How to Draw People's Faces to Look Realistic, Not Cartoony
Many beginning artists find drawing the human face the most challenging of any artistic activity. But in reality, drawing people's faces is no different than drawing the mountains, cars or plants. All realistic portrait drawings depend upon the artist's ability to carefully observe and capture the lines as well as the most basic shapes found on the face---spheres, triangles and squares and modify them until they become recognizable features.
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Things You'll Need
- Photograph
- 2B pencils
- Tracing paper
- Bristol board or heavy drawing paper
- Blending tortillons
- Erasers
- Drawing board
Instructions
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Select clear photographs from which to draw if you're not comfortable drawing from life. You want the photo to be a close-up and to be quite large. Photos that are smaller than 4 inches by 6 inches will work, but it's difficult to see the detail you require to create realism. Eight- by 10-inch photographs work best.
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Observe the reference photo carefully before you actually begin drawing. To help yourself place a piece of tracing paper over the photo and trace the outline of the features. Do this to train yourself to draw what you see---the exact shapes and lines of the person's face---not a representation of the person.
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Gather your drawing materials. Of all the tools, your blending tortillons play the most important role in creating realistic drawings of people, because they provide the subtle shading required for you to capture the human face in detail.
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Break the face down to its most basic elements, starting with the oval to represent the face.
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Go down about half way and draw a straight horizontal line across the oval, and then make a vertical line down the middle of the oval. Draw these lines lightly so that you can erase them later.
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Begin by drawing the outlines of the eyes. Notice how the lines curve or if one of the eyes is slightly larger than the other. Look to see if the person's lashes are short or long. Capture these details. Imagine a third eye in the middle of the two eyes. That's about the distance between the eyes on a real face---about the measurement of one eye.
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Draw in the nose. Do this by lightly drawing an upside equilateral triangle between the eyes and reaching down to what will be the tip of the nose. Then block in the basic shapes of the nose---usually two smaller spheres flanking a slightly larger one in the middle. Erase the triangle later.
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Start drawing the lips by drawing fine outlines of them that you can erase if need be and then fill in the lines.
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Erase all the extra lines you drew to create the drawing.
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Add shading to the drawing by observing where light falls. Use your blending tortillon to create the subtle blending between each of the features of the face. Look at your reference photo continually as you do this to ensure that you see all the details.
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Tips & Warnings
If you find yourself intimidated by the prospect of drawing the face, turn your reference photo upside down. This forces you to see the lines and shapes of the face.
Draw what you see, not what you believe you see or a representation of the person's eyes, nose and mouth.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit face to face image by Melanie von Snarly from Fotolia.com
