Q&A for How to Draw a Human Head

A Tombow mono eraser is a great tool to use for quick fixes. Because it's so small, it helps when you need a lot of precision to touch up tiny areas like the eyes in your drawing

To draw realistic eyes, look at photos of how light passes through the eye as well as what parts are shaded. The top part of the eye is always in the shadow. The shadow is cast by the eyelid. Students usually don't include this shadow, which can make the eyes they draw look less realistic. The bottom part of the eye is always lighter because the light passes through it. Remember, the eye itself is a ball covered by the eyelids. Make it round! The pupil should be round too. The pupil and iris become more oval-like when the eye rotates in space. Observe where you have a highlight in the eye⁠—it's the brightest spot on the eye. Adding a tiny highlight to the eye is crucial for making it look really "alive" and realistic. Photographers often exaggerate the brightness of it to make the eyes more expressive. Finally, don't forget to look at the top and bottom shapes of the eye carefully because they are not the same. Students often draw and paint almond-shaped eyes without paying attention to the unique curvature of the top and bottom "outline" of the eye.

Subject, color, composition, contrast and creativity or unique vision are all important elements in creating art. But if you want to focus on one thing, it's your composition. Besides a common rule of thirds, study art for other ways to compose the image. For example, the use of triangles and circles was very popular during the Renaissance, while the bird's eye view was borrowed from Japanese impressionists. The use of diagonals between figures and shapes have been explored by artists for centuries, so look for different ways they're used in illustrations. Basically, a new vantage point can give a very unique composition to a standard subject and give you so much to work with.

The same way. Just draw the head and don't add the hair.

Try to draw them a little outside the head, poking out just a little. And if you're worried about the shape, then just draw it somewhat circular, smaller as it gets more inside the head area.

Erase the guidance lines carefully with an eraser. In case, you erased the outline lines, redraw them or reconnect the lines.

Use a softer B lead for shading instead of a harder H lead.

Draw tears. Draw a little wetness around the eyes, or draw streams, straight down, to the bottom of the cheeks and a droplet on the chin. Google "anime crying pics" for reference.

Just try your best and focus. The more you practice drawing it, the less likely you will be to make a mistake.

Draw a small curved line for the end of the nose and a longer, straight line for the bridge.

Draw a guideline a little below the eyes, and draw a small triangle (or any size; it depends on the size of your person's nose). After that, draw the shape of the nose.

Start by drawing a gently sloping triangle and then round out the end to a small bulb. It might also help to look at pictures of facial profiles so you can copy from those.

Draw an oval shape.

Come up with the rough shape and size and try and sketch the shape roughly on both sides until they match for the most part. Remember that a lot of people's eyes do not match.

Look up photos of a face, pick the shape you like and try to copy that picture.

If you want to make the face look happy and/or excited, try to shape them to be rounder and higher. If you just want a neutral face, then try to stay at the same level and curve them less.

Rub your finger or a tissue on the pencil marks to blend them. If it's too dark, then gently rub your eraser on the shadow. If it's too light, add a few more light strokes in the area with your pencil.

First, draw an oval (or circle). Then, add in the details, such as the pupil and iris. Draw the fold above the eye, and then eyelashes. Eyebrows can be lines if in a cartoony style, or use a reference to get them just right.

Drawing both eyes the same is a very difficult thing to do. You could try drawing them both at the same time. However, most people have differently shaped eyes, and from different angles, each eye would be drawn differently, anyway.

Start by drawing three straight lines, one into the middle and two on each side of it. Then draw two curves at the bottom of the two lines on the outer lines.

Realism comes from knowledge of anatomy, practice, and close observation. It's not easy.

Draw lighter, shorter wrinkles. Of course, the human face naturally has wrinkles, but you can tell their age of the length and shade (if it's darker, they're older, if lighter, they're younger) from their wrinkles.

Begin by drawing hair upward faintly, then stop. Draw a curved circle going around to the hair bobble. Then continue the hair, bring it as high as you wish then begin bringing it down, you can bring it down over the shoulders or neck area, or just straight down if you wish.

Try the methods in Draw Realistic Hair .