How to Draw Native American Faces

Native Americans are a proud and interesting people. Each Native American tribe is unique with different languages, customs, culture and art forms. Drawing a Native American face is a great idea for an art class studying different types of human faces. It could also be used as a lesson plan in a social studies class or simply an exercise to fine-tune your portrait illustration techniques. Like any drawing of a face, the best way to approach this project is to isolate the face into several very basic shapes and work up from there.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencil
• Black Ink Pen
• Kneaded Eraser

Instructions

1. 

   Draw the guideline for the Native American's head with an oval. Draw a vertical line coming out of the base of the head for the neck. Add a large curved horizontal line just below the neck for the shoulders. Draw a line across the middle of the head for the eye guideline. Add a short horizontal line to the right side of the face for the nose guideline. Add another short horizontal line just under this for the mouth guideline.

2. 

   Draw the Native American's eyes with two small ovals on the right side of the eye guideline. Add the nose with a triangle to the right side of the face. Draw the hair line with an upside down "L" shape starting at the forehead and continuing down the side of the face until the line runs off the page. Add a parallel line to the left side of this to create a long braid.

3. Draw the main section of hair with a large curved line that starts on the top of the head and curves back around to stop at the shoulders. Add a feather on the back of the head with a long thin triangle.

4. 

   Draw the eyebrows of the Native American with two curved lines above the eyes. Add the cheek line withe an upside down "L" shape starting at the bottom of the nose. Add the shape of the nostril with a small square at the base of the triangle. Draw the eyelids for the eyes with a curved line across the top of each eyeball. Add the pupils with small semi circles inside the right side of each eyeball. Draw wrinkles around the outside corners of the eyes with two small horizontal lines.

5. 

   Erase the guidelines. Trace your black ink pen around all of the pencil lines you wish to keep. Let the ink dry thoroughly. Erase the pencil lines.

Tips & Warnings

• You can add beads, clothing or other jewelry to the neck and torso to give your drawing more character.

• Be sure to let the ink dry before erasing the pencil lines or the picture will smudge.

Resources

• Art prints and portraits of Native Americans.