How to Draw a Face

Dingana amin'ny dingana

1. Endrika 1

   Draw a circle for the cranium.

   The top two-thirds of a head is essentially a ball, and everything else attaches to it. Draw it big - the commonest structural error in beginner portraits is a skull that is too small for the face hanging off it.

   Mitandrema Drawing an egg for the whole head, which leaves no room for the jaw.

   Jereo The circle should occupy the top half of your page.

2. Endrika 2

   Cut the sides flat and drop the jaw to the chin.

   A head is narrower from the front than a sphere would be, so flatten both sides of the circle. Then run two lines down and inward to the chin, which sits about a quarter of a circle-width below the bottom of the ball.

   Mitandrema A pointed chin, which reads as a cartoon. Chins are blunter than you think.

   Jereo The head should be taller than it is wide, by about a third.

3. Endrika 3

   Draw the halfway line - top of skull to bottom of chin.

   Measure it, do not guess. This line is where the eyes go, and it is almost certainly lower than your instinct says. Every proportion after this is measured from it, so getting it wrong ruins everything downstream.

   Mitandrema Placing this line by eye and putting it too high.

   Jereo The distance above and below the line should be equal.

4. Endrika 4

   Divide the lower half into thirds: brow, nose, chin.

   Two more horizontal lines. Brow just above the eye line, the base of the nose a third of the way down from it, and the mouth a third of the way from the nose to the chin. These hold for most faces before you start adjusting them for a particular one.

   Mitandrema Putting the nose halfway between eyes and chin, which lengthens the whole lower face.

   Jereo Nose base should be closer to the eyes than to the chin.

5. Endrika 5

   Divide the eye line into fifths and place the eyes.

   The face is five eye-widths wide, and the eyes occupy the second and fourth fifths - which means there is exactly one eye-width of gap between them. That gap is a likeness cue and it is easy to check, so check it.

   Mitandrema Eyes too close together, which is the default instinct.

   Jereo You should be able to fit one more eye between the two.

6. Endrika 6

   Add the iris and pupil, partly covered by the upper lid.

   A relaxed eye always has its iris slightly cut off at the top by the lid. Drawing the whole circle exposed is what gives portraits their staring, alarmed look, and it is one of the most common errors on the internet.

   Mitandrema A fully visible circular iris.

   Jereo The top of each iris should be hidden by the lid.

7. Endrika 7

   Place the nose: width equals the gap between the eyes.

   The wings of the nose line up with the inner corners of the eyes on most faces. Draw the underside plane and the nostrils rather than an outline down each side - a nose has almost no outline on a real face.

   Mitandrema Outlining the sides of the nose, which makes it look stuck on.

   Jereo The nose should be as wide as the gap between the eyes.

8. Endrika 8

   Place the mouth: corners under the centres of the pupils.

   That is the check - mouth width against pupil centres. Draw the line between the lips first and make it the darkest mark in the lower face; the lip outlines come after and stay light.

   Mitandrema Drawing the mouth too narrow, which shrinks the whole lower face.

   Jereo A vertical from each pupil should land near a mouth corner.

9. Endrika 9

   Place the ears between the brow line and the base of the nose.

   That is the whole rule, and it is reliable. Ears set too low are one of those errors that makes a portrait feel wrong without the viewer being able to name why, which is exactly the kind of error worth measuring away.

   Mitandrema Ears too low and too small.

   Jereo The top of each ear should be level with the brow line.

10. Endrika 10

    Draw the hairline about a quarter of the way down the skull.

    The forehead is taller than instinct suggests - roughly the same height as the nose. Drawing the hairline too low is the other half of the eyes-too-high error, and the two together produce the alien look.

    Mitandrema A hairline sitting just above the brows.

    Jereo Forehead height should be about the same as nose length.

11. Endrika 11

    Draw the hair as masses, never as strands.

    Same method as the tree canopy: three or four big shapes with a light side and a dark side, and hair sits ON the skull with volume, so it should extend beyond the circle you drew. Individual strands come last, if at all.

    Mitandrema Drawing hair as lines that follow the skull outline exactly, which looks painted on.

    Jereo The hair should extend past the skull circle.

12. Endrika 12

    Now check the widths, not the heights.

    Turn your drawing and the reference upside down and compare three distances: eye to eye, mouth width, jaw width. Widths carry likeness far more than feature shape does, and they are the thing beginners never check.

    Mitandrema Refining the features instead of correcting the proportions.

    Jereo All three widths should match the reference.

13. Endrika 13

    Pick a light direction and shade the five recesses.

    The eye sockets, under the cheekbones, under the nose, under the lower lip, and under the jaw. Those five are in shadow on almost every lit face, and putting tone into them is what turns a diagram of a face into a head.

    Mitandrema Shading the outline of the face rather than its recesses.

    Jereo You should see the skull structure underneath.

14. Endrika 14

    Lose the outline along the lit side of the face.

    On the side facing the light, the edge of the face against a light background almost disappears. Softening it there while keeping the shadow-side edge firm is what stops a portrait looking cut out and pasted down.

    Mitandrema A uniform hard outline all the way round the head.

    Jereo Squint. Part of the outline should vanish.

15. Endrika 15

    Go over the lines you want to keep, and lose the guides.

    This is the step that turns a construction drawing into a finished one, and it is the one most people skip. Press harder on the outline and the features; leave the small stuff light. That difference in weight is what makes a drawing look deliberate rather than traced, and it costs thirty seconds.

    Mitandrema Going over everything at the same weight, which flattens the drawing back out.

    Jereo The outline should be clearly darker than the smallest details.