Q&A for How to Draw Human Faces

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  • Question
    How do you get better at drawing faces?
    Renée Plevy
    Portrait Artist & Educator
    Renée Plevy is an Internationally Acclaimed Portrait Artist from New York/Palm Beach who has painted The Grand Dames of Palm Beach and various celebrities and community leaders. With over 50 years of experience, Renée specializes in painting realistically in oil and capturing the soul of the person. She has studied under internationally renowned portrait artists John Howard Sanden, David Leffel, Robert Beverly Hale, Clyde Smith, and Leonid Gervits. Renée is featured in over 68 shows and galleries including a one-woman museum show at the Paterson Museum. She has garnered numerous awards including “Artist of the Year” from The Bloomfield Art League and First Prize from the Boca Raton Museum Artist’s Guild. Renée has even painted a portrait of celebrity, Vanilla Ice. She also teaches at the Boca Raton Museum Art School - formerly at SVA in Manhattan.
    Portrait Artist & Educator
    Expert Answer
    It can really help to find a good art teacher in your area, as they can help you see what you're missing. We have a tendency to not actually see what's in front of us—you have to develop an artist's eye first. An art teacher can help you see more than you've seen in the past, whether you're looking at an object or a person.
  • Question
    How can I make my portraits look more realistic?
    Renée Plevy
    Portrait Artist & Educator
    Renée Plevy is an Internationally Acclaimed Portrait Artist from New York/Palm Beach who has painted The Grand Dames of Palm Beach and various celebrities and community leaders. With over 50 years of experience, Renée specializes in painting realistically in oil and capturing the soul of the person. She has studied under internationally renowned portrait artists John Howard Sanden, David Leffel, Robert Beverly Hale, Clyde Smith, and Leonid Gervits. Renée is featured in over 68 shows and galleries including a one-woman museum show at the Paterson Museum. She has garnered numerous awards including “Artist of the Year” from The Bloomfield Art League and First Prize from the Boca Raton Museum Artist’s Guild. Renée has even painted a portrait of celebrity, Vanilla Ice. She also teaches at the Boca Raton Museum Art School - formerly at SVA in Manhattan.
    Portrait Artist & Educator
    Expert Answer
    One of the top mistakes people make is they make the person look like they are on eye level, like you're looking directly into someone's eyes. It's better to draw the person as if they have bent their head down, or moved it to the right or the left, or are shorter than the artist or taller than them. Try to look in a magazine to find a photograph of somebody that actually has their face eye level with the person who they were speaking to... It's not natural, and it took me a good two hours!
  • Question
    How do you get better at drawing faces?
    Claire Wentzel
    Award-Winning Artist and Strategic Creative Consultant
    Claire Wentzel is an award-winning Artist and Strategic Creative Consultant. Her business, Red Rose Studios, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she also serves on the Clark County Public Art Committee. With over 20 years of experience, she specializes in mixed media participatory art, brand messaging, and building organizational culture. She earned her BA in Fine Art with Distinction from the University of Colorado-Boulder and completed a painting residency at the International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture. Her chalk mural work has been featured in EdHat and I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival advertising.
    Award-Winning Artist and Strategic Creative Consultant
    Expert Answer
    Look at them. My favorite technique that I learned for drawing anything, but especially as a good technique to draw portraits, is blind contour drawing. This is an exercise where you look at your subject and you cannot look at your paper or lift up your pencil while you draw. You are training your eye to talk to your hand. This is a fundamental skill that really helps with drawing portraiture in particular.
  • Question
    How can I distinguish female faces from other faces when drawing?
    Community Answer
    Women generally have slightly bigger eyes, thinner lips, a shorter nose, and well-defined eyebrows. Try including some of these features while drawing. You can also add darker lashes. Lastly, try using more curves while drawing female faces, and more angles while drawing male faces,
  • Question
    How can I add emotion to a drawing of a human face?
    Community Answer
    Emotions are easy to create once you have mastered drawing the basic features of a human face. The eyes, position of eyebrows and the mouth can be modified and experimented with to crate expressions. For better results, try emulating the expressions in comic cartoons and then modifying them in the above styles suggested in the article.
  • Question
    How do you draw a nose?
    Community Answer
    Draw a soft v shape for the tip, making sure you have enough room for the nostrils. Make two small circles on the sides of the tip. Erase uneccessary lines. You should also take note that nostrils are a bit more like the upper half of a circle around your tip.
  • Question
    How do I draw a face with glasses?
    Community Answer
    Just do the same thing, but instead of eyebrows, put the rounds of glasses, and on top of the ears continue the rest of the glasses, erasing unnecessary lines.
  • Question
    What parts of the face need shading?
    Community Answer
    Under the chin and maybe around the nose. Say you have the sun on the left side of a paper, shade the right side of the face and under the chin until you see fit.
  • Question
    How do I draw a face that is angled forward?
    Community Answer
    Look at yourself in the mirror. Many professionals have models to draw, you can use yourself as a model in a mirror.
  • Question
    How can I draw even-sized eyes?
    Community Answer
    You can draw a football shape, so it's more even. You can also use a drawing device or outline an object.
  • Question
    How do I make my drawing look more like a fully grown adult female?
    Community Answer
    Adding wrinkles around the mouth and eyes will make them older. You could also try making the features bigger and using mature hairstyles (like avoiding pigtails).
  • Question
    How do you draw a big nose?
    Community Answer
    It depends on what type of nose it is. For example, you could draw the top of the nose a bit wider, and space the bottom out a bit.
  • Question
    How do I make short hair?
    Community Answer
    Make lots of short lines to make the small hairs an the head repeat until you are happy with it.
  • Question
    How do I draw the reflections in the eyes?
    Community Answer
    Shade the eye as you normally would, then use an eraser to erase a small section to create a white space. You can also use a white gel pen, but they can be tricky to work with, so I'd recommend sticking with an eraser to start out.
  • Question
    How can I draw a person face exactly without seeing him? That person has a prominent nose, full lips, and small eyes.
    Community Answer
    It's best if you could consult a picture of that person, whether an actual photograph or an image online.
  • Question
    How do I draw a human hair?
    Community Answer
    There are some good tips in Draw Realistic Hair .
  • Question
    How can I make my face look nicer then it was before?
    Community Answer
    Just keep practicing, and soon your faces and other drawings will look amazing.
  • Question
    How do I do a gap between the nose and mouth?
    Community Answer
    If you want it to be realistic, you can shade right under the nose to make it look like an indent in the face. Or you can leave it blank or cover it with a mustache.
  • Question
    How do I make this easier, since I'm only 11 years old?
    Community Answer
    You can look for tutorials for kids that break things down even more and that you can re-watch as many times as you need to.
  • Question
    How can I draw myself?
    Community Answer
    I suggest taking a picture of yourself (or using a previously taken picture of yourself) and using it as a reference. A phone would be a good picture-taker because you can zoom in on the photo and get a better view of the details.
  • Question
    How does a person's smile affect the eyes? I don't understand how to draw that.
    Community Answer
    You can make the eyes get a little bigger or rounder. you can also put a slight arc under the eyes for the rising of the cheeks.
  • Question
    How do I look at a picture and draw it exactly?
    Community Answer
    Just focus more on the picture than your drawing, and draw it several times until you get a good one.
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