How to Draw a Child's Face

There are few things more appealing than a child's face. However, many artists struggle with trying to create portraits of children. There are some techniques that can make learning how to draw a child's face a more manageable.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pictures of children for reference
• Tracing paper
• Pencils and erasers
• Ruler

1. Study pictures of children. Notice how their faces differ from adult faces. Eyes are the only organs in the human body that never grow. Eyes are the same size from birth through adulthood. The larger eyes make the task of learning how to draw a child's face challenging for many artists. This is because the proportions are different.

2. 
   General shapes

   Start drawing by tracing general shapes in a picture of a child. Map out the features of the face by drawing lines down the center and across the middle of the face shape. Draw another line splitting the bottom half of the face in half again.

3. 
   Mapping proportions

   Repeat the mapping process without tracing. Use a ruler to measure where the lines should go, if necessary. As more and more practice sessions are completed, this step will flow naturally without measuring and with minimal mapping.

4. 

   Erase mapping lines and fill in details and shading following the image's forms. Many artists like to start with the eyes and work their way outward to the rest of the features. Others prefer to work from the top down. Use whatever approach is personally the most comfortable.

5. Let the drawing rest for a while. Look at the results with fresh eyes. Make any necessary revisions and add final details to the final draft.

Tips & Warnings

• Eyes in children drawings will be larger in proportion than adult eyes.
• The face will generally be fuller and rounder.
• Mapping will eventually be unnecessary.
• Some artists make unnecessary revisions.

Resources

• Drawing Children: Tutorial
• YouTube Speed Drawing

[Mindee94]

on 12/20/2008 Great pointers, thanks!

[longhairqueen]

on 12/9/2008 I love drawing people. Babies and little kids are a more delicate subject to draw. I have more than a few of my kids. Great article.

[momofour]

on 8/9/2008 Thanks for sharing! Neat info about the eyes.

[sharoni]

on 7/2/2008 thanks for the help!

sharon
www.geocities.com/sharonmcelwee
www.linkedin.com/bestwriterintampa

[Aronna]

on 5/8/2008 A really helpful thing to do is to hold the picture upside down or in a mirror. That way you can see what other people see. Great article and great photos!