Human Figure Drawing: Creating Symmetry and Detail in Faces

The face is one of the hardest parts of the human body for new artists to draw. That’s because everyone’s face is different, so it’s hard to draw a basic structure properly on something so varied. But basic structure is the best way to start. We’ll work from the simple foundation to the details in a few steps.

The Face’s Form

Let’s start with a basic head. The head should be drawn as an upright oval. Not everyone’s head is this basic shape, of course, but it is an excellent template upon which to add detail. The oval should be drawn lightly, so parts of it can be erased as needed.

Inside the oval, you need to draw two lines in the shape of a cross. They should intersect in the center of the oval and should touch the outer sides of the oval. Now your oval is divided into four quadrants, and you’re ready to add detail. The lines you’ve drawn will denote where the feature s of the face should be.

You may want to shape the head more fully at this point, flattening the bottom of the oval for the chin, and widening the top half of the head to make it look more natural.

Adding the Features

The nose should be drawn just below the center of the face, directly under where the lines intersect. The nose should start as a “U” shape, and details like nostrils can be added later.

The eyes will go directly on the halfway line that cuts horizontally across the face. They form the center of the face, and when you are able to start a face properly without the intersecting lines, they will serve a guide point for where the rest of the facial features should be. Eyes should be drawn as small, sideways ovals. Details like pupils, crow’s feet, eyelids and such should be drawn in after the major features of the face are established.

It is important, especially for inexperienced artists, to draw the major facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, hair) before detailing and shading specific portions of the face. This lets you see how all the pieces fit together, and it allows you to make sure everything is spaced correctly before you add a bunch of detail. Adding detail too soon may cause you to have to redo a lot of your work.

The mouth goes slightly below the end of the nose, and should be represented by a small straight line. Once again, save the details for later. Ears are drawn as half circles on the side of the face. They go at the edges of the horizontal line, directly in line with the eyes.

For the hair, just draw an outline around the outside of it, not bothering to fill in details just yet.

Now that all the basics are in place, you can adjust them as needed. Erase the parts that are too long, too high, or too wide, and repair them to look correct. You can also erase the guidelines that cross the face at this point. You don’t need them anymore.

Detailing

Once you’ve drawn the basic form of the face, you can start adding the details we talked about earlier. This is also the time to start forming the head to the way you want it. Erase unnecessary parts of the oval and add lines as needed. Once all the details are added, and the face looks like an actual face, then it is time to shade everything.

Skin tone shading should be done with a rubbing motion with your pencil. You will have to rub in a circular pattern for the most natural-looking effect. Shading with lines gives an unnatural and decidedly comic book look to the face.

When shading or darkening lines, you may want to consider using a charcoal pencil. Charcoal is excellent for area effects like shading, while graphite and lead pencils work much better for outlines.

And now your face is complete. It may help to work through your future figure drawings this way until you’re comfortable with feature placement. But you should always start with a basic outline drawing before working through to the details.


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