How to draw a person's face step by step with a pencil beautifully. How to quickly draw a man's face? Look how a man and a woman should be drawn correctly in different positions

Drawings of a person's face, a portrait is the most complex look fine arts. Learn to draw a portrait of a person correctly, even with a simple pencil, requires not only time to learn, but also talent. The difficulty of drawing a portrait of a person lies in the ability to convey the emotional state of a person, his facial expressions, the depth of his gaze, etc. To do this, you need to correctly draw the eyes, accurately repeat the shape of the person’s lips and other features of his face.
How to draw a portrait of a person if you have no experience? It is quite possible to learn a simple technique for drawing a person’s face on your own, but first you can try draw a person's face step by step, with a simple pencil. Perhaps not the first time, but with a strong desire, you will definitely be able to draw a real portrait of a person.

Video on how to draw a person's face step by step.

1. The overall contour of a person’s face is most important.

To draw correctly portrait of a man It is important to accurately make the first contour, the contour of the face. Without pressing hard on the pencil, repeat this oval of the person's face in your drawing. You may have to draw it several times, repeating this step again. Do not spare paper, draw until this outline is the correct shape and symmetrical. If you want to draw the same portrait as in my drawing, be patient and diligent.

2. Marking the main parts of a person’s face

Exactly in the center, draw a horizontal line dividing the portrait into two parts, and just below another parallel line. From the center of the bottom line, draw a perpendicular line and mark where the tip of the nose will be located on the face. When drawing these lines, do not press hard on the pencil. Don't forget to draw the ears.

3. Eyes are the main part of the portrait

Drawing a person's face step by step is simple and fun. The main thing is to definitely take the first steps. At this stage it will be much easier to draw, but you need to be extremely careful and careful. We probably need to sharpen the pencil sharper, we will now need to make thin lines.
The eyes on a person's face are the most important part of a portrait. So let's start drawing this portrait step with them. Draw the eyes using smooth, oval lines, but first place marks (dots) for the lateral, upper and lower borders of each eye. Draw the pupils, the line of the mouth and the initial contours of the hair.

4.Draw the outlines of the eyebrows, mouth and lips

This step will be the most difficult, but after it the portrait of the person will be almost complete. Draw something that is easy to draw first. Draw the eyebrows and finish drawing the outline of the hair. Now let's draw a slightly more complex element of a person's face - lips. It’s easier to draw the lower lip, so let’s start with it, and the upper lip will be mirror image the bottom one, only it is divided in half in the center. Don't draw too wide a mouth or thick lips.
Start drawing the nose from its tip, in the form of a “tick”, and two arcs along the edges. Now draw a line from the right eyebrow, slightly deviating to the right.
Using an eraser, carefully remove from your drawing of a person's face extra contour lines and look, you get a real portrait of a person.

5. The drawing of the man's face is almost finished

If you have reached this stage and are quite satisfied with your drawing of a person, then you are a real artist and apparently you can draw a lot of other beautiful things. Starting from this step, you have earned a rest, and therefore you will not have to draw any more difficult things in your portrait of a person. You will only need to draw eyebrows, eyelids, hair and draw the ears in more detail.

6. Portrait of a man. Creating shadows in a drawing

Now you have a real drawing of a person’s face, all that remains is to make a portrait, as real artists do. That is, add shadows to the drawing with a soft simple pencil, making the picture of the face three-dimensional. This effect can only be achieved by creating shadows and contrasts.
On the face and hair, many areas need to be shaded with darker and denser light. This effect will give the face greater realism and depth.
Now you know how draw a portrait person and you can try to draw a portrait from a photograph. Don’t try to draw a portrait of a person “from life”, only artists can do this. If you manage to convey the main similarities and express them in your drawing main feature human - that's already good. And if the portrait resembles the person in the photo, then you can be sure that you have real talent.


The lesson on how to draw a portrait of a person is an addition to the lesson on how to draw a person in full height. Draw first standing man, and then, using this lesson, you can draw a person’s face in detail.


The drawing of a person's face is, first of all, the eyes. It is this element of the portrait that needs to be given the most attention. In this lesson you can learn how to draw eyes in detail.


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If you decide to draw a person's face, it is important to achieve a similarity in the person's portrait and accurately draw any facial features. But eyes and lips are the most important elements of facial design.


It is difficult to draw a ballerina, because you need to convey the grace and elegance of the dancer’s movements. To make it easier for you to draw a ballerina, this lesson done step by step.


Let's try to draw a hockey player in motion, with a stick and puck, step by step. You might even be able to draw your favorite hockey player or goalie.


In this lesson we learn how to draw anime comics in manga style with a pencil. Every anime fan wants to be able to draw manga, but it is not easy for everyone, since drawing a person is difficult, especially anime in motion.


Anime style human face drawing eyes are the basis of this style. The eyes always have a distorted, enlarged size, and the person's facial features bear only a rough resemblance to the person's actual face.

Here you will find step by step instructions how to draw a person’s face, let’s look at the simplest version of drawing a face, and then try to draw a girl’s face, which will help you understand in more detail the nuances of drawing a person’s face.

Drawing the proportions of a person’s face: Full face

1. Draw a circle. Then we finish drawing an oval or even an egg shape, pointed at the bottom.
2. Draw two lines perpendicular to the center that divide the “egg” into four parts. To distribute facial features.
3. Mark the midpoints of the left and right halves of the horizontal line. There will be eyes at these points.

4. Divide the vertical bottom line into five equal parts. The tip of the nose will be at the second point from the center. The lip fold will be at the third point from the center, one point lower from the tip of the nose.
5. Divide the top half of the head into four equal parts: the hairline (if the person does not have a receding hairline) will be located between the second and third point from the center. The ear will be located between the upper eyelid and the tip of the nose (if the face is at the same level). When a person looks up or down, the position of the ears changes.
6. The face is ready!

And now we will try to draw the girl’s face

1. First of all, draw an oval. Try to make this oval fairly even. Divide the face with a horizontal line into two equal parts. In the future, eyes will appear on this line.
2. Now we mark with straight lines the location of the lips, nose and eyebrows. Please note that the distances from the bottom of the chin to the beginning of the nose, from the nose to the eyebrows and from the eyebrows to the hairline are approximately equal. I marked these segments to the right of the head for clarity. And one more thing - all these lines are parallel to each other. They should not go awry, otherwise the face will be very far from ideal.
3. Now let's start drawing the eyes. The outer and inner corners of the eyes are usually located on different levels. We will draw eyes, the inner corners of which are slightly lower than the outer ones. Above the already drawn eye line, mark the height of the outer corners. We also draw the middle line of the face, dividing the oval into two equal parts: right and left.
4. Now we mark two small vertical segments on the bridge of the nose - the distance between the eyes. The right and left segments must be equal in length, because human face quite symmetrical. Now we measure the resulting double segment and put the same distance to the right and left of it - these will be the eyes. The distance between the eyes is approximately equal to the length of the eye. There should be some free space between the eye and the outline of the oval (where the person’s temples are). If this space is not available, and the eyes rest on the lines of the oval, reduce the distance between the eyes and, accordingly, the shape of the eyes.
5. Now let's mark the nose and lips. Look at your nose. Where is it widest? That's right, where the wings of the nose are located. If we lower the vertical straight lines from the inner corners of the eyes, we can determine the location of the wings of the nose. Of course, people's faces are very different from each other. Some people have very wide noses, while others have small noses. We are drawing an average face, so the width of the nose is exactly that. At the same stage we mark the outer corners of the lips. To do this, lower straight lines down from approximately the middle of each eye.
6. We begin to draw the eyes on the girl’s face. The inner corners of the eyes are slightly higher. The iris of the eye (the colored circle in the middle) is not completely visible. Its upper part is slightly hidden under the upper eyelid, and the lower part lies on the lower eyelid.
7. Now we draw the upper and lower eyelids on the eyes. They follow the contours of the girl's eyes. Let's work a little on the structure of the nose. First, we draw the wings of the nose using rounded lines. Secondly, we mark with a small circle the most prominent part of the nose - the tip.

8. Now let's draw the bridge of the nose. At eye level or slightly above is the thinnest part of the nose. To the bottom and to the top of this line, the nose widens. This shape is somewhat reminiscent of an hourglass. We also draw the nostrils.
9. Now we will draw the girl’s lips. We already have the middle line of the lips. We will modify it a little by rounding the middle part. Then draw the outline of the upper lip with a hollow in the middle.
10. If you want to draw a half-open mouth, then you need to leave a small distance between the upper and lower lip. And then draw a plump lower lip with a rounded line.
11. In order to make the girl’s face more expressive, it is necessary to draw eyebrows. We have a line indicating the location of the eyebrows. Of course, the eyebrows will not be straight like this line. They are always curved. The eyebrows rise from the nose towards the temples. Using the shape of the eyebrows, you can depict facial expressions. If you raise the inner corners of the eyebrows higher than the outer ones, we will get a sad or even crying face. Conversely, to draw an angry face, you need to bring your eyebrows to the bridge of your nose.
12. It's time to clarify the contours of the face. The girl's face cannot be a regular oval; it has reliefs. At the level of the cheekbones, the face will be widest.
13. Now let's draw the hairstyle. The girl has loose wavy hair. Our hairline is marked. Here will be the “beginning” of our hairstyle.

14. Draw the height of the girl’s hairstyle. She has quite voluminous hair.
15. At this stage you can start shading the drawing. We look at the photo or the reflection of the face in the mirror. In what places is the face darkened? We shade the areas with even lines without pressing the pencil. We darken the iris of the eyes, not forgetting to leave highlights of light.
16. On top of the first layer of shading, apply the next one where the shadows are darker.
17. We shade not only the face, but also the hair.
18. On last stage Let's use a soft pencil. I took a 5B pencil. To make the face more expressive, let’s focus on the eyes, eyebrows and lips. Darken the iris and lash line (especially the upper ones). Also darken the corners of your lips and the hair on the sides of your face.

Well, you’ve almost learned how to draw a person’s face, now all you have to do is practice. To do this, you can sit in front of the mirror and take your self-portrait, or take a photograph and try to redraw the portrait of another person.
The most important thing is never stop in the middle, if you didn’t get some part of the face (nose, lips, eyes or something else), still continue to draw the entire portrait to the end, and only then start drawing again. Remember skill comes with experience!

When working with nature, the light should not be too bright and should fall slightly above the person’s head. Because of this, the light will fall in such a way that it will be easier for you to depict the main features of a person. If the light source is too bright, then our nature will have to wrinkle our eyes and unnaturally tense some muscles, we don’t need this, so watch the light source.

Drawing proceeds from the general to the specific. That is, we outline the basis and then detail it.

Carefully study the characteristic shapes of the person you are drawing. Even if you draw from a picture, you should still study it carefully.

Even if you do beautiful nose. eyes or mouth, but general forms the heads will not correspond to reality, then the work can be considered unsuccessful.

Once you have analyzed common features faces, it's time to analyze small elements: eyes, ears, nose and mouth.

Eyes are a very important element. They convey character, emotions, physical and psychological state generally. Pay attention to the eyelashes. Don't forget about eyebrows. They are very good at showing when someone is angry or sad.

The ears are drawn almost identically. This is not the most important part, but still...
They are usually depicted in line with the nose.

Drawing a nose is not as easy as it seems; it is a rather difficult part of the face to depict. The difficulty also lies in the fact that people different noses. Once you learn to draw one type masterfully, you may not be able to draw another type masterfully as well.

The lips or mouth are also a very expressive part, despite the fact that they are drawn almost identically. Depending on gender and race, lips can be thin or thicker.
The upper and lower lips can be approximately the same size. It is also possible that the lower lip will be larger than the upper and vice versa.

Very often, beginning artists neglect the study of the human skeleton and musculature, mistakenly believing that “it will work out just fine.” But ignorance of human anatomy leads to the fact that the drawn person turns out to be unconvincing, and his facial expressions and movements look unnatural.

So today we'll look at basic principles, which you should follow if you want to draw a good and high-quality portrait.

1. Facial proportions

The skull and jaw are a slightly flattened sphere, so when looking at a human face from the front we see something like an egg turned upside down with its narrow side down. Two perpendicular lines running down the middle divide this egg into four parts. Let's look at the details:

  • Mark the midpoints of the right and left halves of the horizontal line. The eyes will be located exactly at these points.
  • Divide the bottom half of the vertical line into five parts. The bottom of the nose will be located on the second mark from the top, and the line where the lips meet will be located one point below.
  • Divide the top half of the vertical line into four parts. The hairline will be located at the second or third mark, this feature varies. The ears are located between the upper eyelid and the tip of the nose, but this rule is only true when the face is not down or up.

Helpful hint: The width of the face is usually the width of five eyes or a little less. The distance between the eyes is equal to the width of one eye. Very rarely in people this distance differs very much from the standard, but this feature will be quite easy to notice. The distance between the lower lip and chin is also equal to the length of one eye.

Another way to measure is to use the distance between the tip of the thumb and index finger. The figure below shows which distances can be measured in this way: ear height, distance from hairline to eyebrows, from eyebrow to nose, from nose to chin and from pupil to pupil.

Profile

In profile we can still see the shape of the egg, but its sharp side points towards the corner. Lines now divide the head into the face and skull.

On the skull:

  • The ear is located just behind the vertical line. In size and location, it is still located between the upper eyelid and the tip of the nose.
  • The depth of the skull varies within the limits indicated in the picture below in point 4 with dotted lines.
  • Everything is located as indicated above.
  • The root of the nose coincides with the horizontal line or is slightly higher
  • The most convex part is the first point above the horizontal line that marks the line of the eyebrows.

2. Features

Eyes and eyebrows

The eye is simply two arches joined into an almond shape. There is no specific rule in drawing eyes, because the shape of the eyes can be different, and there are a lot of such shapes, but we can notice the following trends:

  • The outer corner of the eye can be higher than the inner corner, but not vice versa.
  • If the eye shape is almond, then the rounded part of the eye will be closer to the inner corner, and the elongated part will be closer to the outer corner.

Eye details

  • The iris is partially hidden under outer eyelid. It only touches the lower eyelid if the person is looking down, or if the eye is built so that the lower eyelid is higher than usual.
  • Eyelashes grow from the inside out, not the other way around, and this is very important when drawing so that they look natural. The eyelashes on the lower eyelid are shorter.
  • When trying to draw all the little details (tear ducts, lower eyelid, etc.), remember that detailed drawing does not always mean that the result will be beautiful.

In profile, the eye takes the shape of an arrowhead (with convex or concave sides), with a slight hint of the upper and possibly lower eyelid. IN real life you will not see the iris from the side, you will only see the white of the eye. But an eye without an iris looks strange, so draw at least a hint of it.

As for the eyebrows, the easiest way to draw them is to follow the arc upper eyelid. Often the widest part of the eyebrow is closer to the inner part, and the “tail” tending towards the outer part of the eye gradually becomes thinner.

If you look in profile, the shape of the eyebrows changes dramatically and becomes more like a comma. The eyebrow begins where the tips of the eyelashes are located.

The human nose is approximately wedge-shaped, it is quite easy to imagine and draw it in volumetric form before drawing in the details.

The dorsum and wings of the nose are flat surfaces that are only outlined at the end, but it is still very important to take these surfaces into account when sketching in order to correctly calculate the proportions. The lower flat part of our wedge in the form of a truncated triangle connects to the wings and the tip of the nose. The wings fold inwards towards the septum to form the nostrils - note that the ventral view shows how the septum begins before the wings and connects to the face. It projects lower than the wings when we look at the nose in profile, which means that in the 3/4 view the far nostril is hidden by the septum.

Just as with the eyes, detailing does not always give good results. Therefore, it is more important to work out the proportions than to pore over details that could ultimately disfigure the drawing. When drawing from the front, the nose looks better if you draw only the lower part. If you are drawing a 3/4 view, then most likely you will be better off drawing the line of the bridge of the nose. You'll have to look at and study a lot of noses to figure out how and when to portray it.

Lips

  • The line where the lips meet should be drawn first, as it is the longest and darkest line of the three that form the mouth. It's not just a wavy line, but a whole series of thin curves. In the picture below you can see an exaggerated example that will explain to you the movement of the mouth line. Please note that there is different shapes lips, and that the base line may reflect the lower or upper lip. Lips can be softened in different ways. The line in the middle can be very straight to reflect a sharp look, or very blurry to weaken the lips. It all depends on the shape of the lips, how plump they are. If you want to achieve symmetry, start from the center and draw one half of the lip, and then the other.
  • The two upper tips of the upper lip are the most obvious parts of the mouth, but they can also be either pronounced or almost in one line.
  • The lower lip has a soft arch, but can also vary from almost straight to very rounded.
  • The upper lip is usually thinner than the lower lip and sticks out less from the overall topography of the face than the lower lip. Try to highlight the upper lip with strokes.
  • On the sides, the lips have the shape of an arrowhead, and the fact that the upper lip protrudes slightly forward in this place can be seen very well.
  • The midline of the mouth at the ends deviates downward from the lips. Even if the person smiles, it curves down before going up again. Never draw this line straight up if you are drawing a face in profile.

The most important part of the ear is the long C-shaped outer line. Interior ear is like an inverted U. There is also a similar curve just above the earlobe, connected to a small C-shaped arch. In general, the shape of the ear also varies.

When we see the face from the front, the ears are visible in profile:

  • The rim, previously U-shaped, is now separate part- as happens when we look at a plate from the side and see its bottom.
  • The earlobe will look more like a drop and will stand out.
  • How thin the ear line needs to be drawn depends on how close the ears are to the head.

If you look at the head from behind, the ear looks as if separated from the head: the rim is attached to the head by a funnel. Don't be afraid to draw the funnel too big, as it really isn't small.

3. Angle

Being shaped like a ball with a few minor changes, the head is easier to draw than expected. But despite this, you need to study what it looks like underneath different angles. Of course, the appearance of the nose changes first, but the eyebrows, cheekbones, central part of the mouth and chin also change.

When we drew the face in front and profile, we practically simplified it to a two-dimensional plane. For other viewing angles, we need to think in three-dimensional space.

Look down

  • All parts are rounded upward and the ears also move upward.
  • Since the nose protrudes forward, it protrudes from the general line of the face and its tip is closer to the mouth.
  • The eyebrow curve becomes smoother. In order for it to take a reverse bend, you need to turn your face in some particularly unusual way.
  • The upper eyelid becomes more visible and covers most of the eyeball.
  • The upper lip almost disappears, and the lower one sticks out more.
  • Notice that since the mouth follows a general curve, it appears as if a smile has appeared on the person's face.

Look up

  • All parts are rounded down and the ears are also moved down.
  • The upper lip becomes fully visible and the mouth appears fuller.
  • The brow line becomes more rounded, but the lower eyelid curves downward, giving the effect of an edgy look.
  • The lower part of the nose is clearly visible, and the nostrils are also clearly visible.

Turn sideways

When a person is seen almost from the back, all that is visible is the protruding line of the eyebrows and cheekbones. The neck line protrudes and tends towards the ear. Eyelashes are the next thing that is visible when a person turns his face.

Then part of the eyebrow appears, and the ridge of the lower eyelid and the tip of the nose protruding from behind the cheek become visible.

When the face is already turned almost in profile, eyeball and the lips become visible (but midline mouth is still small), and the neck line merges with the chin line into one line. You can still see part of the cheek where the nostril hides.

The topic of this article is devoted to how to draw a portrait with a pencil step by step for beginners. Each of us is looking for convenient way depict what he sees. Therefore, I want to offer an option on how to draw a portrait of a person, be it a loved one, or a person sitting opposite on the train, or it will be portraits of celebrities. In this version, there is only one rule - simplicity.

And today is a training lesson. We will draw a person’s face with a pencil step by step, a person whom you see every day; you are used to “working” a little on his appearance, trying on makeup or a smile, severity or tenderness. We draw the face you know as your reflection in the mirror.

But first, let's get a mirror and look at ourselves like for the first time. All people are similar, and at the same moment different, and you are no exception. What makes us similar? Every healthy person has two eyes, a mouth, a nose, ears, eyebrows, and hair arranged in a hairstyle. What makes us different? The shape, size and location of these “details” of human appearance. So, a portrait is a kind of collage or puzzle of several passages, which we will “break down” into the plan of our work: Eyes; Mouth; Nose; Ears; Brows; Hair (hairstyle) and oval face.

And all this has its own shape, size and its own proportions of location on the face. This is what makes each of us “one of a kind” and unlike anyone else. And, if we are learning to draw a portrait of a certain person, then it would be good to first pay attention to the shape and type of each element of the face in detail. And only after this our final goal, and this is a portrait with colored pencils, will become more accessible.

We will first practice drawing all the details with a simple pencil. And also, please note, I draw myself and my eyes. You can practice drawing mine for now, but this will be an intermediate step on the way to understanding how to learn how to draw portraits with a pencil.

Step 1

Here we will draw an arc with a pencil. At the same time, pay attention to its shape. It is extended until the middle, and then “rolls” down.

Step 2

The lower arc is almost perfect. It is smaller than the top one.

Step 3

We connect the arches and perform the upper eyelid.

Step 4

Cornea and lower eyelid.

Step 5

Eyelashes appear on the upper and lower eyelids and the pupil.

Step 6

We make small folds near the eyes and mark the places where the shadow falls, making the eye seem voluminous.

Lips

How to draw sponges correctly? Just 5 steps and your lip drawing is ready.

Step 1

We start with a wavy line.

Step 2

Over wavy line depict the upper sponge.

Step 3

We complement the drawn mouth with a lower sponge.

Step 4

We connect the edges of the lips and some folds of the lips.

Step 5

We create a chiaroscuro effect and do not forget about the folds in the corners of the lips and on the chin.

Nose

How to draw a portrait of a person if you don’t learn how to draw one of the most difficult details, the nose. We do this step by step.

Step 1

We draw parallel lines - this is the width of the nose.

Step 2

The two lines end with the original “capsule”. This is a widening of the nose.

Step 3

We depict the nostrils.

Step 4

Shading for a chiaroscuro effect.

Step 5

To make the shadow look natural, we even it out a little.

Ears

Another element that is sometimes forgotten when covered with hair. But our pencil portrait for beginners provides it step by step. What is this? Ears.

Step 1

The shape of the ear is similar to an arch. Let's do it.

Step 2

We carry out top part auricle, helix and tragus.

Step 3

We make an anti-curl. A lobe appeared, which means I didn’t forget about my jewelry – the earring.

Step 4

I do the cheek, neck and hair.

Brows

Drawing a portrait also includes such details as eyebrows.

Step 1

Some find it convenient to do this first with an arc, and then each hair separately. And for some, it is more interesting to immediately draw the shape of the eyebrows, making them with abrupt lines.

Step 2

We correct the shape and thickness of the eyebrows.

Hair (hairstyle) and face shape

Having examined each individual detail, it is easier for us to understand how to draw a portrait with a pencil. And yet, I will show you the image of a person’s face in stages.

Action 1

My face is round in shape. And this is what I try to portray.

Act 2

I mark where the neck will be and the shape of my hairstyle.

Act 3

I draw the hair in more detail.

Well, we have learned to work on each detail separately. Time to put the puzzle together. Let's talk about having a pencil person.

Angle

Before we get a portrait with colored pencils, we again draw the portrait from scratch. But what else is important to know about depicting people? The fact that you can create a person’s face in different ways. For example, if the model is sitting directly in front of us, her body and head itself are positioned straight, and her eyes are looking directly at the artist, then this angle is called full face.

Profile – if the model is located sideways to us.

How to draw a portrait of a person who is sitting half-turned towards us? And what is this work called? This is three quarters. This angle is very convenient for a romantic and informal image. It brings out the beauty of the eyes and lips. This is exactly what we will choose to make the first pencil portrait from a photograph.

Working on an image from a photograph

First, you should choose a photo of a suitable model to draw a portrait from a photograph. And now let's do the work step by step.

To understand how to draw a person’s face, let’s divide everything into stages.

Stage 1

We make an oval face with a pencil.

Stage 2

This pencil work for beginners involves auxiliary lines that will help maintain the proportions of a person's face when drawing a portrait outline.

Stage 3

Thanks to the diagram, we mark where the eyes, nose and other organs will be. We perform these facial details step by step.

A little more detail:

Eyes and eyebrows

Stage 4

Now, to make our pencil portrait from the photo look more believable, we erase all the auxiliary lines and pay attention to the hair. Don't forget about the effect of chiaroscuro.

Stage 5

It's time to make a portrait with colored pencils to bring it to life.

Test lesson

It's time to move on to checking what we have learned and continue talking about how to draw your portrait. I hope the portrait drawing lessons were not in vain for me, and I will be able to believably draw myself as a real beauty!

1) Oval face.

Visual video:

Today we will draw a person's face. Many people mistakenly believe that only select talents can draw. This is not true: anyone who has the desire and patience can learn to draw correctly. Knowing the basic proportions and rules of construction will help you correctly depict a person’s face. Read the following material and try to draw a face step by step.

Axes and proportions

When drawing a person's face, it is imperative to study and constantly draw centerlines easily.

With experience, you can get by with one or two guides, or without them at all. You don’t need to think that axes are boring and uninteresting; they will help you quickly and correctly build a face with the correct proportions, identical eyes, and symmetrical parts.

In the future, visually imagining these axes, you will be able to work with human facial expressions and emotions. After all, to show sadness, you need to lower your eyebrows and corners of your mouth, close your eyes, and for this you need to imagine at what level all these parts of the face are in a state of calm.

Eye line

The first and main axes that you definitely need to remember are:

The eye line of all adults is in the middle of the head.

Axis of symmetry and eyes

Divide the oval of the head into two equal parts horizontally - this is where the eyes will be located. We also outline a vertical line of symmetry.

At first it’s difficult to do this by eye, so check yourself by measuring identical lengths with a pencil or ruler.

Eyebrow line nose hair

Next you need divide the oval of the head with horizontal lines into three and a half parts. The upper axis is hair growth, in the middle is the level of the eyebrows, below is the axis of the base of the nose. The distance from the hair to the eyebrows is equal to the height of the forehead. Essentially, the face (if you don't take into account the hair) consists of three equal parts that are equal to the height of the forehead.

Line of mouth and lips

Next we will designate the lips. To do this, the lower part of the face (from the nose to the tip of the chin) needs to be divided in half - this way we will find the line of the edge of the lower lip. To determine the level of the mouth cut, you will have to divide the segment from the lower lip to the nose into four more equal parts. The first quarter will be the line of the mouth.


Mouth and lips

The mouth section of most people is at the same level, but the sizes of the upper and lower lips are completely different.

Where to place the ears

No matter how strange it may be, very often, with a more or less successful face structure, the ears are not attached at all in the place where they should be located. Therefore, we will pay special attention to the ears.


Correct placement of ears

At the top, the ears are attached to the axis of the eyes, and at the bottom at the level of the base of the nose. They can be large or small, stand out strongly or lie close to the head, but for all people they are attached to the line of the nose and eyes.

How to place your eyes correctly

How to find out the width of the eyes and the distance between them? To do this, the eye line needs to be divided into 8 equal parts.


Outlining the eyes
  • Another eye (2/8) should be placed between the eyes.
  • Each eye is 2/8 wide.
  • From the outer corners of the eyes to the contour of the head, leave 1/8 (the width of half the eye).

These are rough guidelines. U different people These proportions are slightly different. It is not necessary to divide the axis into 8 parts every time, just check yourself.

This photo shows with light lines that:

  • the corners of the eyes lie on the same level as the wings of the nose
  • and the center of the eyes lies in line with the corners of the mouth

Face drawing scheme

Actually, if you outline all the guides, then you should end up with a diagram like this. You can print it out as a sample, since it is difficult to remember everything at once and practice drawing a person’s face with the correct proportions.


Schematic representation of a person's face

Later, you will be able to give faces features of specific people and draw portraits of everyone you are interested in.

With this we will finish with axes, proportions and guides and start drawing.

Drawing step by step

Today we will not draw a portrait of a specific person, but will learn to create quick sketches with the correct proportions and placement of all the main parts.

Drawing a face is a skill that improves with experience. If you have never drawn portraits of people, it is important to first simply learn at the level of mechanics and repetition how and at what level to place the eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows, ears, and the relationship between them. To do this, look at the diagram in the previous section and easily apply the guides.

Repetition is the mother of teaching

We designate the form

The first stage is the simplest, we need to designate the shape of the face; it is easiest to fit it into an oval, ovoid or other round shape. The vertical axis will help create a symmetrical pattern, the horizontal axis will help show the eyes correctly.

Outlining the main elements of the face

All previously outlined lines will help us build our face. These axes must be applied very lightly, barely noticeable, so that later they can be easily and imperceptibly erased.

It doesn’t really matter where exactly you start drawing facial features, the main thing is that you don’t get stuck and concentrate on one thing: nose, eyes, lips, eyebrows.

At first quickly and easily define all parts of the face without going into detail without trying to be too precise. We apply all the lines very lightly, so that it is easy to correct.

If something turns out crooked or inaccurate, you can fix it at the next stage.

We specify the shapes and sizes

At this stage, we adjust the size and shape of the eyes, ears, eyebrows, nose, lips, and clarify the shape of the face. We correct everything that went wrong at the previous stage.

Adding details and shadows

Using strokes, we add shadows near the nose, eyes, under the upper lip, and highlight the cheekbones. Drawing hair. Show the neck and shadow on it.

This portrait is quite primitive and not elaborate, but such a quick sketch is quite enough for learning.

In the following lessons we will definitely consider the nuances of drawing eyes, nose, lips and ears. We will also consider facial expressions and human emotions, but for all this you definitely need to practice well.

Video tutorial

Video on how to draw a person's face:

I hope this lesson was interesting and useful for you.

I wish you success in your creativity!

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