How to Draw a Realistic Face

Drawing a face can be difficult. To draw a face, you need to first understand the anatomy of a face and where each feature is placed. You can learn to draw a face using these instructions and a bit of practice.

Things You'll Need

• pen/ pencil
• paper

Instructions

Start with the Shape

1. 

   Draw the shape of the face. Decide if you want to draw a round face, or a square face, or an oval face. Draw this shape on your paper.

2. 

   Divide the face into sections. First, draw a vertical line down the center of the face. Next, draw a horizontal line across the center of the face. Next split the upper half and the lower half of the face in half again by drawing two more horizontal lines.

3. 

   Draw the eyes. Many people make the mistake of drawing eyes at the top of the face when eyes are actually in the center of the head. With your pencil, you need to draw five equally sized eye shapes (like a fish without the tail), across the center-line on the face. Then erase the middle eye, and the ones furthest on each side. Now you have your eyes properly placed on the face. Draw and fill in the Iris and pupils of the eyes.

4. 

   Draw the nose. The nose sits in the center of the face on the line beneath the eyes. To determine the width of the nose, draw a vertical line to the nose line from the inside of the irises. A wide nose would touch these two lines. An average nose would be much thinner.

5. 

   Draw the mouth. The mouth sits half way between the nose and chin. To determine the width of the mouth, draw a line down the face from the pupils of the eyes. The corners of the mouth should touch these lines.

6. 

   Draw the ears, hair, and eyebrows. The ears start at the eye line and ends at the nose line. The hairline starts at the line above the eye line. Draw hair from this line to the top of the head and then draw the hair as long as you want it. (This image is a bit crude, but it is purely for illustration purposes).

Tips & Warnings

• Continue to practice drawing the face based on these measurements, and make variations on face, eye, and nose shapes.