Drawing a Proportional Face – Front View

Hi there again!

Today we are going to study how to draw a proportional face. Before you start drawing, it’s important to do a sketch of what the proportions of your drawing are going to be. And by this I don’t mean just how big or small, but to locate and sketch the correct size of a head, and then place a line, or circles, where the eyes, mouth, nose, and ears are going to be.

Our friend sanguigna begins his example of how to draw a proportional face by first drawing a triangle that meets the eyes and the chin of our character. After that, you should mark some references of where the nose, ears, and hair line is going to be.

Remember, always start by sketching correct proportions, as this is the key for having a well-done drawing. The good thing is that if you fail in drawing the correct proportions, you can just erase them with pencil (as they are just sketches), and then redo them without any major loss. In contrary, if you have made half your drawing with all details, eyelashes, shadows, and you realize that the face shape looks akward when you begin drawing your nose… well … time to start again and throw away all work done.

For many (my case too), drawing correct outlines of proportions will imply drawing many incorrect lines and will result in a scratched and erased ugly piece of paper. In my case, I sketch the outlines of the right proportions, and once I get it rigth, I copy the outlines to another piece of paper by putting one paper over another. A good idea is to use a glass transparent table, and place a lamp below the table. The papers will become translucent and help you copy the outlines easier. After that, you can begin drawing the details such as shadows, eyelashes, hair strands, etc.

In the following example, apart from learning how to make the correct proportions by the aid of the triangle, I recommend that you also press attention to the shadowing of the lips and drawing of the hair strands as it’s really well done.
Please note that the following drawing is done by a front view, and that proportions change depending the view. 3/4 view is a little more complicated so front view would be a great start. Our friend draws in more realistic style, but as said in the other tutorials, same rules apply for manga and anime style, where traits are more exaggerated.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
Please leave me your comments!

Cheers!
Questor

P.S: If there is any topic you would like me to expose please tell me and I will see what can I do! 🙂