Q&A for How to Draw a Face

You need to do a lot of reading, you need to do sketching, but primarily, you need to find a good teacher in your area who will help you to see what you're missing. We have a tendency not to actually see what's in front of us, and that's tough when you have to develop an artist's eye.

When a person starts to do a portrait or a drawing of a face, they tend to put the person in a very unrealistic position. Instead of putting the person at eye level, looking directly at you, try a variation of that pose. Draw the person as if they have bent their head down, or moved it to the right or the left, or tilted it.

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.

Some lines should be stronger than others, like the locks of hair or the silhouette of the face. But always start with light lines so, if you make a mistake, you can erase it easily without too much trouble. When you are finished, you should outline it in pencil along with any other lines you want to stand out, like the outline of the eyes and strands of hair and the pupils of the eyes and the mouth.

Drawing a face can take many years of practice to perfect. It can be helpful to watch someone draw a face, so look for tutorial videos on the Internet. You can also take a drawing class to learn what mistakes you may be making.

Drawing on a grid is one way to keep the proportions of the photograph and catch all the details. It is certainly possible to sketch the photograph straight onto the paper, but this takes practice more than anything else.

It's totally your choice, a pencil is recommended because you can erase if you make a mistake instead of having to start all over.

Yes, you need to practice. Faces are complicated to draw, especially realistic ones. It can take a long time before the faces you draw look really good.

Be mindful that the nose and hair DO cast shadows, and the face isn't flat but round.

Gum erasers and plastic erasers are are good choices for artists, available online or from almost any art store. Kneaded erasers are a little more difficult to store and work with, but they're great if you sketch with charcoal as well as pencil. You can find some of these in "pencil" form which you can sharpen to a fine ponit, so you can erase fine details.

Study an eye. Notice the marks within the eye itself and make sure to note that both girls and boys have lashes, Don't forget the sparkly and the eyelid.

Brown or maybe peach but it's better if you mix it up. Brown at the side of the face, then peach inside.

Find a small object that fits the eyes (or use a coin). If there is nothing that is the right shape, find a string, then attach it to a pencil or ballpen (depending on what you are using). Hold it to the middle of the picture, then draw, using the tension of the string to keep even and exact. As with most things in drawing though, plenty of practice will improve this aspect for you, and don't forget that there is an optical illusion for the human eyes when looking at two similar objects side by side––one will look slightly smaller or larger.

Try adding light shading by drawing small lines, criss crossing in tiny strokes. Then use an eraser to lightly smear the lines giving each strand more character.

It takes a lot of practice. You first have to draw the head shape, this is very important. Remember the distinctive features about the person, this is also important because it brings the person's features into play. Focus on the eyes, don't draw them anyway you want, it should be like theirs. You might need to redraw them a few times, if this is so, be patient.

You can look at photos of people with different expressions and try to sketch the differences. Eyebrows are very important. Play around with eyebrow placement and angles and see how they affect the face. Also, look into eye narrowness and mouth shape. Wrinkles define expression so use those too!

First draw an oval and then a circle within the oval. Make a 5-8 mm dot in the center of the circle as the pupil, and shade in the iris with your desired color. Enhance the eyes with eyelashes. Draw the eyes as naturally as you can and make them proportionate to the face. This should prevent them from turning out creepy.

Try drawing different species of animals like cats, wolves, owls, etc. When drawing people, experiment with different face shapes, different skin shades or eye colors, maybe even try to draw in a different style entirely, like manga/anime, realist or abstract.

A slightly soft 2B pencil is probably the most common choice for sketching, but you can use any pencil you find comfortable. Pick a softer one (3B, 4B, and up) if you tend to press hard, or a harder one (2H, 3H, and up) when you want to finish in bold strokes.

Draw a upside-down rainbow arc, then at the bottom, draw a downside rainbow arc. Connect them, then add detail.

It depends. Softer pencils are great for dark marks and easy shading, but you can certainly draw with any pencils you have available.

search for portraits of girls on the internet and see what they have in common. Large eyes, small pointy chins and round cheeks suggest youth.

Stroke your pencil along the side burns and draw until you have the shape you want. Add shading and different shades of the pencil on some hairs to make it look more detailed.

One of the best ways is to study from real life and practice. Try printing out pictures of ears and drawing over them with clear/translucent paper.

You could order them online.

There are three ways to avoid smudges: 1) Practice keeping a clean cloth under your hand while shading or sketching. 2) Start from the top and finish at the bottom. 3) Use the fine tip of an eraser to clean in the last. But sometimes smudging looks good on the paper if you've done a good job and the sketch is detailed, or if the smudge is faint.

Dreads would require much layering and a lot of shading, whereas curly hair is a little more freely drawn. It depends on the depth of the hair, the amount of detail you're going for, and the style.

It really is up to you, but they help, especially to make sure things are proportional and spaced correctly. If you are really good at free-handing it, go for it! It's helpful to know how to do it with guidelines just in case you want a more realistic drawing.

Check out the article on How to Draw Eyelashes , there are step-by-step instructions there.

For me, #2 pencils are better for shading, and mechanical pencils are better for outlining. You can also get pencils with different thicknesses; the thicker the pencil, the easier it will be for shading, but it will be dark.