To draw a woman's face, it's important to understand the proportions you will be working with. Once you start from that basic measurement, it's possible to create an engaging expression and character to the face, as well as playing with hairstyles, jewelry, and other characteristics that make a woman's face so intriguing to draw.
Instructions
1. Decide on the shape of your face. Look at pictures in magazines or online if you need ideas. Ovals, rounded heart shapes, or even an oval top with a rounded, triangular jaw can all work well. Sketch several options to determine which is to your liking. If sketching from a live model, decide which shape is most accurate to the live face and sketch several options of that.
2. Once you have decided on your preferred face shape, turn to a clean page and lightly sketch the face shape. Using a ruler, draw a light line vertically through the center of your face shape. Use the ruler to mark the horizontal lines of the eye line, the end of the nose, and the lips. At the sides of the face, mark where the ears will appear. If drawing from imagination, place the eye line so that it splits the face shape in half vertically. The bottom of the nose should rest halfway between the eye line and the bottom edge of the face. The parting of the lips should be halfway between the nose line and the bottom of the face. This is simply a guideline--you can diverge from this somewhat if you are looking for a specific character to your face.
3. Lightly sketch in the features, starting with the eyes. Pay attention to the space between the eyes, as well as their shape. They could be almond, more rounded, or be formed by squared off lines at the top interior corners. None of these angular lines will be sharp angles in the end. Begin by lightly sketching in sharp angles where you see them. Draw over them in darkening lines as you render the more accurate curves of the eyes.
4. Repeat this angular process for the nose and the lips. The bridge of the nose should be relatively light, as you don't see prominent outlines to the bridge of the nose when viewing the face from a full frontal perspective. Pay strict attention to the shape of the nose and lips if drawing from a live model. Use other images as reference when drawing from imagination. Use another page in your sketch book to experiment with different feature shapes if you want to try out different kinds before making a choice for your image.
5. Lightly sketch in the perimeter of the hairline where it meets the skin of the face and where it extends outside the outline of the original face shape you drew. Pay attention to where the hair covers the ears, if your preferred style does this. Using light pencil strokes, sketch in the hair strands. Use the flat side of your pencil lead for thicker strands, and the point of your pencil for thinner ones. Lightly draw in the brows and fill them in. Erase the guide lines you used to map out the features. Use the side of your pencil lead to very lightly draw in shadows where you see them. You can rub it in with a piece of paper to create a more muted shadow if you wish. Add jewelry where desired.
