Sparring with the Asaro Head

Lately, I’ve been drawing from the Asaro Head – or, as I think of it, “sparring”. Artist John Asaro created various “planes of the head” models, including the classic (or complex) version and the “memorized” (or simple) version. Years ago, I posted my efforts from the classic version. Since recovering from my eye surgeries and getting back to drawing on paper, I decided to start with the simple version (I need to build stamina to tackle the classic version again). I tend to practice drawing like an athlete training for competition. I approach the Asaro head like a boxer stepping into the ring. It’s not enough to draw the Asaro head once or twice; you must draw the head multiple times from multiple angles. It’s a sparring match. You will become fatigued, you will make mistakes, you will need to correct your proportions, and there will be times where you feel like giving up. Drawing a page full of Asaro Heads requires stamina as well as skill. In this particular exercise, you might get one or two good drawings, and then botch the next one, ruining the page. On top of that, you want to compose the page so that all the views of the head look like they were intended to go together in a unified composition. I’m not sure I achieved that here, but the point is to practice. I had to do several of these pages before I felt ready to post one. My life drawing skills have been rusty, and I really needed this practice. The Asaro head makes a great sparring partner.

Below is my studio setup where I am drawing on an old easel build decades ago by my grandfather (a skillful carpenter by trade). The Asaro head is on a camera tripod. 

And just just for old time's sake, here again is one of my efforts from the Classic Asaro head which I posted online years ago.