How to Draw Human Faces

There is a big difference between drawing a smiley face and drawing a realistic human face. The toughest part to get right is proportion. Using proportional truths, here’s how to draw a human face.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil
• Eraser
• Drawing surface

Instructions

1. Start by sketching a circle with a pencil. This basic shape will essentially be the top of the head to the bottom of the top teeth. After sketching the circle, lightly sketch a jaw line. Erase the portion of the original circle that separates the two portions.

2. Draw the eyes. If you are trying to draw a specific eye, pay attention to the level of upturn or downturn on the inside and outside corners of the eyes you are drawing. Pay attention to how much eyelid shows vs. how much boney brow is showing, where shadows are, and the proportion of the eye from top and bottom to the sides. The key to spacing the eyes is that the eyes are each about 1/2 of an eye from each side of the head, and one full eye apart. They are to be situated at about the halfway mark between the top of the head and the bottom of the chin.

3. Draw the nose. The nose is approximately the length of the distance from pupil to pupil. Some noses are more bulbous, others, quite streamlined. Some are flat, and some protrude. The width and depth of the nostrils is a good indicator of the length of the nose in a straight-on view. It’s also a good indicator of the upturn or downturn of the nose.

4. Draw the lips. The lips start about an eyeball height from the tip of the nose and extend from about pupil point to pupil point across the face. Pay attention to the level of downturn at the corners of the mouth, and the fullness of the lips you seek to draw. Full lips are made by making the lips fatter, not longer.

5. Perfect the chin by modifying your sketch to make the flat part of the chin approximately the same width as the lips.

6. Shade on eyebrows along the area you wish to darken as the brow line. Pay attention to hair density and the natural lay of the hair.

7. Draw the ears on the sides of the head. An ear starts at about the top of the eye and extends along the side of the head to the center of the lip line.

8. Consider where the light is coming from. With the flat side of your pencil, shade in the areas that would be blocked by certain facial features, and the roundness of the face.

9. Add a hairstyle to the head, being mindful of the lay of the hair being drawn. Be mindful of how much the chosen hairstyle creeps into other facial features, if at all.

Tips & Warnings

• Drawing human faces is fun, and with just a little practice, a novice working with the ratios shown here can draw realistic human faces easily.