Drawing: Dynamic Movement and Form → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZ3RZ72F FOLLOW: Instagram → @stevenmichaelhampton #figuredrawing #headdrawing #anatomyforartists