Greetings Artisan!

Let’s dive into some structural drawing…

Drawing heads and faces is probably one of the most important things to do as an artist. It helps you connect with viewers, and a lot of us start our drawing journey drawing simple faces.

You have probably heard of the many different structural methods for drawing faces and heads. You have probably heard of the “Loomis Method”.

But something I have found over the years, is that despite many aspiring artists and students learning these techniques, they often lack the ability to apply it.

Drawing floating heads is one thing… actually drawing characters with personality and emotion is another…

Why does the Loomis method work perfectly for generic heads but fall apart when you try to draw actual characters?

I remember practicing those academic spheres over and over. Getting the proportions just right. Following every step exactly like the books showed. Then I’d try to draw a character with personality and… nothing.

The whole thing would collapse.

This was even more problematic as I wanted to have my own art style. And these structural methods seemed to only ever focus on drawing realistic faces.

And boring faces at that!

For years I thought I just wasn’t practicing enough. Turns out I was using the method completely backwards.

I made a video about how the Loomis method actually works in production…

How Pros REALLY Use the Loomis Method

​

In this one, I demonstrate with Ken Masters from Street Fighter - showing how to apply construction to a real character design, not just academic heads. You’ll see the actual workflow: rough emotional sketch first, then finding the center line and brow line, then adding the sphere if needed for volume checks.

In it you’ll discover:

• Why starting with the center line changes everything
• How to keep character personality through construction
• The two-phase approach used when drawing actual illustrations

The thing is… when you’re drawing the same character hundreds of times for comics or animation, you need something that actually works. Not academic theory.

Nobody drawing in a real production scenario starts with a perfect sphere. They start with the character. With the emotion. With Ken being Ken Masters, not generic head number 47.

​

The way I think about it now… there’s two critical lines. The center line running down the face. The brow line across the eyes. Find those first and suddenly everything else clicks into place.

The sphere becomes a tool you might use to define the mass of the skull. Or might not. Depends what you need.

Thinking about how to apply structural drawing to a sketch means you can sketch loose and free because you know you can true it up later. You’re not replacing your sketch with formulas. You’re enhancing what’s already there.

Let me know if you have struggled with the Loomis Method before! I’m keen to hear everyone’s experience.

Cheers!

-Tim