How to Draw Human Face

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This article was co-written by Claire Wentzel. Claire Wentzel is an award-winning artist and creative strategy consultant. She runs the Red Rose Studios business in Las Vegas, Nevada – and there she serves at the Clark County Public Arts Council. With more than 20 years of experience, she has expertise in the art of combining communication, conveying brand messages and building organizational culture. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with honors from the University of Cporado-Boulder and completed a painting internship at the International School of Fine Arts and Sculpture. Her chalk street work has been featured on EdHat and advertised the I Madonnari Italian Street Art Festival.

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Since ancient times, people have spent a lot of time capturing the spirit on people’s faces through portraits. It’s fun to enjoy such works, but if you know how to draw, it’s even more fun. While the body represents the moving part in the painting, the face shows the expression – the soul in each of us. You can learn how to portray this by learning to draw a basic human face, and the next step is to draw with charcoal – or paint.

Table of Contents

Steps

Draw an oval shape, the bottom part being a bit more tapered. Lightly sketch a vertical line in the center, then draw a horizontal line that cuts through the center of the oval. The eyes will be drawn on this line. Divide the space below into two parts and draw a line in the middle. This will be the position of the nose of medium length. Divide the space below into 3 parts. The mouth will be in the top third, and the rest will be the chin.

On the midpoint of the horizontal line, draw two almond shapes – these will be the eyes. In terms of the anatomy of a properly proportioned face, the width of the face will be equal to five eyes arranged together, each of which is the same length as the distance between the two eyes you will draw. Starting from the left, the two eyes that will be drawn are the second eye and the fourth eye. Normally, the inner corner of the eye will be downward; The outer corner of the eye can be directed up or down depending on the face. For this tutorial, the outer corner of the eye should be slightly slanted so that the lower eyelid line is shaped like a very light horizontal “s”.

Draw the nose along the center line. The nose will be narrowest in between the eyes and widest at the wings of the nose. Notice the shape of the nose tip below. Everyone’s nose is different, and if you’re painting a portrait, capturing the exact shape of the nose will help make your drawing more realistic.

Go back to the top horizontal line. Draw two ears on either side of this line. Note that the upper part of the ear will protrude more and retract while being closer to the earlobe. Some people have conjoined earlobes, some have separate earlobes. Ears are a rather complicated part of drawing – keep it simple at first until you know how to draw an ear shape.

Shape the mouth. Draw a flat and rounded “V” shape, slightly rounded below the lowest line. This will be the bottom lip contour. Connect the lower lip line with a wide, soft “M” shape as the top lip line. Draw a very light “m” shape between the lips to separate the upper and lower lips, and define the ratio between the two lips. You can move your mouth to a higher or lower position and draw different proportions between the upper and lower lips to make a difference to the face.

Draw hair. The hair is quite a difficult part to draw, but you should start with the outlines for the hair. Want your character to have straight hair? Draw parallel lines around the forehead. What if it’s curly hair? You can draw curved lines. Notice, the curly hair will separate into clusters with parallel drawn hairs.

Finish the neck. The neck will be thicker than we usually think. The two sides of the neck will come from above the jawline and draw slightly downwards.

Add a collar or neckline as you like. You can draw shirt collars, coat collars or turtlenecks – not even a collar. The style of shirt you add will hint at the time and place in the drawing.

Completed.

Advice

Attention to detail, as the smallest details can make all the difference.
Always keep an eye on the tip of the pencil; The tip of the pencil must be pointed. You have to draw lightly to then erase the excess lines.
You also know, there is a work of grinding iron with a needle.
Draw light outlines.
Don’t give up, but accept criticism. Criticism will help you to improve.
Remember the expression of the person you are sketching.
If the drawing doesn’t work, try again. If you end up tearing up the drawing, take a short break to regain your composure.
Every day, you should practice sketching people you see in the media or on the street.
Use different luminosity and shading to represent parts of the face.
Memorize the smallest details like freckles and moles and paint them as realistically as possible. You won’t get it right the first time, so be careful and don’t press too hard.
If you feel bored with your drawing, stay away from it for a while, then try again.
Practice drawing to the right proportions, as this is very important to achieve realism. You won’t be able to move on to more detailed drawings if you keep drawing the eyes on the forehead. Even when drawing cartoons or anthropomorphic characters, it’s still important to remember some basic proportions if you want to successfully portray unique yet authentic characters.

Warning

The drawings won’t be perfect the first time. You have to be patient and never give up.
Remember to have a sharp pencil ready. Blunt pencils are difficult to draw and make your drawing look very smudged.
Take a break from time to time to keep your hands from sweating, hold your pencil properly, and draw clean, sharp lines on your face!

Things you need

Paper, pencil and eraser – gray kneaded clay eraser is fine.
Tracing paper. If you don’t have tracing paper, you can place the lamp under the glass table top.
Crayons
Wide range of pencils: light, medium, dark, polished, etc… Go to art supply stores and ask for HB, 2B & 6B pencils. These three pencils are suitable for any sketch.
A photo for comparison will be helpful if you’re not drawing a model.
For beginners, you need to know that you can draw a ravishing face with a standard #2 pencil and eraser. However, different types of pencils can accentuate your work with contrast and finer details.

Steps

Advice

Warning

Things you need

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