This funny baby came out at the end of a lot of exercises I was doing drawing the classical “map” of the face, which I learned at my portrait drawing class.

I like this class and am learning a lot and getting exposed to new ideas, like the importance of getting the basic proportions of the human face into your muscle memory. I had certainly seen diagrams of the classical portraits, but hadn’t really understood until the teacher walked us through the face-on view–eyes halfway down the face, the bottom of the nose halfway between the eyes and the chin. Of course, at the same time that I’m learning, I’m also in rebellion. No one–well, all right, nearly no one, especially outside of Scandinavia–has a nose that falls entirely between their eyes. I realize that’s beside the point. One is supposed to learn anatomical structure in a general way and then tailor the details to the individual. Still, I enjoy the complaining.