And no, I am not talking about the ones you fly in….Chances are there are walls around you right now.  Think about how flat and straight and perfectly vertical they are. Now realize that there is nothing that flat and straight and vertical anywhere on the head. 

You may have heard about the planes of the head.  So here is a simple way to think of them. 

This a ruler. I am using it here to show something very straight.  

And here is a profile of my friend and plaster cast, Fibonacci.

If I put the ruler against his profile you can see something interesting….nothing matches that perfectly vertical ruler. Everything on the human skull does this interesting “back and forth”- up planes and down planes.

If I put the ruler against his forehead, it tips back away from vertical- and thereby catches more light so it is an “up” plane.

If the ruler tips away from vertical the other way and follows what you can think of as an “undercut” then this area is a “down” plane. Catching less light from above. Like this lovely little area here between the eyes- the glabella.

And so it continues……

Up plane…

Down plane…

No walls here.

This happens all over the head, and of course, this means the sides of the head too. And notice how FAST these changes between the “up” planes and “down” planes takes place… Swing back… swing under… swing back…. swing under. No real perfect verticals. 

Ugg and we try to recreate all this on a flat surface…

Light will tell us what is happening. Follow the LAW in a painting and all will be well and structurally sound. Break the law and well…you have problems. Anyone that thas taken my “Power” Workshops will know about “Larry the Light Beam” and his friends. If you want to learn about Larry and how he tells you what is going on with those planes of the head too, just send me an email and I can get you a recording of a past class. The 2-day 12 hour Power Workshop is normally $295.  The recording is $200. And I also have workshop recordings on my Color Class and on my Composition classes. Each of those one day recordings are $100.  Send me a note at [email protected]

More next week. 😊