Learn How to Draw a Face with Confidence!

I know when I learn to do something for the first time it helps if I can actually interact and "do" the activity at hand. Nothing could be more true then when learning to draw, especially when learning how to draw a face.

If you just start drawing the eyes, a mouth and nose you may come up with a pretty decent portrait,then again you may come out with something that looks like an abstract drawing. You might even come up with something that will change the shape of the modern art world.

Even if that does happen you'll still eventually have to learn the basics and advance for your next masterpiece!

If you don't know the rules of how to draw a face how can have fun breaking them. You can't!

Let's Begin

These steps will give you a better understanding of the process and show you the basic formula for drawing faces accurately everything time, not just those fluke masterpieces. Once you follow these proportions and learn them, your drawings should be exponentially better and have more depth.

There are a few different methods for drawing faces and heads including the "egg" method where you draw an egg shape and then a second but this method ,I find,leaves quite a bit of room for error. The simplest method I have found is the one I will demonstrate. It's actually quite easy to pick up, which you should do in no time.

Step 1: Draw a circle

Sounds pretty easy, but does take some practice if you want to draw a perfect circle. You can use a cup, or even a roll of masking tape to make the circle. Just use them now so you can learn the proportions, then I would steer away from this as it will hinder your progress of getting your own rhythm with the pencil and you may become dependent on drawing aids. Relying on the tools will make it look like you are still learning how to draw a face.

Step 2: Divide The Circle

Just think of the ball like the Earth. Draw a line right across the center of the circle like the Equator then do the same from top to bottom. You should try to start thinking in terms of the circle being a ball or sphere. This will help your drawings and speed up your learning curve.

Step 3: Chop of the Sides

Obviously the head isn't a complete circle but it is generally round in shape. There really isn't a set formula for the amount to chop off.

You can already customize your drawing, Exciting isn't it! The more you chop here the skinnier and lengthier the head will turn out.

Step 4: The Proportions of the Face

The horizontal line or the "equator" we drew just a minute ago is more commonly referred to as the Brow line. This is where the eye brows generally sit on the face.

The next line to be drawn will be the Hair line. It goes roughly 1/2 to 2/3 of the way above the Brow line.

The next line to will be the Nose line. It again will be about the same distance as the Hair line from the Brow line.

After you have drawn in those lines you only have 1 more major line to draw: the Chin line. It is about the same distance from the Nose line as the other lines were from the Brow line. If your thinking "Well that was easy!" It is!

Once you get these 4 key lines down everything else is easy to fill in and get the right proportions.

Tip:If you place your thumb on your own brow and put your index finger on your hair line then move your fingers to the key lines we just drew you will find that they are all just about equally spaced. That's not even really a formula. That's a living example always with you!

Step 5 : Placing the Eyes and Mouth

The eyes and mouth are probably the easiest things when learning how to draw a face as they both sit just under the brow and nose lines, respectively.

Eyes

To find the position for the eyes divide the head into 5 equal eyes. This will give you the width for the mouth and nose. The space between the 2 real eyes will be the width of your nose.

To find the width of the mouth just come straight down from the center of your two eyes and BAM! that's the outsides of your mouth.

The Ears

The ears are drawn in the space between the mouth line and the eyes.

Once you have these proportion down you can manipulate and alter them how ever you want.

Your next biggest challenge will be drawing the face from different angles. Generally most faces aren't draw straight on, so being able to draw them from different angles will be of great benefit to you once you master these proportions. It just takes practice,That's all.

The next lesson will go further into how to draw a face from different angles.

Return to Drawing Portraits From How to Draw A Face