How To Draw A Pretty Face

Before you try to draw a realistic portrait of a specific character, you should first understand some basic principles regarding proportions. Every person has different facial features but a lot of the proportions are approximately the same. In this guide you will exactly lean how to draw a face that considers those proportional guidelines. Follow along and make the next step towards a beautifully drawn portrait.

Recommended Drawing Supplies

If you want learn how to draw a face properly you will need some basic drawing supplies. Here is our recommended equipment to be able to draw the facial proportions and subsequently shade the image.

HB Pencil
2B Pencil
Triangle Ruler
Drawing Paper
Kneaded Eraser

Step 1: Draw the supporting lines

Draw a circle to represent the skull and the vertical centerline.

Step 2: Dividing the support line into thirds

Plot the guide lines into thirds, start with the line above which will be the guide for the hairline. And the bottom line will be the edge of the chinline.

Step 3: Draw the jaw

Step 4: Complete the head shape

Draw top of the head and also drawing in some lines to indicate the hollow parts of the skull and the hollow cheek area.

Step 5: How to draw a face – Draw the eyes

The eyes are usually in the center, measuring from the top of the head to the chin. The width of the head in the eye area is about 5 eyes. The space between the eyes is the width of an eye.

Ready to start drawing realistic? See our Eye Drawing Tutorial

Step 6: Draw the nose

The wings of the nose are lined up with the tear ducts of the eyes. And the vertical distance from the eyes to the top of the nose wings is the height of an eye.

Step 7: Draw the mouth

The distance from the bottom of the nose to the top of the mouth is the height of an eye. And the bottom of the lip is in the center of the bottom of the nose and the edge of the chin.The corners of the lips align with the Iris.

Step 8: Draw the ear and the hairline

The ear height usually goes from the eyebrows until the nose wings.

Draw in the hairline from the guide lines, you can go over or under the line depending on how high or low you want the hairline to be.

Step 9: Draw in details and remove supporting lines

Hair usually has volume so it goes above the skull line. Remove your guidelines then render and refine the rest of the details.

Download your Face Drawing Cheat Sheet

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