these aren't mine. i found them by browsing pinterest. i saw them many, many, many times. i used to go on there and binge for a few hours to get references for gesture drawing and such, and these would inevitably pop up.
my problem is that i don't know about color theory. most of the art in my life has been drawing in my sketchbook with a pencil.
i can't rely on my knowledge. i can't tell what is reliable and what isn't. if you tell me there's THREE COLOR ZONES on the human face, yellow red and blue, do i just believe it? does it apply to EVERYONE?
no. of course it doesn't. From "Gurney Journey"
The complexion of a light-skinned face is divided into three zones. The forehead is a whitish or golden color. From the forehead to the bottom of the nose is reddish. The zone from the nose to the chin tends toward a bluish, greenish, or grayish color. [...] In real life, these zones can be extremely subtle, almost imperceptible. They are more pronounced in men.
Men. Light-skinned face.
Well, okay, let's assume i want to draw realistic portraits of white men.
There’s reason behind this. The central zone of the face has more capillaries carrying oxygenated blood near the surface. The forehead, by contrast, is much more free of muscles and red blood cells. And the chin, especially on a man with a black beard, is bluish from the microscopic hairs. Around the lips are relatively more veins carrying blue deoxygenated blood.
Like all general rules, there are plenty of exceptions. But it’s good thing to keep in mind next time you’re painting a head.
...Alright then. But...how do I know when to emphasize the blue? How do I know what lighting makes these zones clearer?
I can't sort every single piece of "art advice" I see like this that gets shared around like it's one of those SECRETS that the POMPOUS ARTISTS keep from you. I have enough trouble just getting to do things that I can finish!
'cause for things like bones, and anatomy, and shading, I already have a lot of experience with it. I am confident that I don't need to know every single name for every single bone in the body to be okay with how I draw it. I am confident with the simplified shapes I remember and manipulate to make up figures. I know forearms don't look like chicken drumsticks, but it's like a mnemonic for the image of a forearm i do have in my head.
I don't have these confident mental images of color in the human face. I don't know where to put the yellow and the red and the blue, IF there is such a thing as yellow and red and blue zones in the face. I've seen so many illustrations and so many photographs of faces where I DON'T SEE THE PATTERN.
This is not helpful to me, but it lives rent-free in my head.
