This exercise, which was suggested and taught by Jeff Watts in the Watts Atelier, centers around a mannequin head created by John Asaro called The Planes of the Head. I would like to purchase a copy of the head at some point in the future but currently I will need to draw it from photos.
Luckily during searches on Pinterest I found a download of very high resolution images of the asaro planes of the head bust at multiple angles. I think it is a total of twenty or so photos and I decided to just go through each one and draw them.
Actually upon scouring Pinterest a second time I was lead through several website links and finally found the source of the download. At a very random website, which I never go to and please be careful of its content as I’m not sure if all of it is safe for work… link below.
Download 22 high resolution images of John Asaro Planes of the Head here.
I would highly recommend checking out the Jeff Watts online Atelier. Watts teaches many different phases beginning at the most basic fundamentals and moving to very advanced painting techniques. Here is a video of him giving an overview of the Drawing Head Phase 1 course where the Asaro Planes of the Head mannequin head is featured among other busts and skulls used to study head anatomy.
Asaro Planes of the head drawings
Don’t mind this page of scribbles its just my warmup routine, I usually try and get in a few portrait studies on this before I begin on the major drawing. These are more head lay-ins though, in the Andrew Loomis style.
I drew this front view once before and it turned out terrible. For the second attempt I really focused on comparative measurement and the drawing turned out much better.
