Once in our art journey, you have thought of drawing faces and portraits. Portrait drawing is one of the most fascinating and desired art forms for a beginner. To draw portraits and face beginners often think that it requires extreme skills and talent. For us it’s just a matter of understanding some basic things, some rules for drawing human faces and portraits.
In this article, we will talk about how to draw faces (step by step) for new artists. There are some simple guides that you can follow that will allow you to make good portraits.
Before we start making portraits and faces, let’s understand some basics.
How faces structure is formed
The most important and essential part of drawing a portrait is the face of the person. The face of every person is different and unique. But there are some basic measurement tips that will help you to draw a face.
Head shape
You have noticed that every person has a unique head shape. The head shape starts with a circle or oval egg shape. It is round at the top and narrow for the chin area. The first task is to draw that shape, and observe the shape first. Remember don’t jump to other facial features first. Draw the face shape first and practice it several times to master it.
Eye lines
Eyes are a crucial part of drawing a face or portrait. The position of the eyes should be halfway between chin and top of the head. While drawing a portrait eye placement either makes the face look good or just makes it look worse. To make the eyes draw a light horizontal line across the middle of the face. The eyes must be drawn on this line.
Nose and lips placement
Nose and lips completes the face drawing and makes the face look real. To make the nose imagine an inverted triangle between the eyes. For reference keep the side of the nose aligned with the inner end of the eyes (tear ducts).
For the lips, they should be placed in the middle of the nose and the bottom of the chin. To make the width of the lips make an imaginary line vertical from the pupil of the eyes. By making these two alignment your nose and lips or mouth will look more natural. While drawing portraits and faces these simple alignment tricks help a lot.
Ears level
Some beginners who place the ears either too high or too low. Ears give your face drawing a balance and originality. The ears should be placed between the eye brow and the bottom of the nose in length.
The Neck
The generally ignored part of the portrait drawing, the neck. Most beginners, while making a face , pay less attention to the neck. Imagine a portrait with a good face and no proper neck structure, looks bad right ! .
To make a proper neck structure, remember that male necks are broader then females neck. The structure of the neck extends down and aligns with the ears.
How to Start Drawing Face
Once you understand the structure of the face, it will be easy to draw any portrait and face. Even beginners can also use this structural guide to make faces and portraits. When you do enough practice with these proportions, you can follow the step by step guide to make portraits and faces.
Steps for Beginners to Make Faces and Portraits
After understanding and practicing the face structure, new artist can use these steps to create faces and portraits
Draw the head shape
With a light pencil, make the basic shape of the head. Don’t look for other details, just focus on the head shape
Add the guideline
This is an important step for beginners, try to add a guiding line while drawing faces and portraits. These guidelines will help you to make the correct proportion of the face.
Make the eyes
By using the guide line make the eyes. Draw a horizontal guideline in the middle and try to draw the eye on that line.
Add other details or features
Once you have done with the eyes add the other features of the face, nose, lips, ears, eyebrows etc.
Draw the neck
The neck gives the face a complete structure and base. Make the neck look a part of the portrait by making it correctly.
Make hair and jawline
Now complete the drawing of the face with the hair and the jawline. Add texture to the hair and curves to the jawline.
Shade the the artwork
The final part of any portrait and face drawing is the shading. Shade the artwork and give it realism and naturality.
Practice Make a Portrait Possible To Make
After understanding the face proportion and following these steps, any beginner can make face and portrait drawing easily.
At last make sure to practice all these daily, that’s the key to success. Try to make faces and portraits daily and try to use real faces. You can sit in front of the mirror and try to draw yourself. Keep in mind, not all faces are the same, there can be differences in each one. The guide you just learned will help to draw faces and portraits of anyone easily.
