Drawing facial features

I'm beginning to think my college professor is a little clairvoyant. Last week she assigned us hands to draw (which my 6th graders are doing) and this week she assigned us facial features (which my 7th graders just wrapped up).

I love to draw portraits, so I'm finding this week's homework really enjoyable. There's something completely fascinating about looking closely at an eye or a nose or a mouth. There's all these subtle details you don't even notice until you really take the time to study them in depth.

For my grad school homework, I have to draw nine studies of facial features,enlarged (drawn bigger than real life). Our professor asked us to create the illusion of three dimensionality using value and cross contour lines.

So far my wonderful fiancé has allowed me to draw his eye and his nose. Two down, seven more to go!

A page from Miss Goff's sketchbook, showing her art homework