What makes a face recognisable?

[aardvark]

Here's something I've been wondering, and you guys and gals may be able to help me out.

What is it that makes a face recognisable?

Is it a particular feature? Do you always ensure the eyes are as close to realistic as possible and then play with the rest? Is it the nose? The mouth? Can you draw the eyes right, but have the nose way off and still achieve likeness?

Is it the proportion of the features and their relationship to each other? Why is it that you can make someone's chin longer than it should be, or their eyes further apart, and still achieve likeness?

Maybe it's the expression? Yet, I look at the work of people like Tom Richmond in Mad (is that a dirty word around here??) and he seems to be able to put whatever expression he likes on a face and achieve likeness?

Or is it the shape of the face?

I was just looking through Jan Op De Beeck's gallery, and some of the faces are way over-exaggerated, the shape of the face is changed, the expression is different, yet it still looks like the person it's supposed to be.

Before I decided to turn my hand to this caricature caper, I'd only ever drawn a few portraits, where, if the slightest detail is off, it's obvious!

I'd be interested in hearing your opinions.

[horate]

The formula when i have done Mac Donalds series , is to begining a little exageration with the shape of head and face, (depending of the subject head-face shape), so then you can put eyes, nose and mouth with specifics little exagerations.As a general rule for me, with this formula, eyes are small than reallity and mouth bigger...nose is also small.The rest is to copy from the reallity.Depending the subject face you can exagerate more or less, something speciall, like nose, head, eyes, ears,.....
For sketches i begin with eyes and then continue with the rest.
I think that if you use some logic, and a plan for work, things can appear instantly...also,...while you are working, try to imagine the face as a caricature, it aid a lot.

[jong]

a lot of great questions there aardvark. don't know if i really have any answers. imo, everything is important... the eyes, nose, mouth, ears, face shape... everything contributes to a likeness. the more you get right the better the likeness. ''right'' doesn't have to mean unexaggerated.. it can be ''right'', but the truth is exaggerated. but sometimes something is done ''wrong'', but it's just that to exaggerate one thing, another thing has been de-emphasized. for example, some artists if a person has a big chin and big forehead, they'll exaggerate the chin and de-emphasize the forehead. in a way, it's ''wrong'', but it works because the emphasis is on another feature.

i've heard different theories about getting a likeness. one, frank zieglar mentioned in the thread of chris' park sketches, was that if you have 3 features right you already have a 70% likeness. so maybe that's what you're seeing with some of op de beeck's caricatures.. because he has atleast 3 features right he can get away with doing other things ''wrong'' and still get a good likeness.

another theory i've heard is that the eyes and the expression of the mouth are the most important things to capture in order to get a good likeness. i think that i agree that they're the most important... but that doesn't mean you can disregard everything else!

another person said that the relationship between the eyes and nose is very important.. and that the mouth and face shape are important too.

i think that the main thing you need to get to get a good likeness is capturing the overall impression you get of the person when looking at them. if someone, let's say, looks ''cute'', then you need to get all the things that makes them look ''cute'' right.

and yeah, i think, the proportional relationship between the features is very important!

i think it just takes practice to get a feel for what will give a good likeness. exaggerate all that makes the person an individual and the things that aren't as unique about the person probably aren't as important.

it's amazing how we can recognize someone even if their face is totally exaggerated! it's amazing how are brains work!

sorry this is so long, all this and i probably didn't really answer your questions! ;D

[devro]

heres someting 2 try...take a face and draw it with no exageration then try again exagerating everything if you like it, ur done if u dont like it then try again aiming 4 something inbetween.


dev

[andysarts]

i think its all about the eyes & nose, because there the main features in the face, i mean a mouth can look the same on anybody but noses & eyes are different..as for exagerating the main thing i like to play with if the shape of head features like cheeks & the chin mainly so they stick out humorously..