HowExpert Press - How to Draw Faces

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Using my drawings, I will teach you in thisstep-by-step guide on how to draw realistic faces.

I have been drawing as a job for a total of 5years, but I have been practicing as a hobby before that for aroundtwenty years.

Even if I have been drawing that long, I stillconstantly practice and continuously learn. I encourage everyonewho will read this guide to practice drawing and sketching everyday as well. Because this guide is about drawing real peoplesfaces, you must constantly observe different peoples faces inorder to master what a realistic face looks like.

With each day that you observe faces andpractice sketching them, you will come a step closer to making yourdrawings more and more realistic.

Basically, the realistic drawing doesnot look cartoony and should look like you are staring at aphotograph of a real person as much as possible.

Achieving realism in drawing faces relies onseveral things:

Correct Proportions

Cartoon faces look cartoony because features ofthe face are either exaggerated or missing.

Depth

A cartoonized drawing often looks flat likecomic strip drawings, whereas a realistic drawing looksthree-dimensional. Characters are often drawn this way to make themlook cuter.

Shading

Most cartoon like drawings do not have shadingand are colored in blocks or are heavily outlined.

High Detail

Some cartoons just take two to four strokes indrawing the nose, as opposed to a realistic drawing where there ismuch more detail.

Action Lines

This is my term for lines, patterns, or evensometimes words which are drawn around the character which helpsgive an impression of movement or emotion. This is something that Iwont be discussing here because it does not fit with the realisticstyle.

For drawing realistic faces, youcan use everything from a ballpoint pen to a brush and watercolorpalette. Since this is a learning guide, the best material to useis the pencil. With a pencil, you can always erase any mistake youhave made, making it the ideal drawing utensil for beginners.

For the drawings on this guide, I used thefollowing:

Blue pencil (for drafting and plotting)

7B pencil (for final drawing)

4B (for shading)

Bond Paper/Copy Paper

Before actually sitting down and drawing,you have to find a good place where you can draw, of course!

Finding a comfortable spot is important, becausedrawing takes a lot of time and you dont want to be in anuncomfortable place for long.

Find a table with a nice height; not too high ortoo low. A high table will just make your arms easily tired andthrow your drawing proportions off, whereas a table that is too lowwill hurt your back and give you a headache from looking down toomuch.

Find a spot with good lighting. Bad lighting orplaces that are dim will just make your eyes tired and strained, sofind a bright place to draw. Good lighting is also needed so youcan see if your drawing is correct, if the shading is enough,etc.

Quick Tip: If you feel some discomfort inyour wrist or hands:

Take a pause from drawing, especially if youhave been continuously drawing for more than an hour.

Loosen up your hand/wrist/fingers by shakingthem.

Give your hand some stretching by closing yourhands into a loose fist and then opening them, closing and thenopening them again gently.

Stand up and do some arm stretching, especiallyif it is your whole arm that feels tense.

As I mentioned earlier,realistic faces have proper proportions, so in order for you todraw a realistic face, you need to learn the basic proportions ofthe human head.

Eraser

Blue pencil (drafting)

7B for the heavier lines

Triangle ruler (if you do not have this, anyruler will do)

Try to memorize the proportion and where thelines of the proportions lie. Remembering them will help you get anestimate of where to put the eyes, nose and mouth and how long orwide they should be so that the face will look pleasing to the eye.Not everyones faces will have proportions like this. There will besome variations, but this will serve as a standard guide fordrawing the face.

Ball-like Figure

1.Draw a ball-like figure. This will be thebasis or outline for the top part of the head.

Create 4 Equal Parts

2.Next, draw a vertical and then a horizontalline perpendicular to each other such that they create 4 equalparts. Make the vertical line a little over twice the size of thehorizontal.

3.After you have done step 2, make a linedividing the upper-right portion into two equal parts.

4.Where the line of division touches the outerpart of the circle, draw a straight line parallel to the line belowit (the horizontal line you made earlier.)

5.Measure the gap between the line you made andthe first horizontal line you made. Using that same measure of gap,draw another straight line parallel to the first one.

Four lines serving as the markings for wherethe hairline, eyebrows, nose and chin should be.

6.Now that we have four lines in total, thosefour lines will serve as the markings for where the hairlinestarts, where the eye brows should lie, where the tip of the noseis and where the chin should be.

Subdivide further for guidelines forplacement of the eyes and mouth

Guideline with Example of a Head Drawingthat Follows the Guideline.

7. In order to estimate where the eyes and thelips should lie, subdivide the partitions further into four equalparts.

Divide Vertically into 4 Equal Parts

1.Using the sameguide we used earlier, start dividing the circle into four equalcolumns.