Biz-Archive/MSAT/ClayArt/Swaps/Faces-NonSwap.htm
This section deals with sculpting heads and it's a
group effort. There's tutorials from your ClayMates as
well as stuff of mine there, but we didn't deal with
babies.
Here is my grand daughter's Mug Shot: Profile and full
face. We'll refer to her pictures with what comes
next.
I have this book on drawing and there's some points on
drawing the heads of babies and children:
The book is titled
Drawing:
The head and figure
by Jack Hamm
ISBN# 0-399-50791-4
On page 36 he wrote this:
Drawing Children's Heads
Points to remember in drawing heads of children:
The face is smaller in proportion to the rest of the
head.
Back of the head sticks out further and the neck is
smaller.
Usually the ear is larger proportionately than the rest
of features.
The iris or colored part of the eye approaches adult
size and it its small setting is early fully exposed.
The eyes appear a little wider apart in very small
children.
Whereas lashes appear longer, brows are much thinner.
Early nose is usually upturned, center septum is
flatter in babies.
Upper lip protrudes at first; mouth has more
indentation at corners
Chin is less prominent and recedes
Early cheeks are rounder.
++++++
Humans have big brains. Babies are born as helpless as
they are because if they stayed in the womb long
enough to walk when born, like foals or calves, the
human pelvic bone wouldn't be large enough to birth
the head.
The top of a baby's skull is not fused at birth, for
it needs to overlap over that big brain, in order to
make it down the birth canal.
Baby's
soft spots (fontanels) is a video of the baby's skull and how it changes
by the time the baby is 2 years old. For in the first two years of life
the brain grows even more.
Because new born babies must suckle or perish there's
strong cheeks to pull that milk out of the mother's
breast, the nose is upturned to get it out of the way.
So those rounded cheeks, the indentations at the side
of the mouth, the small upturned nose are part of the
baby's face.
The lower jaw is not as developed as the top of the
head and does grow as the child grows. So when
fashioning the baby head make the skull form large at
the top and small on the bottom.
The eyes are almost adult size, but in a little face,
with little eye openings. So the iris will fill the
visible eye area, not as much white shows as with
adults. The near adult size of the eyeball makes the
eyes a bit wider apart than with adult faces.
The ears are larger in proportion to the rest of the
baby's face than compared with adults. In adults the
top of the ear is between level with the upper eyelid
and below the eyebrow. For babies the top of the ear
is level with the under part of the eye. What remains
the same is where the lobes hit in adults and
children, pretty much even with the lower lip.
So if you're interested in sculpting babies we got to
get the head right. You know you've seen paintings and
sculpture from before the Renaissance where children
are portrayed as little adults and the proportions are
all off.
As a child grows so does the head. The head of a baby
is smaller than the head of a toddler. That toddler's
head is smaller than the head of a kindergardener. The
head of a prepubescent child is smaller than after
puberty and if male there's the Testosterone markers
of a heavier brow and stronger jaw.
When sculpting children one needs to settle on the age
of the child before forming the skull on the armature.
So gather up pictures of babies and children and
adolescents and compare the heads and faces and see
how they are different at different ages.
That's all I can think of at this point. Open a free photo storage account and
upload the pictures of the babies in your family. Share the links with your
ClayMates at CITY-o-Clay.
Let's get a couple of other babies and young children
to study so we can get this part of our studies
started with family members. Sculpt what you love, it
makes the work a labor of love.
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