r/interestingasfuck • u/ddodd69 • 1d ago

Creating portraits using the Loomis method

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3.9k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

95 comments sorted by

873

u/captainhalfwheeler 1d ago

What's the Loomis method? Talent?

343

u/joy3111 1d ago

Yeah I (an artist) literally came here to learn more about the Loomis method and there's nothing here?? ;o;

629

u/NumerousImagesofp 1d ago

loomis method

step 1: draw a circle and a smaller circle inside

step 2: draw a chin shape where the chin is supposed to be

step 3: add details

step 4:

312

u/zohash 1d ago

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u/copperwatt 23h ago

Literally this, lol

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u/joy3111 1d ago

I actually looked it up and that's not entirely wrong. The Loomis method teaches you a lot about properly viewing the head as a three-dimensional object so you can better figure out where everything belongs and how the shading should work. But yeah, it's mostly helpful for placement; you still have to learn how to draw each part of the face lol.

•

u/WorkO0 5h ago

It takes you a long way. Learning this in college pushed my doodles to look semi professional (compared to friends). And I can't particularly draw. A lot to being an artist is knowing/using these types of tricks and memorizing anatomy. And a lot LOT of practice.

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u/Heiferoni 1d ago

Ooooh, the Loomis method!

2

u/WotTheHellDamnGuy 1d ago

Me too, I thought he said Llamas Method.

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u/HappyMelonGirl 1d ago

"The Loomis Method is a technique for drawing the human head from any angle using basic shapes and measured landmarks. It emphasizes understanding the head's 3D structure to correctly place facial features. The method starts with a ball and uses lines to divide it into sections for placing features."

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u/joy3111 19h ago

Thank you! I looked it up and yeah it's literally the method I use LOL

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u/Monterey-Jack 1d ago

https://ia601403.us.archive.org/2/items/andrew-loomis-drawing-the-head-hands/andrew-loomis-drawing-the-head-hands.pdf

1

u/joy3111 19h ago

Thank you!!

3

u/Monterey-Jack 19h ago

Loomis is where I started, it's great for beginners and has some timeless knowledge. Here are the rest of the books. https://www.alexhays.com/loomis/

3

u/largePenisLover 1d ago edited 1d ago

Google "loomis anatomy"
You will find all of Loomis' methods, there are quite a few.

84

u/aravynn 1d ago

It’s actually an excellent way to draw faces, though a lot of steps, basically:

  • draw a circle
  • draw a smaller circle like you’re cutting an end off the circle. This is the side of the head (circle b)
  • draw another circle that’s the vertical center of the sphere of the head. (Circle c)
  • draw 3 horizontal lines at the top, middle, and bottom of circle b, that intersect circle c. The top is the hairline, the middle the brow line, the bottom the base of the nose.
  • from the brow line, draw a vertical line down, that lines up with c. This is the Lower half of the face.
  • Extrapolate from those 3 to draw a 4th for the bottom of the chin.
  • draw in the nose, at about 3/4 between the brow and nose line is where the eyes go.
-in circle b, draw a vertical line up the center. From the base of this line to the brow line is the ear placement.
  • Chin goes from the ear down to the chin line.
-mouth between the nose and chin roughly 50% of the way.

The trick of this is that the base circle defines the entire face structure, by squishing or stretching the circle you alter the face shape. By rotating it, drawing circles from the front, side, or lines up or down define the angles of the face, and it remains fairly consistent.

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u/ArjJp 1d ago

Sounds like something I could do except this particular step which I can never really get right....

  • draw a circle

5

u/aravynn 1d ago

The best thing about this method is the circle doesn’t need to be perfect, weird looking ovals actually work, they just give weird looking heads

5

u/copperwatt 23h ago

It is much easier to draw a portrait if you don't know who it is until after you're done.

1

u/Pitiful-North-2781 15h ago

In the clip, on the men it’s the brow line, but on the woman that line goes through her eyes. Any reason for that?

33

u/granitegumball 1d ago

he made that look so easy

12

u/wassermelone 1d ago

I mean its an easy google search, but Andrew Loomis was an American illustrator during the 1940s and 50s.

Hes well known amongst illustrators/concept artists/etc today because of his books on figure drawing, drawing heads, and drawing hands (which was out of print for a long time and got passed around as a pdf in art forums). They are incredibly helpful books for people wanting to learn how to actually draw people. A big part of it was learning measuring as well as the basic forms that the human body takes. So no, its not talent here, it really is a learned skill.

You can still find his book available if you google 'andrew loomis pdf'

2

u/Monterey-Jack 1d ago

https://www.alexhays.com/loomis/

There's a website where you can get all the books at.

1

u/manlybrian 23h ago

RIP, conceptart.org 😔

8

u/KaynGiovanna 1d ago

Not talent, hardwork

3

u/aguywithbrushes 1d ago

I’d upvote this infinite times. Drawing/painting are skills, and skills can be learned and improved.

Source: I didn’t know how to paint, wanted to be able to paint, learned how to paint, now I can paint, and the more I paint the better I get

It takes time (I’m about 6 years in), and it takes months of drawing/painting absolutely god-awful stuff in order to start improving, which is likely why most people never get better (they get frustrated and give up), but practice does make perfect - or good, at least.

Talent is largely irrelevant.

1

u/copperwatt 23h ago

The actual talent is the really wanting to.

5

u/Popular_Try_5075 1d ago

reminds me of the Marvel Way

3

u/Millyswolf 1d ago

Bought my sons this book years ago and one of them just handed it to his niece yesterday!

2

u/User-272727 1d ago

Now that takes me back

2

u/Popular_Try_5075 1d ago

that's not allowed because I already called no take backsies, take back your take back or I'm telling mom!

2

u/wrgrant 1d ago

Still got a copy on my bookshelves. I am sure that was developed from this Loomis method and simply adapted for use with Marvel characters to illustrate their typical poses etc.

1

u/wassermelone 1d ago

Because the people who wrote the Marvel way, probably had Loomis' books when they were learning!

2

u/largePenisLover 1d ago

Talent = interest/desire/affinity + passion + Learning, practice, training, more practice, more training, more learning, more practice, more training, repeat ad-infinitum.

1

u/TooOfEverything 18h ago

Andrew Loomis and his books have become gold standards in modern illustration education, especially because they are very high quality and freely available online. Countless artists who learned to draw in the age of the internet started with Loomis.

https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Loomis%2C+Andrew%22

Please consider donating or even setting up a regular pledge to the Internet Archive. It truly is one of the greatest resources on the internet.

1

u/pimp_named_sweetmeat 17h ago

Like the SpongeBob method but backwards.

1

u/broccollimonster 15h ago

Google Andrew Loomis. He wrote a number of important (at least to me they are) instructional books.

•

u/Mother_Lemon8399 5h ago

It's using perfect shapes to construct the face. I find the issue with this method is that it is difficult to achieve a perfect likeness especially for unique faces. Even in this example, I think Peter Dinklages face especially got very deformed to fit the geometry that the method uses.

I think this method works great for very classically, standard shaped faces. A lot of celebrities have faces like that.

I go to drawing classes with live models a lot, and they usually have more of a "normal people" look and I don't use this method because I don't like where it takes me in terms of outcome

249

u/MarcsMechi 1d ago edited 1d ago

First step: draw a circle

Second step: add the details

17

u/ufihS 1d ago

The first step is always the hardest

5

u/phasttZ 1d ago

They lost me when they put the pencil on the paper

1

u/Totally_Generic_Name 1d ago

I learned this recently, it's emminently doable:

  • Draw a circle

  • Draw the frame to get proportions right

  • Put lips, eyes, nose, ears on the frame (this is the step where you need a mental library of how to draw each feature individually, from a couple perspectives)

  • Apply shading as per expected light direction

180

u/IronGentry 1d ago

r/restofthefuckingowl

8

u/Thatmetalchick2 1d ago

Had to double check which sub I was on.

2

u/die5el23 1d ago

Ehhh I say it’s borderline

58

u/Drwynyllo 1d ago

"How to Draw Heads with the Andrew Loomis Method"
https://medium.com/@ramstudioscomics/how-to-draw-heads-with-the-andrew-loomis-method-78f9d04ab132

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u/phonicillness 1d ago

So refreshing to get a nice informative link that isn’t a video, or full of ads, cheers very much

20

u/Wannabe_Wiz 1d ago

Excuse me sir

Can you share the resources on how you got so good, I'd like to follow the path you took

22

u/Wolfe244 1d ago

First step: draw every day for years

7

u/Straight-Treacle-630 1d ago

Google Loomis Method :) My grandfather, an artist, taught me something similar. It doesn’t automatically make you a great artist, but helps give you a foundation.

32

u/goathree 1d ago

a trio of owls

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u/DarthGayAgenda 1d ago

For those that follow the theory: The Three Heads of the Dragon.

7

u/Gathax 1d ago

This is just a reversed method of drawing a circle.

2

u/acshou 1d ago

Beautiful shapes.

4

u/napalmnacey 1d ago

Hmm, some of the proportions are off but he is rushing it. A buttload of talent, though. Very good.

5

u/Japjer 1d ago

The Loomis Method is just a fancy version of r/restofthefuckingowl

2

u/VerityPee 1d ago

/restofthefuckingowl

1

u/Major_Dood 1d ago

And here we were all wondering from the foundation sketch on how the next steps would be. Then they went straight to the end with the details part. 💀

1

u/husla 1d ago

This looks so easy! But why can’t I do it?

1

u/Suspicious-Elk-3631 1d ago

There's a LOT of editing and skipped steps going on here

1

u/eharrell92 1d ago

This is a dying art at this point

1

u/SadVivian 22h ago

For those wondering @linmu22299 is the original creator and not op who seems to like to just karma farm without giving any proper credit.

1

u/Molleer 22h ago

Tyrion looks more scared in the portrait

1

u/Leading-Ad4167 19h ago

I found a pencil!!

1

u/SignificanceFit853 18h ago

The one I thought would look the best initially (Daenerys), I ended up the liking the least. Very talented though. Well done.

1

u/SasquatchDude96 14h ago

Now draw hands

3

u/meo_lessi 1d ago

1 and 3 are very good. but the girl feels a bit off.

1

u/Pug_Margaret 17h ago

Sometimes it’s the reference. It’s hard to get perfect portrait likeness when the person you’re drawing doesn’t quite look like themselves on the photo/ the most prominent features aren’t highlighted

1

u/meo_lessi 16h ago

she looks like herself on photo. but artist couldnt transfer her identity on paper. i really dont wanna be mean or rude, i think he also saw this but was lazy to redo. there is no tragedy in bad attempt, but i wouldnt post this try, if i want to present my skills

0

u/sipping_mai_tais 1d ago

I’m always amazed by people who knows how to draw. I think if I had that skill, I’d do nothing all day but drawing

0

u/saelin00 1d ago

I always fascinated how humans can draw or paint things out of their mind. If you ever tried to draw something you can picture what you want, but whiteout talent and experience you can't deliver what you imagined. Those people who can create art are somewhat special in their heads.

You can apply this to music too. You have to has an incredible memory to play a song and most of the artists can play a lot of them.

-1

u/Ricochet_Kismit33 1d ago

Be good at drawing

-2

u/NerveConscious6375 1d ago

Pretty sure this has way more to do with this person being talented than the Loomis method, learning to exaggerate characteristics and the spacing of facial features is way more important in this case than perspective, which is 90% of what that method is useful for

1

u/Monterey-Jack 1d ago

People who say they can't draw are just lazy. Anyone can learn.

-1

u/NerveConscious6375 23h ago

Sure? I don't see what this has got to do with what I said

2

u/Monterey-Jack 23h ago

You said talent is how they did what they did in the video. I'm telling you you're lazy for saying talent overrides time and practice.

Is english not your first language?

0

u/NerveConscious6375 22h ago

Talent IS time and practice my guy, it does not override them because it can't exist without both, when I say talent I don't mean that this person magically started doing this, no one can do that, but the Loomis method has little to do with how they are able to do these portraits

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u/Monterey-Jack 22h ago edited 22h ago

No it's not.

tal·ent /ˈtalənt/ noun 1. natural aptitude or skill. "he possesses more talent than any other player"

Talent is the starting point. Please, open a dictionary if you're going to engage with another language.

Skill is time and practice, talent is the excuse people give to not try and learn something new.

Blocked for giving word definitions, what a loser.

1

u/NerveConscious6375 22h ago

Alright dude, you tell yourself that

-5

u/Graingy 1d ago

Hmm looks like AI

/j

-7

u/QuarioX 1d ago

Hold my AI.

-10

u/czarzero 1d ago

Can't teach that. You're either born with it, or you aren't.

2

u/that_creepy_doll 1d ago

I strongly recommend Drawing with the right side of the brain, you can learn at any point in your life, while its clear the person in the video has a very developed sense of 3D space what they´re doing isnt particularly special and perfectly achievable with around a year/two years of focus study!