Matzke's Weblog

Just when I was thinking of breaking up with Facebook….

I have never been very good at networking at parties. My patience for all the noise and idle chit-chat runs thin and I want to run for solitude. So it was with Facebook-my mind keeps thinking it is alot like a chicken farm, the constant white-noise becomes like the ocean but not as relaxing. But I have found a new way to love it because it has reconnected me with some really great people that I have lost touch with over the past years.

How Green is your Escrow Transaction?.

I was really tickled, not to mention intimidated, to be invited to be a guest blogger on Scott Cowan’s blog. This is like finally getting a date with someone you’ve been flirting with who you never really expected to ask you out. Now you have to put up, (not out, really!) or shut up.  Be engaging, creative, interesting and interested.

Title insurance would not be my best first date topic.

So I want to share a little exercise that will hopefully be entertaining,  hands on, and maybe awaken a little part of your forgotten creative soul. By the end of it, you will have some basics that will help you draw a human face.

Ready?

Get this-the human head is remarkably similar in shape to an egg.  Obviously every face has it’s nuances, but in general for the proper placement of features on a face these guidelines will really help you. So get out a piece of paper and a pencil and play along.

1. Draw a shape as close to an egg as possible. Run a light line down the middle of the oval dividing it in half lengthwise. Sorry, this is not really an egg shape so you will have to willingly suspend your disbelief.

2. Find the middle of the egg and draw a line horizontally. This is where the eyes will be. Eyes are big marble shaped things that sit inside the sockets and are protected by eyelids, but the basic underlying shape is round. Just above the marbles where the eyebrows will sit. Draw a line there too.

3.  Now,halfway between the brow line and the chin is another line,which will bethe bottom of the nose. Of course a head wouldn’t be right without ears, and they generally lie between the brow line and the bottom of the nose.

4. Lastly, divide the space between the bottom of the nose and the chin into thirds, and the upper third is where the mouth goes.

Ok, so I really am a better painter than graphic designer,  but you get the gist. When you break down a seemingly complex and difficult thing like the human face into segments,  find the underlying constant and remember the basic principals, then you can start to have fun with adding dimensions, nuances, life.  Kind of like dating….