Adding the detail.

Eyes. I started with the eyes as they always bring the face to life. Firstly I drew two almond shapes then adjusted them slightly to balance them up. I then outlined the shape with a sharp 4B pencil. I also use an HB.

Next I drew two circles inside of the almonds to give me my pupils and using my 4B pencil did the same to the outside edge of the circle as I did to the almond. Using the 4B pencil again I drew another smaller circle inside of the larger circle to give me the centre of the eye. Remember this is a basic tutorial and you will need to practice, practice , practice.

The next stage was to shade the rest of the pupil with a lighter shade. I used an H pencil for this. Firstly I lightly shaded the whole area of the pupil and then added a little detail by using the tip of the pencil to create small random lines. I also shaded above the eye to make it look more realistic. The next thing to do was add the eyebrows which I lightly pencilled in first until I was happy with their shape and then added some detail. Adding the detail to the face and making it look real will come with practice as the more you do the better you will get and like me you will start to learn and understand what works and what doesn't . Be patient though because it wont happen overnight.

Mouth. I applied the same principle as the nose to form the top lip and then added the bottom lip accordingly shading it and detailing it using the same technique as the eyes. (See lips & mouth)

Hair. That was the fun bit as you can let your imagination run wild. I chose to give my female long hair but she can have short hair, spiky hair or no hair at all, its entirely up to you. See also Just try to retain the shape of the face and head as I found that to much hair completely ruined the picture. ( That was only my opinion, it's up to you really.)

As stated in the title this is a beginners guide, and I like you am a beginner. I have written this tutorial in real time as it  happened and all pictures and sketch's are as they happened. Most aren't that great but I will keep practicing until they are.

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The basic head shape.

The first thing I did was to draw a cross on a piece of paper.

Once I had my cross I chose a point near the top and put a faint dot. The next thing I did  was to  judge the distance from the dot to the point of intersection where the vertical line meets the horizontal line of the cross. I then put a another dot at approximately an equal distance below the horizontal. This will give me my top and bottom for my head shape. I did the same again on the horizontal line to establish the width of the head. When doing this have a rough idea of the shape of the head you want to draw before you mark out your points. All head shapes are different so don't worry if it isn't a perfect oval. remember this is a guide to get you started.

The next step is to lightly sketch your head shape by joining the dots using curved lines from point to point. making sure that both sides of your head are equal or it will look out of proportion. If  you are slightly out do not worry as you can adjust it up later.

The next step is to divide the bottom half of the face into half and then half again as shown. This will give you your guide points for the base of the nose and the centre of the mouth. All faces are different so the proportions can vary.

Positioning of  the eyes. A general guide for positioning the eyes is to divide the horizontal centre line into five equal spaces making sure that the vertical line through the face is the centre of your 3rd space. As shown. This will give you the width of the eyes and top of  the nose in proportion to the rest of  the face.

Positioning of the nose. Moving down the face place two small marks inline with the inside point of the eyes. This will give you the width of the nose at its base in proportion to the rest of  the face.

Positioning of the mouth. Moving down again place a dot roughly inline with the centre of the eyes. This will give you the width of the mouth in proportion to the rest of  the face.

Basic shapes. Once you have added the basic shapes of the eyes nose and mouth the face starts to appear.

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

   

 

Nose. The next thing I did was to slightly emphasise the nostrils. Again I used a 4B pencil. I then used the H pencil to lightly shade the top and bottom of the nose to give it some shape. Do not worry if it looks too big or too small, again you will start to learn what works and it doesn't matter how many times you rub out and try again, You will get it right eventually. The thing I found that I struggled with most was getting the shape of the nostrils right so I studied lots of pictures and came to the conclusion that if  I drew them as I would if I were drawing a quick cartoon picture of a bird in flight See also or even a set of bicycle handle bars I could get them pretty close. You will find that the shape of the nose will completely change the appearance of the face.

                 

 

                

 

 

 

How to practice using images & photos.

 

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