How to Draw Easy Faces

Easy face drawing

Drawing complex faces can be one of the most challenging efforts a beginning artist can make. Drawing simple faces is easier and can help ease you into the difficult area of realistic portrait drawing. Learning to draw easy faces takes just a little effort and can greatly improve your drawing skills. By learning to combine simple shapes and modest shading, you can begin drawing easy faces that can help you gain the skills you need to further your portrait drawing abilities.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil
• Eraser
• Sketch pad

Instructions

1. Draw a head first. Think about the overall shape of the head you want to draw. Maybe you will use a full circle to achieve a rounder, fatter head. Maybe you'll draw an oval. You could even draw a squared head and erase the edges to round them off. The key to starting an easy face is getting the shape of the head done first. Start with an egg-shaped oval for practice.

2. Sketch in the eyes. Again, it's all about the shape. You can draw thin, slanted eyes or big circles for wide eyes. Experiment with the look and don't be afraid to use your eraser to change the shape. Try bringing the inner corners of the eyes close together and drooping them down, while drawing the outer edges of the eyes wider. Add a small circle in each of the eyes for pupils.

3. Draw a pear shape for the nose. At the bottom of the pear shape, draw two half circles for nostrils. Beneath the nose, draw the top lip. You can try drawing the top lip heart shaped or just give it a straight edge, depending upon the type of mouth you're going for. Draw a horizontal line beneath the top lip, then draw another horizontal line between the top lip and bottom lip to form the mouth. If you want your face to have a smile, add a row of teeth from one corner of the mouth to the next. Small squares side by side will work for the teeth.

4. Sketch an inverted C shape on each side of the head for ears, then add hair to your drawing. For curly hair, scribble all around the top portion of the head. Don't worry about being perfect. Let random pencil lines extend here and there to give your character a messy hair look. For straight hair, draw long pencil strokes to the length of the hair you want, overlapping the pencil strokes until you give your character a good head of straight hair.

5. Keep the details minimum. You might want to place a few dots on the cheeks for freckles or do a little shading beneath the eyes or around one side of the nose to give the face some dimension, but avoid trying to sketch in too many details, which can take away from the easy element of the drawing.

References

• Billy Bear 4 Kids: How to Draw Cartoon Faces
• Drawing Now: How to Draw a Face