Drawing the Human Head Series: Lesson 6 — The Female Head
Whatever the artistic field you think you will devote yourself to tomorrow, it is almost certain that you will draw or paint the woman’s head at least as much as the man’s. This may seem contrary to the fact that it was left for the end, devoting less than ten percent of the book to it. There is, however, an essential reason for this approach:
In essence, the dimensions and proportions of the woman’s head and face are identical to those we have studied for the man.
The differences are minimal if we analyze the two heads in their natural state.
Yet these minimal differences exist, and one must take them into account. They are essentially due to the organic constitution of the woman, which is physically expressed by the presence of a greater quantity of superficial fat, especially on the chest, buttocks, hips and thighs, and also, though more slightly, on the face; they are due secondly to a physically greater activity in the man — exercises, games, work — which forcibly develops a more pronounced shape in his bony and muscular constitution. If we concretize these slight differences, we can distinguish the following characteristics in the woman:
- — SMALLER FACE.
- — SOMEWHAT LARGER EYES.
- — SLIGHTLY HIGHER AND MORE ARCHED EYEBROWS.
- — SMALLER NOSE AND MOUTH.
- — ROUNDED JAW.
And to summarize these five points, the essential nuance that the artist must remember in order to grasp the final rule which illustrates the difference between the two heads better than any other is:
THE WOMAN’S HEAD AND FACE ARE MADE OF SOFT LINES AND ROUNDED FORMS.
For the angle is a masculine sign whereas the curve, softness and roundness are fundamentally associated with the woman.
Woman is anatomically made that way.
A VARIABLE FACTOR
Anatomically, the buccal cavity of the woman is slightly smaller than that of the man; her lips are thicker, but their total dimension is smaller in the woman. You know, however, that before the war, fashion wanted women to wear lipstick with a tendency to overflow their natural limit. Today, fashion advises more restraint: which favors the shape of the lips, their natural design. You also remember the style of eyebrows that were worn before the war? Thin, very thin, going so far as to be completely plucked with, instead, a line drawn with a pencil… for eyebrows. And let us not speak of the hair, of the hairstyle which changes shape — sometimes completely — every three or four years.
In fact, one must take this variable factor into account and make it intervene at the right moment. In general, the artist must know as exactly as possible the fashion and the tendencies which command the feminine face. Not to mention the work which is destined for commercial and advertising art, where the “up-to-date” aspect is something absolutely fundamental.
Finally, look on the following page at some drawings of feminine heads; you will understand through these images that the difficulties in achieving a feminine face are the same as when it comes to a masculine face.
The study of the human head ends with these lines and these drawings, this ideal head “which belongs to no one in particular and which is at the same time the typical model of all heads.”
