Merle from memory vs from photo ref

I watched a Merle Oberon movie Friday night. She's very pretty but not in a conventional way.

The next morning I tried drawing her from memory.

The thing that stood out most to me about her unique features was her high bulgy forehead. The 2nd most noticeable feature was that she had a very small mouth and chin.

I missed some other of her specific features though and the cartoon from memory didn't look like her.

I thought I'd look at some images online to see if I could better understand her details and draw a more accurate cartoon of her.

 Eyes

In the memory drawing I totally got her eyes wrong.

I studied her eyes to put into words what was unique about them.

They are kind of small.

They are wide apart.

They are almond shaped and slant upwards on the outsides.

Nose

She has a long thin nose that flares at the bottom. 

Mouth

Her mouth is small compared to her facial shape.

It is very close to the bottom of her nose-hardly any space between them.

Her lips are very shapely. 

 

Her upper lip is widest towards the outsides of her mouth.

 

Her lower lip recedes from her upper lip.

Forehead

Her forehead is much smaller visually in relation to her wide cheekbones, yet her hairline is very high.

She has a noticeable bulge in the middle of her forehead and wears her hair to accentuate it.

 

My first attempts to draw her from photos are hesitant and stiff as I concentrate on trying to turn my analysis into action.

By the time I finished breakfast they were getting a bit looser and more caricatured but I still have a ways to go.