Learn "FACE PLANES" Before RENDERING

本站添加: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]So, I got some questions about rendering in my previous videos. I love rendering faces. It's so much fun. I love it more than MSG. If you're Indonesian, that's a huge [ __ ] deal. But before we get to the fun stuff, we have to learn the basic stuff. Something we need to understand before doing the rendering. And that's something called the planes. No, not the flying kind, the flat kind. If you Google planes in face, you will be served with these low poly 3D head models and this is the one you want. The most popular 3D model is the Assaro head created by John Asaro, hence the name.

[00:00:40]It helps mapping out the shadows thanks to its rough edges. It's easy to miss the midtones or the shade between dark and light in a photograph because photographs are very smooth. Many beginners tend to only focus on the dark shadows because they're the easiest to notice. With the Asaro head, you can map out the midtones and the hard edges of shadow to add volume to your portrait. A great example for the use of planes is Arcane. I'm sure all of you know Arcane.

[00:01:08]It's a very popular series. Arcane has a very distinct art style. It implements kind of a boxy shading. So, you can see the sharp edges of the shadow and the light. And if you look closely, the sharp edges are slowly blending into the base color. And this is what we're trying to achieve by learning the Asaro head. It's all about combining the hard edges and the soft ones to add realism to your work. Every semi-realism artist use hard edges in their portraits. Not only does it add depth, hard edges make the facial features distinguishable even without line art or sketch. I'm using the Asaro 3D model head made by William Muen. It's available for free on Art Station, link in the description, and you can rotate and adjust both the lighting and angle to suit your needs.

[00:01:58]Next thing you want to do is to look for photo references, preferably in grayscale so you don't get distracted by the colors. Then try to break down the shadow and light using the Asaro head.

[00:02:10]This is a practice so your eyes can get used to seeing different intensity of shadows as well as how to simplify the face. Try doing this to several references to train your eyes to break down the faces into planes. Dark shadows like the one under the chin are easy to notice. So focus on breaking down the midtones because those will add volume to your portrait. Afterwards, try to identify the shadows, midtones, and lights without the asaro head. I split the shadows into dark and gradient. Dark means it's completely dark. Gradient means it's a dark shadow but gradually becomes lighter but still pretty dark and you can still outline the shape. Mid tones are abstract. We can't usually outline them, but I'm trying to shape them anyway to show you guys. Then of course the highlight. Keep in mind that it doesn't have to be perfect from the get- go. You will notice there are more shades as you draw. Sometimes the shades that I considered as dark turned out to be a gradient or even a midtone and that's totally fine. The main purpose of this practice is to train your eyes to break down the shadows. I usually start my painting with the darkest shadow. I always consider them as the main one because they have clear shapes and therefore making the facial features more prominent. We'll be doing all the drawings in grayscale for today because colors are distracting. Then I add the shade below the darkest one. In the breakdown, I called it a gradient, but now that I think about it, it's just a darker shade of midtone. By the way, I'm sure there will be questions about my brush. Even though I mentioned it over and over in my previous videos, but I'm using flat watercolor opaque for everything from sketching to rendering.

[00:03:56]You can keep the shading sharp like in the Asaro head 3D model to further practice about the planes. I actually tried using the lasso tool to keep the hard edges intact, but it did not work.

[00:04:09]Sorry. So, I prefer directly shading with the brush instead and blend a little bit. Next, add the midtones. Mid tones act as a buffer between the base color and the shadow. The more midtones applied, the softer the surface looks.

[00:04:24]They also add volume to the painting.

[00:04:26]Let's take the nose for example, because I see many beginners struggle with noses. This is the nose without the mid tones, only the dark shadow. And this is with the midtones. The one with midtones look more realistic and volumized. There are many small faint shadows on the nose alone. And there are many more on the whole face. And this is one of the things we're practicing to notice by learning the Assaro head. Normally, I leave the shading like this and get to rendering or painting over the sketch.

[00:04:56]But I don't feel like rendering a bold head. So, let's move on to drawing number two. Now, I want to talk a bit about how I simplify my sketches and how using the Assaro head can help with simplifications. I prefer breaking down the face into rougher basic shapes because I can determine the planes from the broken lines. It's harder for me to do so with smooth curves. You can trace the reference just like we did with the shadows, but this one is so much simpler. It's just turning the curves into angles. Use the Assaro head as a guide so you don't draw too many broken lines. However, keep in mind that a guideline is just a guideline. It's not a law. For example, the lips in Asaro head is simplified into two broken lines. One, two, one, two. But I myself prefer to break it down into three lines so it doesn't look too pointy. One, two, three. One, two, three. I'll be drawing Lohan because I'm manifesting. Lohan checks all of my boxes. He's beautiful and unhinged. I will break down the shadows really simply this time. Strong shadows and lights can be outlined with sharp edges, while midtones have more abstract shapes. Now, we're going to implement that to the drawing. As always, I start with the dark shadows first. It's just my preference. You can start with anything really. I will also shade the hair, but it will not be our focus for today. The hair will have its own dedicated video. Then we move on to the midtones. I'm starting with the nose since the mid tones is quite dark there.

[00:06:30]For larger areas like the cheek, I like to use the lasso tool to keep the hard edges intact. Lower the brush's opacity and blend it with the base color because the shadow gradually gets lighter further down. Many beginners tend to miss the midtones below the lower lip.

[00:06:46]So, be sure to add that in. Afterwards, add more details like darker shadows below the fringe. highlights and fill the eyelashes with color. You can darken some shadows around the facial features and below the neck so it doesn't blur during the next stage, which is rendering. And to be honest, if you diligently shade your painting like this, the rendering will be so much easier and faster because you just focus on cleaning things up instead of adding details and fixing stuff. It's very common to lose the hard edges in rendering because of all the blending.

[00:07:19]My rule of thumb is to only blend one side of the shadow. For example, we have these midtones or softer shadows on the jaw and cheekbone. Blend one side each and leave the other side as is. I'm going to add some details like highlights and whatnot. This video is focusing more on the planes and shading, so I'm not going to yap too much about the rendering. Rendering is not a stepbystep guideline. There's lots of repetition and picking colors and blending. I'm planning on doing a membership only live stream about rendering so I can quickly address what you're struggling with. Don't worry, it'll be available to all tiers. I don't know when I will do that though, maybe around miday. But yeah, if you're interested in learning more about rendering, you can become a member. It's less than a dollar. But you don't have to if you don't want to. I also tried adding colors to the grayscale portrait.

[00:08:11]It doesn't look natural, but it looks better than I expected. Maybe I will talk about grayscale to color in the next video. Let's draw one more portrait using a reference with unclear shadows.

[00:08:22]Aside from the nose and under the chin, not all references have good lighting.

[00:08:27]And I'm sure there are times when you hesitate using a reference because the shadow is [ __ ] Well, once your eyes get used to breaking down the planes with different shadow intensity, you can sort of eyeball the shadow placement. Yes.

[00:08:41]Essentially, you'll be able to use your imagination for a bit because all that practice with the Asaro head builds your visual library. Cool, right? By the way, I really enjoy simplifying the nose. You can play around with the bones and stuff. I saw an artist draw with this nose. I think it's called Greek nose. I don't know. I'm just reading the comments and uh all phantom agreed that he should have a Greek type of nose. It looks really attractive. Many beginners hesitate to start with dark shadows because it can look unnatural and honestly kind of intimidating. That's fine. You can start with the midtones, then work your way to the dark shadows.

[00:09:21]Every artist has their own workflow. I just prefer starting with the dark shadows. By the way, I made a mistake of immediately adding scars on the messing up with the nose shading. So any details on the face like scars, freckles, beauty marks, etc. should be added later. They are too distracting and messing up with the rendering process. The Asaro head is great for mapping out the shadows because of its rough edges. But for blending, try looking for smoother 3D models wrapped with these gauze like lines. Observe how they curve and which way the shadow gradually gets lighter. I like to add line art to the facial features. Not too much though, just to redefine them if some details are lost.

[00:10:04]Understanding planes is very important before you render. It gives you a strong base so you don't overwhelm yourself trying to figure things out during the rendering process. It also builds your visual library. Next, I want to make an updated video about grayscale to color.

[00:10:20]I've made one before, but it's on Procreate, so I want to do one in IP paint. Anyway, thank you so much for watching and I will see you guys in the next one. Bye.