Learn to Sketch Faces: A Comprehensive Tutorial

Drawing a face can seem daunting, but understanding the underlying structure and proportions makes the process much more manageable. This tutorial explores various approaches to sketching faces, from basic shapes to more complex proportional systems, helping you develop your skills through practice and observation.

Understanding the Basic Structure

Just like anything else, the key to drawing the face is to know its structure. The basic structure of the head is the skull, and studying it can help us understand the masses of the face. At its most basic level the skull is a large, round cranium attached to a pair of jaws. But once the features are added things can get a little more complicated…Let’s see if we can get a better understanding of what’s going on here by breaking the features down into their basic shapes.

Breaking Down Facial Features into Basic Shapes

To simplify the process, we can break down the facial features into basic geometric shapes. This approach helps in understanding the underlying structure and makes it easier to construct a face.

The Nose: A Modified Cone

When it comes down to it, the nose is really just a cone. I personally like to add a little squashed sphere on the end to give it a cute fleshy look. It looks like an upside-down ice cream cone! In fact, let’s say that you and a friend each take a bite…Look familiar? This is the basic shape of the nose. Of course, not every nose looks like this, but the basic idea of the structure still applies. Play around with it a little and you can get all sorts of noses!

The Eye: A Sphere Within a Cone

Let’s stick with object lessons. This is an eye: Or the basic shape of it, at least: a sphere inside a wide, tilted cone. But we’re forgetting one very important part: the eyelids! There. The eyelids work a little like thick pieces of fabric holding the eyeball in place. And again, this basic structure can be fiddled with a little to create a wide range of variation!

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The Mouth: A Squished Hamburger Bun

Last but not least that thing that sits on the bottom of your face. Try picturing the mouth as a hamburger bun…that’s been squished on one side. This is the basic structure for the of the lips. However, you may want to keep in mind that, because of the philtrum, the upper lip often has a bit of an accordion fold to it. As always, the basic structure can apply to a wide range of looks! When drawing men’s mouths it can be helpful to merely indicate the lip instead of drawing it in full as you would on a lady.

Facial Proportions: Achieving Accuracy

Many people make mistakes when drawing faces because they don't fully understand facial proportions. Proportion refers to the relationship in size and placement between one object and another. There are many formulas that one can adapt to draw the facial features in the correct location.

Loomis' Approach to Facial Proportions

We'll first discuss Loomis' approach, which is more complex, but more accurate. If you find that this approach is a bit difficult for you, you can skip to the simpler approach further down the page. We'll first draw a circle with two intersecting lines that connect directly in the center. The circle represents the top portion of the head. Next, we'll draw a square in which each corner touches the circle. This square will eventually represent the edges of the face. The top line will eventually become the bottom hairline. Now we'll measure the distance from the center line to the bottom line. You can use your pencil to do this. From the bottom line of the square, use this measurement to mark the location of the bottom of the chin. Now we have the basic structure of the shape of the face in place. We'll next locate the eyes. We can use the height of the head to help us determine the location of the eyes on the face. The brow line is represented by the center line that we drew in step one. So we know that the eyes should be found just below this line, in the center of the head. Now that we know where our eyes are located on the face, we can draw them. There's another measurement to keep in mind. We also should consider the width of the eyes. The width of the head, from ear to ear, generally measures the same length of five "eyes". Moving down the face, we'll next draw the nose. The bottom of the nose can be found on the bottom line of the square that we drew in step two. The width of the nose varies from person to person, but is generally as wide as the inside corners of the eyes. We find the mouth slightly higher than half-way between the bottom of the nose and the chin. Of course, this measurement varies from person to person. We can use the eyes to help us determine the width of the mouth. The corners of the mouth generally align with the inside edges of the pupils. Next, we'll draw the ears. Here again, we can use the locations of the features of the face to help us determine the location of the ears. Keep in mind that the ears come out of the head and extend upward slightly. This means that the ears will extend outward from the head, near the eye line. We've only sketched in a couple of loose ears for this lesson. Now we'll draw the hairline. If you're drawing someone that has long hair that overlaps the forehead, the hairline may not be visible, but it's still important to know where it's located. Hairlines vary greatly from person to person. Now that we have the hairline in place, we can draw the hair. Shorter hair extends only slightly off of the top of the head, while longer or bushier hair may extend quite a bit. Now we need to add a neck to our floating head. The tendency of most beginning artists is to make the neck too narrow. Generally speaking, the neck extends down from the bottom of the ears. If you want to draw a face from the side or profile view, these same proportional measurements apply. Here again, the top line of our square will become the hairline. The middle line will become the brow line and the bottom line will become the nose line. We'll next mark the location of the bottom of the chin. With a mark in place for the chin, we'll draw the front edge of the face. Next, we'll draw a line from the bottom of the chin to the center point on the bottom of the square. This line represents the jawline. Now we'll measure to the center of the head and place a line to represent the eye line. We can also use the circle that we drew with the bottom of the square to draw the backside of the head. Now that we have an idea of the location of the facial features, we can draw them in using contour lines. We can use our center line, nose line, and eye line to draw the ear on the side of the face. We'll keep the hair style consistent with our first drawing and draw the hairline.

A Simpler Approach to Facial Proportions

Some may find the Loomis Method a little cumbersome for drawing. Luckily, there is a simpler approach. This approach borrows ideas from the Loomis Method, but simplifies a few of the steps. This formula should be used to help you see and compare. In each stage of the formula, analyze each feature and draw what you see. The result will be a representational portrait of the person you are drawing with all of the features in the right place.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

Draw a circle: This represents the cranium.
Determine the length of the face: Draw a line extending down from the circle.
Create the face shape: Draw lines from the bottom of the line to the edges of the circle.
Establish the eye line: The "eye" line is in the middle of the face. Draw a line to represent it.
Locate the nose line: The "nose" line is found in the middle of the "eye" line and the bottom of the chin.
Find the mouth line: The mouth line is approximately one-third of the way down in between the nose line and the bottom of the chin.
Determine the width of the eyes: Draw five oval shapes across the eye line. Most faces are about "five eyes" wide.
Determine the width of the nose: For most people, the width of the nose will align with the inside corners of the eyes.
Figure the width of the mouth: For most folks, the width of the mouth aligns with the inside portions of the iris or the pupil. Draw a line straight down from this location to the mouth line to find the corners of the mouth.
Place the ears: Extend the eye line out to determine the location where the top portion of the ears meet the head. They extend upward a bit and line up with the brow line.
Add the eyebrows: Use the tops of the ears to make comparisons.
Add a neck: The neck extends down from the bottom of the ears. For females, this lines extends inward a bit - resulting in a smaller neck. For males, this line still comes in a bit, but to a lesser degree.
Shape the hair: The shape of the hair is added next.

Key Proportional Guidelines:

The "mouth" line is about one-third below the "nose" line and the bottom of the chin. This line represents where the top lip meets the bottom lip.
The inside portions of the pupils or the iris generally line up with the corners of the mouth.
The ears are usually found between the "eye" line and the "nose" line, but extend up to the brow line.

Shading: Adding Form and Dimension

Knowing where to place the facial features is clearly important, but in order to communicate a face in a drawing, we'll also need to add some shading. The form of the face is developed though the use of value and tone. The relationships of specific values inform the viewer of the location and strength of the light source. It is ultimately the behavior of light on the head which creates the illusion of form.

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Understanding Planes of the Face

To better understand how light behaves, we can consider the planes of the head and face. By breaking the face down into simple planes, we can better comprehend how light behaves. When shading, it's helpful to think of the head in terms of flat planes. The planes of the face change direction in space. These changes in direction produce different values depending on the location and strength of the light source. In most cases, the light source will originate from above. This produces areas of darker tone in locations that recede and lighter ones in locations that protrude. This means that recesses around the eyes, under the nose, bottom lip, and chin are mostly shaded with darker values. Most faces will have smooth transitions or gradations from light to dark. How you approach shading a face will depend on the medium that you use to draw the face. For graphite, or pencil, you can simply adjust the amount of pressure that you place on the pencil.

Portrait Drawing: Observation and Practice

Drawing a portrait is very much like drawing any other subject matter. You have to closely observe the subject in order to draw it accurately. Of course portrait drawing is especially delicate because the goal is to make the portrait resemble the subject closely. If you know the person, the pressure to produce accuracy can be daunting. But every artist, no matter what their skill level, should take heart. Even the most experienced and well-known portrait artists are presented with challenges. Most of us can relate with both of these quotes. We’ve all felt the pressure when drawing or painting a portrait to make it look exactly like our subject - especially when that subject is a friend. It’s often hard to pinpoint a problem in a portrait. We can see that something isn’t quite right, but finding the solution or the fix can really throw some of us. Often it’s a combination of issues that lead to a "less than perfect" portrait. When drawing faces, use these standards to help you get your facial proportions correct. Remember, you must look and study your subject.

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