Faces! the study of shapes and forms.
Faces, faces and more faces! anatomy is definitely my favourite topic of study especially when concerning the face and head, especially since there is a lot to consider in such a relatively small area.It also the most important part of the human body to study as it's complexity and interplay of forms can become very confusing if you don't practice often.It's important to pay attention to the subtle curves of all the features of the face such as the eyes cheekbones lips and nose if any of these forms is not constructed properly you run the risk of flattening the face or having each feature floating on its own perspective plane which leads to odd and awkward looking faces.
I often find when I'm dealing with fanciful creatures such as orcs, goblins or dragons, for example, I am at liberty to essentially invent the forms from my imagination. I know exactly what shapes I'm dealing with and their dimensions and construction does not seem to be such an issue.
However when I dealing with humans and I need to operate within a set of biological limitations then things get a bit trickier.It often comes down to a game of feeling that something is off and me referring to a bunch of different references to try and suss out the problem.Usually, the problem boils down to perspective or proportional issues, with the biggest offenders being the eyes nose and lips. However, with a lot of practice and observation, I have seen a dramatic improvement in my anatomy and the number of faces that come out feeling believable even when I work from my imagination.
Going forward I want to further my studies into anatomy to further iron out my problem areas but I also wish to improve my mental library of faces in general so I can better produce a number of diverse looking characters to avoid that copy pasted look that some artists have with there characters.
