How to Draw Facial Hair on Your Cartoons

Cartoon hobo

Facial hair can bring a whole new element to any cartoon character. Whether you are drawing a mustache, goatee or beard, you should know how to do it realistically. Here are some tips for drawing facial hair on your cartoons.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencil
• Eraser

Instructions

1. Start by drawing in the darkest areas of the facial hair. If you are drawing a mustache, this will be the area in the center of the upper lip. For beards, most of the jaw, chin and upper lip areas will be dark. For goatees, the upper lip and chin areas will be darkest.

2. Draw your stokes against the direction of the hairs' growth. For longer facial hair, you'll be using almost exclusively upward strokes.

3. Make lighter pencil strokes for areas of less growth. You should use lighter strokes around the edges of the facial hair growth.

4. Add highlights to the facial hair. You can also use your eraser to add highlights into the hair.

5. Mix in a few stray hairs for a more realistic look. You can also add more stray hairs for cartoon characters with sloppier personalities. Let your character's personality show in his facial hair.

Tips & Warnings

• You can use gentle shadowing techniques for facial hair that represents a five o'clock shadow.

• Don't be afraid to experiment. Sometimes mistakes are gifts.