For my BS class of the semester (Art, Design, and Visual Thinking), our first project was to be a lesson on “points”. We had to take a photo of ourselves, and blow it up several times on a crappy photocopier (the crappier the better) until our faces took up the entire page. Then we had to draw a 1-inch grid over it and cover up the “unnecessary” (for recognizing us) squares. Then we had to take an 11×17 piece of paper, draw a bigger grid on that (I used 1.5″ squares), turn both pieces of paper upside-down (so it’s easier to replicate, because you’re not focusing on the actual features of the face), and stipple a self-portrait using a pencil eraser and an ink pad. (I shaved my pencil eraser down to a smaller size so that I could make the self-portrait more detailed.) Then you erase the gridlines, and voila! You have a reasonably accurate replica.

It surprised me how much turning the picture upside-down helped. While I was working on it I would be thinking “This looks like crap, this doesn’t look anything like a face.” Then I’d take a break and turn it right-side-up again and think, “Oh, wow, that’s my eye!”

The comparison between the photo and the drawing: