Drawing the human face is one of the more complicated lessons in art. Mastering the art of drawing faces step by step allows an artist to learn to focus on the lines that make up a face rather than the face as a whole. Use a step-by-step technique for learning to draw faces and your skills will improve over time.
Instructions
1. Draw an oval; this will be the outside of the face that you're drawing. If you're trying to draw from a model, do your best to draw the shape of the front of her head. Some people have more squared or pointed jawlines, or foreheads that are narrower or wider than a perfect oval.
2. Create a grid by lightly drawing both a vertical and a horizontal line across the face as if you were cutting a pizza, so that each subdivided portion represents about 1/4 of the face. The horizontal line will help you keep the eyes straight, and the vertical line will help you keep the mouth and nose in line.
3. On the bottom half of the face, draw a small horizontal line halfway between the center of the face and the bottom of the chin. This line represents where the nose will end.
4. Halfway between the nose line and the chin, draw another small line to represent the center of the mouth. Be sure that these lines aren't dark, because you'll be erasing them later.
5. Along the horizontal line in the center of the face, make four additional trace lines almost halfway between the center point and each side edge. These lines must start closer in and will split the entire line into five equal portions, creating boundaries for the widths of the eyes. In other words, you'll be dividing the entire horizontal line into five equal sections, the middle of which contains the center intersection of the face (between the eyes).
6. Use light broad strokes to sketch the hair, paying attention to the shape of the hairline. Shade in darker areas by creating more lines. Think of each line as a strand of hair. Creating a visible "frame" of hair will make it easier to place the facial features correctly.
7. Lightly sketch in the larger facial lines, such as the eyebrows and prominent wrinkles or laugh lines.
8. Don't concentrate on perfection the first few times. No one's face is perfectly symmetrical, and being able to create a realistic facial sketch that balances out an uneven symmetry is a skill improved only by practice.
9. Verify that the basic proportions are correct before proceeding too far with the details of the features. If you don't like something, erase it, re-draw your guideline and try again.
10. Erase all of the alignment guidelines before you begin to finalize your drawing.
11. Add more detail into every feature, including shading of the lips, eyelids and lashes, nostrils and nose shadows, eyelashes, and facial hair.
12. Use your eraser gently and frequently to make sure that every line is just the way you want it.
