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Difficult to Draw

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John Graham Inkson

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In the human form what do you feel is the most difficult part to draw? There is one part that really puzzles me sometimes, it’s so strange to work out, is it this way that way or what way.? 
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Brett Hill

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For me it’s not so much the difficult part but the perspective. In that case it might be the hands. Sometimes they can look so unreal and clumsy because of the angle  that I end up simplifying them - or walking away in frustration.
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Robert Jones, Napa

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The mouth - hands are difficult, but only technically so; and practice makes OK, if not perfect.  But the mouth seems to be the key point at which a portrait just goes so wrong it's a fight to bring it back - I've applied all sorts of formulae from all sorts of books and videos, but  there isn't one formula that fits everyone, nor anything like it.  Every now and then, I  try to draw my grandfather - a fool's errand really, because he died some 48 years ago, and memory plays tricks even with the help of a photograph: because he was posing in the photograph - knew he was the subject, composed his features.  Certainly not smiling, which he nearly always was - he  had  a very mobile mouth, as most of us do,  and while I've come very close: it's never close enough.  I ought to stop obsessing over it, really. Anyway, long answer to a short question, but that's mine. 
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Brett Hill

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Yes, that’s true about hands and practice makes perfect. And also about mouths, probably the most telling aspect of the face, possibly more than the eyes.
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Peter Smith

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It's hands for me, they can make or break a picture. Faces I can do OK.
heather self2

Heather Love

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100% agree with Robert, getting the lips 'right' is make or break in terms of capturing likeness.

Denise Cat

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Everything is difficult without constant practice but forshortening of limbs, hands and feet are most difficult. Also the face for example looking up or down. The nose, forehead, chin may have to be shortened or lengthened to reflect an angle that may not be straight on. 

Denise Cat

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Everything is difficult without constant practice but forshortening of limbs, hands and feet are most difficult. Also the face for example looking up or down. The nose, forehead, chin may have to be shortened or lengthened to reflect an angle that may not be straight on. 
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John Graham Inkson

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Thank you for your interesting replies folks. I must mention ears as they are like a maze. I stopped trying to draw hands, feet, eyes and so on and took up looking for shapes. Our brains tend to stereotype what we see and we have to get parts that stereotyping. It takes practice but once the concept was set in I found working from the shapes I see is the way forward. Any object is moulded by the light falling on it. Oh yes and as Denise said, practice, and more practice .

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by John Graham Inkson