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QUORA - Learning To Draw - How Do I Draw A Human Face
QUORA - Learning To Draw - How Do I Draw A Human Face
com/How-do-I-draw-a-human-face
Learning to Draw
Faces
Sketching
Drawings
How-to Question
To make it easy to digest, I split the tutorial up into 3 parts: How to draw a face from the front,
side and 3/4 view. This is part 1 of 3. I came up with the original methods in these 3 tutorials by
measuring over a dozen adult faces, so each tutorial carries over the same measuring techniques.
Drawing faces should be easy as pie after you get the proportions down.
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This beginners’ step by step tutorial is for a basic male face. The proportions are different for
females.
Note: Remember to use a blunt HB pencil for these steps. I used a 4B so you can clearly see
what I’m doing. Remember, the darker you go and the harder you press, the more difficult it will
be to erase your under-layers/guidelines.
Tools: HB Pencil Ruler Sakura Electronic Eraser Kneaded Eraser Canson Recycled Sketch Paper
Draw a large circle and make a horizontal line below it for the chin. Then sketch the jawline.
Draw a vertical line down the center of the face and make sure both sides of the face are
symmetrical.
There are 2 ways to do this step: Ruler or no ruler. I highly recommend using the ruler method
for the first couple of faces you draw. Why? Because doing this step without it can throw your
proportions off like crazy. Especially if you have trouble locating the ‘center’ of an object with
your eyes. The no ruler method requires you to split multiple sections of the face in half and then
in half again.
Ruler Method: Make a ruler beside your drawing that is the same height. The ruler should be
marked so there are 8 equal spaces. Always start with the center line. Draw faint lines through
the face on the markings labelled CENTER LINE, 2, 3, A, and C. As you get used to this, you
won’t need to draw the ruler on the side.
No Ruler Method: Without the ruler, I draw lines in this order: CENTER LINE, 2, 3, B, A, C (B
is included because it’s easier to break the forehead section in half first, especially when you’re
drawing freehand). This is the method I use to draw heads all the time.
On the face, mark the center line with 4 ticks spread equally apart. The eyes will sit roughly on
this line. Don’t be afraid to move slightly above or below the line, since eyes are usually slanted.
Extend the 2 lines where the inner corners of each eye are located. These guidelines will
determine the nose’s width. Now that we have a box, it’s time to draw the nose.
The Extend the nose’s bridge past the eyelids to define the brow bone (this step is optional).
These lines should be very light! Using a 4B pencil, draw the eyebrows along the brow bone.
Facial features that can accentuate masculinity are thick bushy eyebrows!
Draw a vertical line down the center of each eye. This will mark the lips’ outer If you’ve already
read it, place your triangle in the small box under the nose to start. If you drew the nose well
above line 2, extend the triangle so the tip touches the nose.
The Center Line and Line 2 mark the general boundaries for each ear.
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Draw the upper hairline somewhere in between line A and B. It’s up to you how large you want
the forehead to be. To draw a receding hairline, go above line A. When you’re drawing a man’s
face, bring in hair from the sides of the head to create a solid and visible looking hairline.
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1. Start from a certain point in your reference picture, mark it on your drawing paper.
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2. Now use the ruler to measure different details from your reference picture and mark them
on your paper. I would suggest you start with the eyes and mark the other features
accordingly.
3. Make a rough outline with light hands so that if required you can erase it.
4. Once you are satisfied with your outlines the remaining part would be easy, start putting
the skin texture using a blender tool.
5. If the dimensions of your picture are small I would suggest you use a mechanical pencil
to add the details.
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Shridhar Sharma, studied Currently Studying in Class 10th CBSE at Seedling Modern Public
School, Udaipur
Answered Apr 19, 2018
Originally Answered: How can I draw real faces of humans, and where do I start?
I am not a professional artist , but I learnt to draw real faces on my own , without any outside
help. So I can describe the steps I took to learn sketching humans .
1. Practise various aspects of human face such as eyes , ears, lips, cheeks etc. Google “ eye
sketch “ and try to draw any sketch of it. Similarly practise other parts also. After some
time you will perfect it.
2. Use 2B pencils or any other drawing pencil ( 2B is the best) . Simple HB pencil is hard
and difficult to sketch with.
3. Then find any pencil or pen sketch of a celebrity or any other human. Try to copy it as
well as you can . If you can't , just practise.
4. There are many , many tutorials on YouTube or google . Watch them if they help.
5. Lastly, practise, practise ,practise. Patience is a must in sketching , so don't be
discouraged if you are not successful .
Good luck !
Johanna
Answered Jun 29, 2017
1. Is it proportional to the actual picture? You might think it looks good at first, but if you
want it to look exactly like the photo you have to make sure everything is exactly in the
right place BEFORE you start drawing. I just put the paper on my computer screen and
mark where each point is.
2. Where are the dark parts and where are the light parts? In the drawing below you can see
the lightest are the whites of the eyes and the highlighted areas -forehead, tip of nose,
cheeks, chin and the darkest are the pupils, lashes, and places where its harder for light to
reach -sides of nose, under the cheeks and chin, and around the eyes. Doing this shows
which parts are in the light and which parts are in the dark so you can tell which parts are
coming forward, and which parts are going back, giving it shape and depth and whatever.
3. Blend. Blending is everything. It can make a stick figure look like realistic photo. After
I’ve outlined everything and colored it in with a pencil, I just use a blender for the rest of
it until I add the details.
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Start with drawing a circle, this will represent the bulk of the head (the cranium).
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Draw a cross-axis (a giant plus sign) to the center and a little lower to the center of the circle
depicting the center of the face. The axis will depict which direction your face faces too.
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Draw a rough face shape down the extended line depending on the face you have in mind.
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Draw a line about a quarter down the original circle, that will be were the eyes are, then draw
other facial features as needed.
Just keep trying until it "feels right", there are other tutorials on the internet about it!
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Refine along the way, take away some of the lines only used as guides, add a hair-line.
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Draw hair with guidance of the hair line, and the top of the hair a little higher than the original
circle.
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And that's about it, I'm sorry if I couldn't draw a realistic face, but I hope I helped!
Edit 06/17:
Lately I've finally decided to try out drawing more realistic faces, and here I would like to
showcase it a little bit.
Well, whether we’re talking about a professional or a beginner, I think starting off with the
pronounced features would be a good idea. This can be any feature that makes them who they
are. This could be a specific nose shape, to just their eye shape and hair colour. Either way it will
be quite hard making a person exactly look like the drawing so in their likeliness is also a good
goal. There is no harm trying though.
Always start off with light pencil work, or using a pen lightly so that you can go over the line
cleanly afterwards.
1- First, draw guidelines, this would be a horizontal line, then a vertical line, which creates a plus
cross.
Start with the basic head shape, a circle then draw a square for the jawline(there are many, so
really study the person) focus especially on the chin and jawline.
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By human face I am hoping that you mean an actual face and not the one with standard
proportions.
So Let’s start with the basic. Every human face has different shape, size and proportions and
that’s where the standard proportions don’t work exactly.
So if you are a beginner first thing you do is select a pic that has a front facing profile.
Now if you just start to draw simply by looking at a picture there are high chances you gonna
mess it up(in most of the cases ).
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So either you take a reference point on the picture and measure everything accurately from that
particular point to eyes, to nose and also between two features like distance between eyes and
nose. This would take some time to perfect and find your own style.
Now if you are on time crunch you the Grid line method. This is useful for large portraits. The
grids will be a lot of help in getting the proportions right.What you do is divide the reference pic
into number of grids measuring 1 cm each and label it.
Now do the same on your drawing sheet i.e make grids of same dimensions and label it too.
Make sure you keep them light.Start with making the outline of the portrait .
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Now once you are done making the outline. Start with sketching the eyes. If you get this correct
you are halfway there already. If not make the changes now only.
Now comes the tricky part. If you are trying to achieve that hyper realistic or say almost similar
look to the pic you need to layer the shades with pencil by applying very light pressure and then
just keep blending it using a thick tip paintbrush or a earbud.
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I leave hair to the last. For this also start with a 2B or HB and see the shades on hair in pic and
go on layering it. At the very end use a sharp edge eraser to create those white line highlights to
make the hair look more realistic.
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Did you see that? That is how we divide a human face. This when drawn on paper or canvas is
broken into the following steps:
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A human face can be perfectly divided into three chunks, 1/3rd each.
Take note of the distance between the head and te eyebrow:1/3rd
Take note of the distance between the eye and nose:1/3rd
Take note of the distance between the nose and chin:1/3rd
Take note of the distance between the nose and the upper lip.
Take note of the distance between the lower lip and chin.
Take note of the distance between the eye and the lip.
Take note of where the ear begins.
So just as we broke the front view of the reference picture into various steps, the same is to be
done with this picture. If it is still not clear, don't worry there's an example shared in latter part of
this answer. That will help you pull off a side view of any reference picture.
Secondly, what are the things that one should take care of while drawing a human face?
Apart from the basic shape and size of the picture (square, round, oval, etc.), the two things that
should really be worked on are: Perspective and effect of light.
Perspective: Once you understand what you are looking at and from where and how that
influences what you are about to draw, your work load is reduced to a huge extent.
Otherwise it's like taking shots at an unknown target. See carefully what a portrait looks
like when you have a three fourth view or a profile view or an oblique view of any
portrait.
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Did you see that? Once you understand this going back to part 1 and taking a shot at drawing a
face is pretty easy.
Understanding how light influences a sketch: Once you are done with the drawing it is
the understanding of light which helps to give character to an image. Have a look at the
image below and see how the shading changes with the area which is exposed to light.
This is very important to understand as your entire sketch depends on this apart from the
perspective bit discussed above.
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Note: All the pictures have been taken from a board I maintain on Pinterest: Drawing Tutorial
1.3k Views · View Upvoters · Answer requested by Harini Sri and Koki Zumi
I highly recommend reading/reviewing the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - the book,
and if you’re really into it, the course. Why Does It Work?
I read this book as a teen while in an advanced Visual Arts program. Along with my teachers’
instruction, this book really helped me see the value in drawing from life in a sort of meditative
state.
Essentially the idea is that while drawing a person or anything sitting in front of you, from life,
don’t get caught up thinking about what is it (a face, or a hand, or even a wrinkle, for example).
Just look at the colors, shades, corresponding lines and shapes that connect everything. Perhaps
the positive and negative space, the shadows.
One way to try this that is a bit easier for some is to draw from a photo, but turn the photo upside
down so the face, or whatever it is, is not as recognizable to the logic oriented part of your brain.
Draw/copy the shapes/all those shapes and colors, lines, etc. Practice this with many photos and
see if, when you turn your drawing upside down from its original position, if the image your
drew resembles something (like an upriht face, if that’s what the original photo was of).
Good luck :)
Tommy Jerry
Answered Jan 11, 2018
Many RFA readers have requested me to write a tutorial on how to draw faces, so here it is!
To make it easy to digest, I split the tutorial up into 3 parts: How to draw a face from the front,
side and 3/4 view. This is part 1 of 3. I came up with the original methods in these 3 tutorials by
measuring over a dozen adult faces, so each tutorial carries over the same measuring techniques.
Drawing faces should be easy as pie after you get the proportions down.
I began making money through my drawings after following this: Realistic Pencil Portrait
Mastery
Draw a large circle and make a horizontal line below it for the chin. Then sketch the jawline.
Draw a vertical line down the center of the face and make sure both sides of the face are
symmetrical.
There are 2 ways to do this step: Ruler or no ruler. I highly recommend using the ruler method
for the first couple of faces you draw. Why? Because doing this step without it can throw your
proportions off like crazy. Especially if you have trouble locating the center of an object with
https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-draw-a-human-face
your eyes. The no ruler method requires you to split multiple sections of the face in half and then
in half again.
Ruler Method: Make a ruler beside your drawing that is the same height. The ruler should be
marked so there are 8 equal spaces. Always start with the center line.Draw faint lines through the
face on the markings labelled CENTER LINE, 2, 3, A, and C. As you get used to this, you wont
need to draw the ruler on the side.
Super SIMPLE Method: If its still a little confusing, check out my simple method here. Its also
paired with a video so you can see how I do it!
Extend the noses bridge past the eyelids to define the brow bone (this step is optional). These
lines should be very light!Using a 4B pencil, draw the eyebrows along the brow bone. Facial
features that can accentuate masculinity are thick bushy eyebrows!
Draw the upper hairline somewhere in between line A and B. Its up to you how large you want
the forehead to be. To draw a receding hairline, go above line A. When youre drawing a mans
face, bring in hair from the sides of the head to create a solid and visible looking hairline.
If you have an electric eraser, use it to quickly get rid of all the guidelines that run through your
drawing. You can clean up certain dark spots or tight spaces with a kneaded eraser.
As always, you dont need to stick to the exact guidelines above. Learn how to draw heads using
the basic guidelines and then mix and match facial features and face proportions.
Learn to draw unique faces by experimenting with various eye shapes, eyebrow angles, nose
lengths/widths, etc… Grab a piece of paper and draw as many faces as possible!
269 Views
To draw a human face what i do is to get a good resolution picture and get it converted into black
and white. And if you have any sketching app through which you can convert it into a sketch
mode then it would be better and easier to draw.
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And then comes the details of hair. It took me around 12 hrs to complete.
This is black and white of the original picture using app ‘picsart’.
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It took me around 14 hrs to complete. This was a birthday present to her and she was really
happy. So those 14 hrs were totally worth the effort made.
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Please ignore the background which is scene of a typical boys hostel of an engineering college.
It took me more than 20 hrs to complete and a lot of patience because of greater details.
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Thanks.
Chris Brown, Ex Art School , Ex Fulltime Scenic Artist, Now self employed Artist/Muralist
Answered Jul 30, 2015 · Author has 210 answers and 159.2k answer views
The human head and face are the most difficult things to get right. A great deal of it has to do
with fact that it conveys so much of the character of the individual, but not to put the cart before
the horse, look at the basics.
Firstly, I think its important to understand whats beneath the skin, in terms of skeleton and
musculature. You can easily research this, we are talking Anatomy for the Artist, and some very
competant draughtsmen has made it their life's work. It will show you the underlying structure,
the complex geometry of what you are looking at.
Secondly, a lot is dependant on what you are trying to achieve. A portrait ? a cartoon ?
If portrait, ignore the systematic approach, some find it helpful, but I have found it liable to
promote a lazy easy solution, a bad habit that's hard to break.
Start with the eyes, they are usually the focus of attention...and no two are EVER the same, just
as two faces are ever the same. A system, as others have describe will help you to draw
a"universal" face, but for a portrait you need to draw an individual, specific one.
Practice and Looking are always key. Practice alot, and assess what you have done, to see your
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Maybe start by ignoring the detail and try to get the form right, the roundness of the skull, depth
of eyesockets etc.
Use a medium to suit, charcoal or compressed charcoal, or 4 tones od paint, black, dark grey,
light grey and white...you could work cheaply on old newspaper.
Work quickly so you don't get over involved in one aspect..set a time limit even. I've seen many
spending a considerable time on meticulously getting the shape of the mouth, or eye right, only
to have to go over it all later when they've stepped back and seen the whole thing, wasting hours
of work.
Its as much about developing your "eye" as anything. An eye for what you are looking at, and for
what you are doing.
Cheat ! Use photo's and magazine pictures if they suit what you are doing. They are helpful as
they are already 2D. There is always tracing paper too..!
Look at other peoples drawings, you can learn so much about how to use your materials and
make the best of them.
How to build up tone, how to vary the width of a line to describe a curve.
Its a good idea to keep an eye on the whites...the areas of paper where you are not drawing...keep
them clean with an eraser, maybe keep your drawing hand on a separate piece of paper so you
don't inadvertently smudge what you've already done.
If an area of paper becomes overloaded and overworked, use the long side of an eraser, lightly !
to take some away.
Graham Donaldson
Answered Feb 23, 2018
There’s lots of different ways to answer your question, but I don’t think spending many hours
making an exact copy of a photo of a face really counts as knowing how to draw a human face.
To say that you have learned to draw a head, you should be able to understand its shape, and why
it has that shape.
First you have to get very comfortable with (maybe a simplified version of) the skull. I’d
recommend finding a 3D model of your liking on Sketchfab and drawing it from different angles,
not in detail, just indicate its shape with simple lines. Then it’s good to study the muscles and fat
of the face, and how it behaves during different facial expressions.
There are plenty of methods for drawing the head, simplifying its otherwise extremely
complicated shape. Some are very simple and some are very hard, but it’s good to know at least
one of these techniques, so that you have something to fall back on when you have to draw a
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head from a weird angle, and can’t quite imagine the shape of the skull or the positioning of the
features.
So if you look at someone’s head and can intuitively place a simplified version of it on paper
with just a few lines, and you are also able to confirm whether or not it’s correct using some
construction method, then you can pretty much draw whatever you want, from life, photo
reference, or imagination.
Of course I’m not saying that this is the only way one should learn portrait drawing, but just as
you can’t say that you’re a historian because you can look stuff up on Google, you can’t say that
you know how to draw the head because you can copy a photo without understanding the shape
of it. I found the channel Sinix on YouTube to be very helpful in understanding the kind of result
I should aim for…
Here’s a small anecdote, I wanted to learn how to draw for a few years, but was afraid of getting
into a field I had totally no experience in, till a good buddy has recommended me on these two
online drawing courses.
Course #1 - https://goo.gl/DtBVdG
Course #2 - https://goo.gl/oV42Zu
Now they are not free, however they are extremely cheap and straightforward to grasp. You'd be
amazed that after a few weeks of practicing, I showed that friend two drawings I made and she
thought that I purchased them in a expert paintings retailer down the road :)
Step 1.
This is a human face from the front view. Start by drawing a oval for the human head, put the
guides for face as sample shows here. This will lay as your foundation to proportion the face
correctly.
Step 2.
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Now, add a few guide lines here for the face. Draw 5 horizontal lines (eyes line -green and black
color included )and 1 blue mouth line. 2 vertical line (right side and left side ), eyes ball in center
with the green line. The lines aren't totally necessary but are preferred in order to keep the face in
tune.
Step 3.
It's time to calculate the position of the eyes, nose and mouth. These lines are just a few pointers
to knowing the distances between each feature.
Step 4.
For the human eyes position, always keep remember the 5 eyes spacing for the face, the pick
screen color are the position of the eyes, nose (blue color shape) in the center between the eyes,
mouth line below the nose. ear line center with the eyes line ( when we wear the glasses) and the
ear line end with same the nose line (remember it), i call all done here like "human face formula
sketch "here.
Step 5.
okay, Now i start using the black line sketching the whole head line, eyes, nose, ear and mouth
according the human face formula sketch here.
Step 6.
Continue sketching the detail for eyes, nose, ear and mouth here.
Step 7.
Sketching the shadow for eyes, nose, ear and mouth here, you can see a realistic female face
appeared.
Step 8.
Use your pencil and shade in the hair to have a finalized result of a human face. It takes time to
create a good looking face. Don't get too rushed when you start drawing the hair.
Step 9.
This is another side for the human face for female. I start with 2 ovals and 1 neck line here. No.1
is the skull, which takes majority of the head. No.2 is the space to draw the face. No. 3 is the
neck line so you can proportion the head on the neck right.
Step 10.
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Circle out the line here for head; add the face line, 3 eyes spaces according the angle, triangular
shape for nose, a line for mouth.
Step 11.
Now sketching out the head line, eyes, nose, mouth. Keep your patience at ease.
Step 12.
Painting the detail and shadow for eyes, nose, mouth and using various graphite pencils. If you
have a digital program, use a customized brush for the hair.
Step 13.
An important part for when you are shading is to depict where the light source is hitting your
figure. In this case, it's from the front, contrasting lots of shadows in the mid section of the face
rather than the sides. When someone is smiling, they have deep creases in the cheeks, lifting
them outwards.
Step 14.
Once you're satisfied with your drawing, it's time to erase the sketch lines (if you haven't
already). I hope you've had a snack out of this tutorial! Have fun!
While there are plentiful methods to understand human face proportions and draw a human face,
it is really a matter of your choice which one to choose (basically which one you are most
comfortable understanding)
Having said that, I would like to mention Andrew Loomis's method of drawing human face, my
favourite one.
There is a great video tutorial by proko on youtube explaining that, I strongly recommend you
watching it first.
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All you need to do in the end is practice my friend. And practice it right. More practice more
results.
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Best way to learn to draw portraits is to start by drawing self-portraits from life in a mirror. You
will be the best model, available 24 hours a day, for free! I recommend watching this self-portrait
drawing tutorial I did, it walks you through all of the fundamentals of drawing a portrait from
beginning to end.
Face is the most expressive part of the body. It can be challenging to portray facial expressions
on paper. Therefore, it is best follow a step-by-step method,
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Step-1:
Draw a horizontal line just above the lower half of the face.
On this line there will be nasal bridge and eyes. Then draw three horizontal lines.
Draw first line for the top of the eyes and second line for middle of the eyes.
Third line will signify the tip of the nose and the beginning of upper lip.
Within these tentative lines, we will draw out each part of the face one by one.
Step-2:
Draw the initial outline of facial features, placing them on the lines.
Draw outline of the Eyes, mouth, and Nose.
Draw a vertical line from the middle of each contour of the eyes.
These two lines indicate the placement of the corners of the mouth on the face.
Step-3:
Make facial features more accurate. Draw the outline of the hair, eyebrows, and ears.
tips of the ears should be slightly above the eye line.
Use the pencil gently, without pressing on it.
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Step-4:
Apply thin and soft strokes when drawing your face and hair.
To accentuate facial contours, use fine strokes to shade in parts of the face where the light
might not hit the face directly.
Create shadows with a thicker and darker tint in several layers.
Use even finer strokes in place where the light might fall.
Next draw the curls in the hair.
Step-5:
Shadows give face volume and enliven it. For a more realistic human face, you can add a
mole, but this is optional.
Okay. Lets first answer the question of what style of face we want to draw.
Let’s begin with anime, just because beginning artists seem to enjoy it. (I have bad internet right
now, so all of the drawings are from my workbook, I hope you all don’t mind.) I personally don’t
enjoy drawing anime, but I did experiment with it once:
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Okay. So, look first at the eyes. Anime eyes are large and dominate the face, but in order to
maintain the look of humanity, they follow a basic rule: the distance between the eyes is the
length of one eye. I couldn’t figure out how to show it here on this picture without ruining the
original, but you’ll see in a little bit.
Next, notice the facial shape and structure. Usually, anime has a pretty normal face size, at least
until you get to the bottom, where it becomes quite narrow.
I normally begin with the eyes, because everything about a face is dictated by the eyes. But there
are other ways, and since I’ve been drawing faces for a long while, I’ve found I like that way
better. I mention this to say that the way you draw will change as you grow to learn your subject.
Okay, so a popular way to start is with a rough circle, which you then draw curved lines down
from which meet at the chin, like so.
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The curved lines should extend from the approximate middle of the circle. How they are shaped
depends on the face of the person you’re drawing. Now, erase the part of the circle that’s inside
your “face”. If you’re new to this, I wouldn’t suggest erasing the guideline in the middle, though.
I don’t like it so I got rid of it.
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Now, if you want to be exact, use a ruler for this part. Measure the length of the face, from the
crown of the head to the tip of the chin. In the middle, right at half the length, draw a line. That,
my friend, is where your eyes will go. That line should run through the center of the pupils.
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Use that line and draw your eyes. Draw them with the edge about half an eye from the edge of
the face. The eyes should be— from edge to edge— the length of one eye. From the inside
corner of the eyes to the top of the nostril should be about— you guessed it— one eye length.
The bottom of the nose to the apex of the lips is the approximate height of an eye. The lips— and
this may vary more from person to person, and on the expression you’re drawing— are the
length from the center of one pupil to the center of the other. When done right, the center of the
eyes and the bottom of the nose should make a neat little isosceles triangle
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After that, it’s just a matter of shading and hair, which don’t really have set proportions. If
everything goes well and you practice then—
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I did this one a long time ago, but you can still see the proportions are pretty much what I told
you.
Eventually, you’ll gain enough knowledge of the proportions to draw a face at pretty much any
angle.
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I hope this helps you. And let me know if there’s anything I should add, readers.
Since i already went through the stages of learning how to draw human faces i think i can give
the correct answer based on best techniques of a popular artists. I would like to add that before
you begin your practice please know that this skill requires considerable time and practicing and
there is no quick way to success.
First let me tell you that many portraits of hobbyists fall flat in depicting the depth. This is
because they don’t take the effort in studying the proportions and massing of a head.
The best way is to start with simple forms and then add minor details to give you a vague idea on
the finished form.
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Now remember to practice with faces pointing in various directions to master the technique of
drawing facial muscles.
When drawing with simple forms, it is best to convert them to 3d forms by adding guide lines to
it. One of the main guides are brow line and middle line. Where brow line is for forehead and
middle line for face.
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These two guides should help you in aligning the head and adjusting its direction.
One of few mistakes i observed in a lot of portraits is the lack of expressions. Remember to
practice with expressions. The more expressive they are the more life like would be your sketch.
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I would also advice you to not limit yourself to a particular demographic. Instead experiment
with heads of various of people belonging to various ages and genders.
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All the above content is based on Loomis method developed by William Andrew Loomis who
was a popular illustrator in early 19th century.
If you found the techniques helpful you can read the book “Fun with pencil” .
Dhirgham Murran, 40 years in arts and perspective renderings. Founder of new perspective
procedur
Answered Mar 29, 2018 · Author has 503 answers and 1.7m answer views
Everyone has shown the process starting by the outside of the head then filling in. I learned it the
other way around, starting with the eyes and finishing the outside contour. The result can be
more accurate this way, as the inner features are more important than the head contour.
First step. A light outline for the face, Starting with the eyes.
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Skulls, skulls, skulls, skulls, and more skulls. A bunch of sketchbook pages with nothing but
skull practice and study.
It works almost magically. You will learn the planes and shapes of the face, and wrapping skin
around that is way easier, as it’s simple reduction. Just open up Google Images and draw freely
without even trying to get them realistically. Just think of what goes where and have fun with it.
The patterns will quickly get ingrained in your muscle memory.
Getting from a skull to a face is basically filling in the blanks after that. :)
A lot of other people here have already demonstrated how the eyes are in the middle (vertical) of
the skull. And how, at least from the front, you can place the eyes by dividing the skull into 5
equal parts. One eye width on the outside of each eye, and one eye width between the eyes.
But beyond those basics, I recommend always drawing from life, never, ever draw from photos.
The camera flattens the 3d form, and makes it much easier.
Working from life, even if it’s you in the mirror, is much better practice. It forces you to work
fast, since no one can hold still very long. And it brings honesty and character to your work. You
can never get it perfect when working from life, and that is part of the charm. Experienced artists
can spot work done from photos from across the room. It’s a look that is not pretty.
These photos are progressives of a drawing I did while my wife sat for me. It was about 10 hours
of work in total. I started on a toned surface, white paper painted blue with watercolor paint.
Then I began with the basic egg shape, placed the eyes vertically in the middle and began
roughing in the basic forms with vine charcoal. Vine is nice because it erases by brushing it with
a finger.
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I continued working with vine charcoal, developing the form. I will usually check my drawing in
a pocket mirror to make sure it’s accurate. A mirror gives you a ‘second pair of eyes’ since it is a
view you’ve not been staring at, and it’s fresh. I am smearing the charcoal here to get some mid
tones.
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In the image below, I’m doing what’s called pushing and pulling. I push the form back by using
colors darker than my blue mid tone (black) and I pull the form forward by using colors lighter
than blue (white). I’m also creating the illusion of roundness by following the form as I draw
with my white conte crayon. Following the form is similar to what you see on a topographical
map of a mountain.
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For example, on the chin, you can see the white line curving as it follows the form down. And it
curves away to the left, since that is how it would look following the rules of perspective. Think
of a 3d model, in skeleton or wireframe view.
As I begin to bring in skin tones with pastel, my logic gets a little crazy. Painting the skin it’s
natural color of tan or flesh simply looks bad. Been there, done that and didn’t like it. I paint in
the opposite color from tan, which is green, on the color wheel.
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Here I’m balancing the real color (tan and brown) with green and red, because they add
excitement to the color scheme. Note I’m also following the form with my strokes to add
roundness. Because green is the opposite color from flesh tone, it tends to make the form turn
away, or push back.
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Here I am trying to use mostly flesh tones, but I keep the greens in play at the same time. The
French Impressionists of 1860 were constantly balancing complementary colors to add vibration
and excitement to their color schemes. And they did *not* paint from photos.
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My model and the painting. I made her look younger. She liked it better that way, and the
wrinkles didn’t add to the beauty of the artwork. She looks this way in my mind anyway.
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The finished piece. I prefer paintings that don’t look like photographs. I’ve got cameras for that.
Photos get tossed in the garbage in a hundred years. A good painting survives on it’s own merits,
it has life. When a painting starts to breath on it’s own, I know my job is done. More of my
artwork can be found at websterart(dot)com
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You have some great ideas and explanations here to help.. I'm just going to chime in with
something very small that you may also find helpful.
Lets say you are working from a photograph of someone and trying to draw them and you
suddenly feel stuck and unable to continue because you just can't get something right. This
happens to me when I get around the nose area as it's one part of the human face I have problems
drawing.
First, don't let any problems you may be having made you feel sad or angry - it's a learning
process to let your hands create what your mind sees... take a few moments to walk away from
what you are doing and then when you are ready, take your reference photo and turn it upside
down. If you are unsure, do a quick sketch of it upside down to see how you feel about it. Also
turn your artwork upside down if you feel ready to work on it again.
This is a very helpful technique that allows you to see the negative space around something
instead of the 'something' that you are working on. When you are trying to draw something (like
a nose or lips) and you "know" what the shape is, you can suddenly be overwhelmed thinking
"Oh dang, this does not look like a nose at all!" Sometimes you draw what you think the nose
should look like ... so when you turn the image upside down, you can suddenly draw what is in
front of you and see it in a different light instead of what your mind thinks a nose should be.
Cheers!
Vikki
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Wicked Stones
Human faces are no more or less difficult than anything else, however, we attach a lot of
importance to them. We identify everyone we know by their faces, so we often worry about how
accurate they are. I find it difficult to work from photos and prefer live models because photos
often distort face more than they provide accuracy, but if you must use one then that’s ok. I
suggest trying using angles between facial features to make sure they are lined up as in the photo
or on the model. What do I mean but that? Here’s what I do to position the features in the right
places:
After drawing a rough shape for the head—generally an oval, I mark about 1/3 down and draw
an arc through the first oval for where I think the eyes will be. Then I mark where I think the
outer corner of the left eye is and measure the angle using my pencil or brush between the outer
corner of the eye on the left side of the photo or model, and the outer corner of the nose on the
left side of the photo or model. Then I transfer that line very lightly to my support (whatever you
are drawing on) making sure it touches the mark I put on the arc for the outer corner of the left
eye (Shown as a blue line on the example below).
I use my pencil again to measure the distance between the outer corner of the eyes and put a
mark near where I think the right outer corner of the eye should be. Then I measure the angle
between the outer corner of the right side eye and the left side of the nose. I transfer that line to
my support lightly. (shown as a blue line on the example below) Where those lines cross is
where the left outer corner of the nose is located. Once I have this reference point, I can measure
the angle between the outer corner of the left side of the nose to the inner corner of both eyes and
transfer a mark onto that line (shown as red lines).
Now I have 5 reference points to work from: the outer corner of each eye, the inner corner of
each eye, and the left outer corner of the nose (shown as yellow dots). From here I can locate the
the right outer corner of the nose using the same angle technique.
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Now you can lightly sketch in the eyes, and the nose. Use the points shown to locate the corners
of the mouth, the chin
For me, once I have all the facial features in the right places, I focus on values to add volume. If
I’m painting, I then work toward accurate skin color and hair shape if it is to be a realistic
portrait.
Now, practice. Make a thousand faces if you want to be good at it. Enjoy the process. And I hope
this helps. If it doesn’t there are many books out there on drawing faces. Check with your local
library.
1. Begin the human face by drawing the head as an oval egg with the slightly larger end at
the top.
2. Draw a vertical line down the center and a horizontal line near the middle. This will be
your guide line to position the eyes.
3. Draw another horizontal line halfway down between the eyes guide line and the bottom
of the chin. This will be your nose guide line. capture1-3.jpeg
4. Once again, draw another guide line halfway down between the nose and the bottom of
chin. This will be your lip guide line.
5. Separate the eye guide line into five spaces. Start in the middle with two lines and work
your way out. capture4-5.jpeg
6. Shape in the eyes in a lemon shape with the tear ducts facing in. Shape in the nose from
the edge of the eye down to the nose guide line with a light rectangle. Human eyes come
in many shapes and sizes. Capture6.PNG
7. Detail in the eyelid and pupil. From the center of the
pupil, draw vertical lines to position the lips. Capture7.PNG
8. Draw the lips, remembering the contour shading. Shape the nose and the eyebrows.
Capture8.jpeg
Hope, it helps.
(Sorry, couldn't embed images for they somehow violated Quora's image policy.)
credit: You Can Draw in 30 Days.
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Anonymous
Answered May 17, 2017
If you are a beginner and want to learn how to make a sketch, just read on:
Choose a person’s face you love and want to draw. Take a photo of that face and then use
SketchAR to make outline, look how it works:
Download SketchAR-drawing using augmented reality on the App Store for iOS
And as I know they already have for Android, check it here SketchAR - start drawing easily
using augmented reality
Try to observe the effects of light around that object and try to put that down in paper.
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Good luck!
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