Facial Feature Close-up Studies
Four isolated drills carved out of the same old man portrait — eyes, nose, moustache, white hair. Each one is a standalone exercise.
Eyes: one highlight beats a thousand details.
Impasto eyes don't draw lashes or pupil rings. Drop one bright catch-light on the iris and let the surrounding shadow do everything else.
Nose: the shadow is the structure.
A nose doesn't stand up because you "draw the bridge." It stands up because of two triangular shadows underneath it. Nail those two triangles, the nose is there.
Moustache: direction beats quantity.
Don't paint individual hairs. Sweep clumps with a hard tip, and let each clump follow the direction of the face's turn. That's how facial hair gets volume.
White hair: everything outside the white is grey.
Only 5% of white hair is allowed to be pure white. The rest has to be cool grey, warm grey, or violet grey. Otherwise the hair "floats" on the head with no weight.
After finishing all four drills, return to Chapter 01 — Full Walkthrough. You'll see every detail of the face land differently the second time around. Chapter 01 — Full Walkthrough