Plate I,2 - Mouths

Eight simplified schemata are paired with finished mouths viewed from different angles. These models treat the mouth as a unit that includes the nose and the chin; the student is taught to see the mouth integrated in the surrounding organic structure of the face, continually varying in shape and relationships as the view changes.

The refined version has been developed around the near straights of the schema, without following them exactly. Without the careful control supplied by the guidelines, the proportions would probably go awry.

In the foreshortened views, the line cuts through the center. You are meant to get used to drawing foreshortened views right from the start.These models are idealized views of nature, taken from classical sculpture; the simplification of nature has already been done for you twice: first by antiquity and again by Bargue.

Gérald M. Ackerman — Charles Bargue and Jean-Léon Gérome, drawing course.