How to Draw Symmetrical Faces

Drawing is fun, especially drawing realistically. However, the proportions involved sometimes scare people into thinking that drawing is challenging or even impossible--particularly drawing realistic faces. However, with a ruler and some stencils, drawing faces proportionately is not difficult at all.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Sketch paper
• Mechanical pencils/artist's pencils
• Tortillions
• Kleenex
• Ruler
• Circle stencils
• Reference picture (optional)
• Battery-operated eraser

1. Draw an upside-down egg shape. This egg should look as if it's standing on the tip, not on the fat bottom.

2. 
   This is how the head should look once it is sectioned off.

   Divide the egg vertically, using your ruler to create a straight line. Once the egg is split in half vertically, start making your indicator lines from the bottom up. From the chin (egg tip), move up about 1-1/2 inches and create a horizontal line that cuts across the lower portion of the face. This will be the mouth line. Measure up another 1/2 inch from the line you just drew, and draw another horizontal line that cuts across the face. This line will indicate where the bottom portion of the nose will end. Measure up another 1/2 inch and draw another horizontal line across the face. This will mark off the entire bottom portion of the nose. From the line you've just drawn, measure up 3/4 inch and create another horizontal line. Now measure up another 1/2 inch or so and create another horizontal line. You have sectioned off your face.

3. Shade the outside of the person's face. First determine where your light source is, and create a faint line that surrounds this area. The area outside this light source will be shaded lightly. Wielding your pencil at an angle will create a medium shade that will surround your light-source areas. Holding the pencil at an angle will also assist in the blending process. Next, add your darker (shadow) shades wherever you feel you need them. By shading the outer edges of the face first, you will determine fade lines. Fade lines help when keeping the facial features centered and symmetrical.

4. 

   Create a jawline by measuring from the vertical line and go 1 to 2 inches out from either side. Begin shading along the 1-to-2-inch marks, going up to the first horizontal line you created.

5. Concentrate on your 3/4 inch horizontal space. You are going to draw the ears. For the left ear, move over to the left side of the face and create a "C" shape starting from the top line of the 3/4-inch space and ending at its bottom line. Invert the "" shape and repeat this step on the right side of the face. Add two smaller "C" shapes to the inside of the ears to create the illusion of the inner ears.

6. 

   Create the hair at this point. Don't worry about the symmetry of the hair, as this will not affect the drawing.

7. Draw the guidelines for the nose. From the upper line, draw a column that measures 1/2 inch across and runs down to the second 1/2 inch line you drew in Step 2. At the bottom of the column, draw a circle. On the left and right sides of the circle, add two half-circles for the nose wings.

8. 

   Draw the eye guidelines. On either side of the nose column, add two medium-sized circles using your circle stencil. From the upper portion of the nose column, measure 1/4 inch away from the column for eye placement. Create the medium-sized eye circles. Inside those eye circles, add a small circle in the center of the eye for the iris.

9. 

   Color the pupils black and color the irises by creating several small lines that radiate from the pupil. Be sure to create a light source and vary your shades. Additionally, 1/4 inch away from the iris, add a set of two lines to indicate where the eyelids will begin and end.

10. Draw the eyelids. Start from the inner corner and draw the upper lid first. Do this by drawing an upward-facing arch that goes around the eye. Draw the lower lid by creating a slightly downward-facing arch. Connect the arches at the corners. Indicate lids by adding two arches above and below the initial lids you drew, to create depth.
    
    Create eyelashes by drawing curved lines stemming from both the lower and upper lid. Shade the eye area. Add an eyebrow. To create an eyebrow, draw several small lines going in every direction until you have the desired look.

11. Begin shading the nose. First add nostrils. You can make these as large or as small as possible.

12. Move on to the mouth. Draw a straight line measuring about 2 inches along the first inch line you drew in Step 1. Make sure this line intersects the vertical line. Make sure there is 1 inch on the right side of the vertical line and 1 inch on the left side. Add two sets of circles above and below the center of the line. You can make these circles any size you choose, depending on how thin or thick you want the lips to be.

13. Draw the curved lip lines. Start from the top center of the upper lip and work left and right over the circles and down to the ends of the lip line you drew earlier. Repeat this step for the bottom of the lip. Erase the circles you made. Add lines to the inside of the lips. The lip lines should look like the lines on a pumpkin, following a curve. Do not get overzealous with these lines, because too many of them will make your lips look old. Shade the lip area.

14. Soften all of your shaded areas with your Kleenex. You have now created a symmetrical face.

Tips & Warnings

• Guidelines are important. If your lines are crooked, your facial features will be, too.
• While shading, make all of your light, medium and dark shades consistent on certain parts of the face. If you have a dark shade located too close to where your light source is, you can throw off the symmetry of the face. Shade location is everything.

Resources

• J.T Halon's drawing tutorial website