Every portrait you light sits on top of this. An écorché strips away the skin to show the muscles of the face and neck.
Watch how the muscles around the eye, cheek, and jaw wrap and overlap, and how light rakes across them to pick out every ridge and hollow a smoother surface only hints at.
Orbit the camera, rotate the head, and right-click to recolor it. Add lights, reposition them, and watch the muscle forms catch and lose light from any angle.
These muscles sit just beneath the skin of the
Realistic Male Portrait Lighting Reference, and just above the bone of the
Skull Drawing Reference.
