This week I am returning to ‘The Natural Way to Draw’ by Kimon Nicolaïdes. I am going to try out Exercise 19: The Head.
‘…devote one pose in each schedule to a separate study of the head, including enough of the head and shoulders to support it. The drawing should be more than life size, filling a large piece of paper (fifteen by twenty)… Don’t think of the head or the face as something different from any other part of the body. Draw it as you would draw a hand or an elbow or a knee.
Don’t try to ‘get a likeness’ of your model. The tendency of the beginner is to separate likenesses from drawing. Draw strangers if you can because you care less what they look like. Do not draw members of your family – or at least do not show them your drawings – because their one reaction will be to look for the likeness. Keep it clearly in mind that YOU ARE NOT MAKING A PORTRAIT. You are making a study of a head.’
pg 78