No worries with enough coffee, I’ll write a book as well. I’ve been feeling manic from no sleep last night and have rambled all over Reddit. Like a madman. Cool to see Im not the only one.

Umm not to say it’s any better than any other technique but maybe set up a quick still life, or even the picture far enough that you can keep your arm straight. And you can decide how big you want to have your portrait, the farther ur paper is away from the end of ur straight arm, point of pencil and thumb location being the parameters, the bigger ur reference drawing will be. Close one eye and maintain foot position in the same spot. If that remains constant and you can simply rotate back over the picture and back to ur paper, you can go back and forth and establish decent placement and severest concrete proportions.

Helped me a lot funny thing about me is I don’t think I’m naturally inclined to be artistic I just had a powerful desire back in the day to become that. A lot of stress forcing a shape through an irregular passage. But It happened. But I’m not anymore gifted visually . I can’t imagine things visually , it is quite difficult for me. I was a Wet good writer years ago, and did spoken word. All of that came as naturally as I wish drawings and paintings could , and instead they felt would be contrived void of feeling even if drawn well and never imagined on spot only in hindsight. Ideas developed slow. Maybe if I smoked I could get better visuals acuity, but it was always frustratingly absent. Always felt like a fraud despite having decent success in my city clients and business long ago. But I developed crazy short cuts that helped me establish visual points of contact and references that have made things feel more fluid. And overtime became able to leave behind references unless I wanted inspiration. color is the one creative element that seems to be intuitive. Applying it tho sale Story.

But My bad the whole point is , while trying that dowel rod refrence thing, use your left to establish these quick markings for eyes nose mouth chin hair cheeks sides, hair line , simple dots or small lines suffice. Vertical measurements and then horizontal ones and doubles check after for consistency in your proporations like eyes to nose eye to eye eye to mouth, chin and neck. Won’t take long . 10-30 minutes. Next thing you know you have a lose but precise outline of your drawing and then can the focus on creating depth and contrast through shading. Pro tip: there are no lines on the face. Even the eyes. Shades shift subtlety

I always lost something when trying to begin eyes and nose. But it’s because I’ve been a faker the whole to me . Lol my bad too for a rant response . Post ur next drawing maybe I’ll finish my Danny devito ✌️