Building the Head
What gives a drawn head its structure?
Rectangular divisions, broad color areas and curved contours offer different ways to structure a head. Compare clearly separated facial zones with layered surfaces and more rounded forms. Follow a boundary between two features, then notice the marks crossing it. The apparent shape of a head and its surface pattern can suggest different directions for looking.
Flat Fields and Nested Frames
Three works that build faces from zones of flat color and nested rectangles, treating the head as a system of contained compartments rather than a rounded or modeled form.
NNOTB #170
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View & watch drawingA red-and-black field holds two nested square eye zones and a lower tooth rectangle — the face as a set of framed compartments on a hot, high-contrast ground.
NNOTB #171
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View & watch drawingStacked rectangular panels and mismatched spiral eyes echo the compartment logic of the previous work, but the hot red field gives way to a cooler olive green.
NNOTB #168
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View & watch drawingNested rectangular outlines layer around a dark brown core; spiraling eye loops and a bared tooth row push the compartment system toward confrontation against a high-contrast orange field.
Both works divide the face into hard rectangular zones; where the first burns with red and black, this one settles into olive and yellow, shifting temperature without changing structure.
The contained panels now multiply outward as stacked nested frames, and the orange field raises contrast sharply against the preceding work's muted olive ground.
The Segmented Figure
Three works where structure extends from face to full body, with plated torsos and blocky heads that treat the whole figure as an assembly of interlocking parts.
NNOTB #16
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View & watch drawingA standing figure whose wide rectangular head and striped torso are held together by two independent wandering line systems — structure and loose energy sharing the same frame.
From a face built of nested frames, the view pulls back to a full standing figure; the rectangular head carries the same compartment logic into a body with arms and feet.
NNOTB #131
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View & watch drawingA plated, gold-toned figure stands square-on, its torso divided into hard-edged panels with white zigzag marks and deep shadow at the joints — the most solidly bounded body in the gallery.
NNOTB #203
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View & watch drawingA squat figure crouches low, its warm amber bulk pressing toward the viewer; cyan-rimmed rectangular eye forms and a raised hand introduce unresolved tension into the plated body type.
The previous figure is held together by wandering lines; here dense gold plating and shadow-filled joints replace that looseness, making the body feel heavily bounded rather than sketched.
The previous figure stands upright and monumental; this one crouches and crowds the frame, its looser scribbled edges and raised hand breaking the armoured stillness.
Lines That Cross the Face
Four works that keep the face frontal and close-cropped but run lines across it that do not follow the underlying structure, making the boundary between inside and outside uncertain.
NNOTB #244
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View & watch drawingA cat-eared head on a saturated blue field, its face divided into zigzag bands and an orange inset box, with red strokes pushing outward against the blue containment.
Moving from a full crouching figure to a cropped head, the blue field holds the face firmly while jagged marks and outward-pushing strokes reintroduce the pressure of escaping energy.
NNOTB #185
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View & watch drawingA black-ground face built from hard rectangular blocks — mismatched eyes, wide jaw — crossed by arcing lines in magenta, sky blue, and red that refuse to stay behind the figure.
NNOTB #288
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View & watch drawingA frontal face accumulated from amber and rust lines over a flat tan ground; pale scribbled eye boxes and a white tooth grid give it a fixed, wide-open quality built up layer by layer.
The previous work's lines push outward from the edges; here they cross directly over the face, making the rectangular structure feel besieged rather than simply framed.
The previous work's crossing lines are energetic and multicoloured; here a warmer, denser accumulation of amber lines replaces that, the face built up rather than crossed.
NNOTB #153
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View & watch drawingA large rounded form built from overlapping yellow, white, and blue lines with a dark interior; loose strokes escape at the edges and the composition splits into unequal halves.
The previous work fills the frame with a tight frontal face; this one loosens the outline, letting strokes escape at the edges and splitting the composition into an uneven left and right.
Faces as Display Boards
Four works that replace expected facial anatomy with panels, grids, and emblems — arrangements that invite the eye to scan across the surface rather than settle on a single focal point.
NNOTB #245
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View & watch drawingFour framed panels replace facial features, each running its own small system of loops, crosses, and zigzags — the face as a display board to be scanned rather than met.
The previous work's loose overlapping lines give way to a strictly organised face where each zone is a self-contained panel, shifting from accumulated marks to separated compartments.
NNOTB #292
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View & watch drawingA diamond-shaped head under a wide-brimmed hat; yellow outlines divide the face into looping eye sockets and a barred mouth zone set against soft pooling colour fields.
NNOTB #299
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View & watch drawingLarge pink glasses divide a rounded turquoise head into two bright panels; a toothy emblem and yellow crown bars offer immediate recognition followed by a slower, more exploratory look.
The previous work's four panels are symmetrically arranged; here a diamond head and off-centre hat tilt the geometry, introducing asymmetry and ceremony into the display-board format.
The previous work's compartments are built from multiple yellow-outlined zones; here the system reduces to a single bold horizontal division — the glasses — against a clean turquoise ground.
NNOTB #167
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View & watch drawingA gold mass pressed close to the frame edge, with a dark open cavity and scattered teal loops — no rectangular panels, held together by compressed warm colour rather than drawn compartments.
The previous work's clean turquoise and pink panels give way to a dense, pressurised gold form with no clear compartments, offering a deliberate contrast to the display-board logic preceding it.
Scaffolding and What It Leaves Open
One work closes the gallery: a rounded head where heavy black outlines hold color patches in place but leave a hollow eye socket and an open hatched mouth that the structure does not close.
NNOTB #166
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View & watch drawingA rounded head on a grey ground, its black scaffolding holding colour patches in place while a hollow eye socket and a wide hatched lower gap remain visibly unresolved — structure that does not fully close.
Where the previous chapter's works replaced anatomy with readable panels, this head keeps recognisable skull anatomy but leaves its most prominent features — eye and mouth — as open cavities that the black outlines frame without filling.
One more look
Choose a head with clearly divided features and compare it with a rounded form. Which lines or color areas establish their different structures?