Learn How To Draw Faces Realistically

Drawing a face isn't as hard as it looks. To draw a realistic human face, it takes mapping out the face correctly before you fill in the finer detail. If you would like to get the most out of this article, I recommend sitting down with a pad and paper and drawing each step as you read it.

To begin, start with an egg shaped oval. Draw a line down the center of this egg. This line will give you a midpoint for measuring eye separation, nose width, etc.

Next, separate the egg shape into 3 equal portions (horizontal lines) with 2 lines. The top of the egg will be be the top of the hairline and the bottom of that segment will be the eyebrows. The second segment goes from the eyebrows to the bottom of the nose. The third segment goes from the bottom of the nose to the bottom of the chin.

Two of these segments turned sideways will give you the measurement sideways from cheek to cheek.

The measurement of one eye should be equal to the distance between the two eyes. The corner of each eye should line up with the wings of the nose.

If you divide the third segment (under the nose) in half, with a horizontal line, you have the line for the bottom of the bottom lip. The corners of the mouth should line up with the middle of the pupil of the eye.

The ears should be visible from a front view as they do not sit flat on the side of your head. These points can be found by finding the middle segment from the eyebrow to the bottom of the nose. The ears should only stick out about as far as from the center line of the head to the wing of the nose.

The hair can be drawn by drawing the hair from the edge of the ear up. The top of the hair is ¾ of one of the segment lengths up from the hair line.

This is only a basic face layout. A lot of the shapes on the human face are defined by underlying bones and musculature. In order to learn how to draw a face more accurately, it is necessary to understand some of the anatomy. The eye, the nose and mouth are the main structures that must be more closely examined in order to draw a face correctly.

Adam Reeder has been an artist for 15 years. He has been a professional portrait artist and sculptor for the last seven years. His work is well respected and has compiled great techniques to help artists create lifelike work. He maintains a website, Learn To Draw Like A Pro, where a downloadable step-by-step human figure drawing guide is available.