Drawing faces tutorial

Hey everyone, welcome or welcome back. Today I'm going to talk to you guys about how I draw faces. I've already did a drawing portraits video but that was more on drawing from reference photos. This updated one, we're still going to use reference photos but I'm also going to talk more about how I build up the structures of the face and the head so we can then use that to draw better from our imagination. So first I'd like to start off with the head. I always start with a circle or a sphere really. It isn't perfectly round all the way around so it's going to be flat on both sides and the way I show that is I have this smaller circle on the side and have a cross right at the center so it's easier for me to see that that's a flat surface and then we're going to have that cross pointing to the angle where the face is facing and then we're going to taper that down to where the chin is. This extra shape will then represent the chin and the lower jaw. Usually it's about the same length as the center of the circle to the bottom and then we just extend that horizontal line all the way across to the rest of the sphere. Then we can make another line that goes from the bottom of that circle across to the face and that will be where the nose ends and then this bottom section we just cut it in half and that's where the mouth sits. So here is what it would look like from the front. You won't see that circle anymore but we can see the flat sides that are where the circle sits. So again there's the lines that are going across from the center of that circle and then another one from the bottom and the last one that cuts that bottom section down halfway. So from the side you can see the circle way better since it's facing us and then we can then bring that down over to the jaw and then the same thing where we have the line from where the circle ends and then cut that bottom section down in half for the mouth. So that's that's basically it for the whole head and the face. Now we're moving on to the actual parts of the face. I like to start off with the nose because it's right at the center of the face and it's the most dominating part. It's all different sizes for everyone but this is also so when you decide whether you want the nose to be a little bit wider or more narrow. Then we can use that nose to connect its sides to about halfway across that section. So it will end up looking like the person is wearing large sunglasses and that will make it easier for us to place where the eyeballs are. What most beginners like I did forget is that the features of the face really is just centered on this front of the head. So we have to remember to leave out space before we reach her scalp and her ears and now we have this rectangle for the front plane of the forehead and then we can then add the space for her mouth. A lot of people say it's as wide as the nose or about as wide as the space between the eyes but most of the time it's it's really not. It's a little bit wider than that so I just connect lines from just outside of her nose and drag them down and that that will be how wide the mouth is. So on this angle it looks a lot different but we're going to be using the same methods. We start off with the nose because it's such a dominant feature and it takes up a lot of space. That's why I start with the nose. That's what makes it easier for us to place it on the face. We just follow the lines that tell us where it needs to sit and there are lines going up from the nose to the line for her eyes and then the ones for her mouth that are going down from the of the nose. So on this angle it's very clear why we need to put aside space before her scalp. Because we only have the face at the center of the head we can see that it's quite a distance before we reach her hairline. I forgot to mention that the ears always start from dead center of that cross. So we're just going to draw the ears from the center of that cross going down. For this, for the nose on this angle instead of having it be a triangle or really it's still a triangle but instead of an isosceles triangle it's more like a right triangle. I mean you can clearly see it there's one line that's just going straight and then we do the line from the corner of that nose going at an angle to the line for his eyes. And then starting from the same point you can then drag a line down from there to where the mouth will end. So now that we have the planes of the head and the face down and we've looked at it from different angles we can now look at the different parts of the face down before we place them on on the head and the planes of the face that we've already established. So we start off with the eyes. They sit right at the center of those sunglasses shape thing that we've put down on the face. If you're like me and you have trouble with drawing just the curve for them, I think it helps to draw the full eyeball first so we can then figure out where the curves would naturally go. So that's what I'm doing right now. These are all just different examples of different eyes. The first one where is I think what we see most portrayed in drawings. They have the folds on the lower side for the eye bags and another set of folds on top for the double eyelid. I have found eyes with monolids like mine to be the hardest to draw and recently I've discovered a way to draw them and it's mostly in the shading that will highlight it best. I like to focus the shading right on the actual eyeball right under the lashes and around the eyelids so I can then leave out the actual eyelid so it looks like it's coming forward more. Then other eyes are more rounded like this one. There's so many different kinds of eyes out there. These are just the three that I'm showing you guys to keep the video short. So now we're gonna put the first eye on this figure first. I'm gonna start off with the eyeballs right at the center of the sunglasses shape and of course they're not even because I am cursed that way. I can always fix that for the shading later on though. Now we're gonna place the second kind of eye that we drew on this second figure and we're still placing them right at the center of those sunglasses shape but this time we're focusing the folds right under the eye but not on top. Now we can barely see her right one because she's facing that one slightly away from us. So the eyes from the side is this almost triangular shape and because we're looking at it from this angle we barely see the irises unless they're looking at us to the side. So we're just gonna go ahead and place that onto the third figure that we have and then we can move on to the noses. So now we're gonna talk about noses. I start them with this diamond shape and then draw the tip of the nose. I think it's very important to draw that first because that determines the shape of the overall nose. If the tip of the nose isn't as big then that means it's a little bit pointier and if it's rounder then that means the nose will turn out rounder. It would also help if you want to portray like maybe upturned noses. The tips of the nose will be slightly more oblong and not as full circle. So that's why I start with that. It just tells a lot about how the nose is especially when we're facing front like this. Then I can just go ahead and draw the nostrils underneath that. I like to draw the nostrils because it determines how flared out the nose is. So if you want it to be a little wider then you can just go ahead and do that by dragging the nostrils farther away from the certain center of the nose and then do the opposite if you want the nose to be more narrow. Now if you want the same thing but it looks a little more rounded you can still start with the tip of the nose. Just have it be more circular and then when you start shading them shade around that. Some noses point down so then you just start off with the tip of the nose still. Just have it look like a diamond and more pointed down and then have the nostrils follow that too when you draw them. So now we're just going to place it on the face that we already have. It's easier now because we have that triangle for it. On the second one it's still the same thing except we start with the point of the nose and a little on the farther side because that's how she's facing and because her face is also very slightly upturned we see more of her nostrils more than the tip of her nose. From the side with the right triangle I still start over the tip of the nose. This is also when I decide if it's upturned or not because we'll show very clearly on this angle. Here's what a downward pointing nose will look like from the side and also another good way to show variation on the noses is on the bridge of the nose. Some go in more and others will just look like they're going straight down almost level with the brows and that's how this guy's nose is. So now we are moving on to the lips and I always find it easier to draw the farthest points first. Some people will have the center of their lips be going down others will have it turned up and some will have it just be straight and then we just go for the little bow on top then go ahead and connect that to the to the end of the lips. I actually do the same thing for the lower lip. I start off with the center I do the hollow beneath the lower lip before I then go ahead and connect those lines over to put the ends of the lips. From this side it will look something like this. It looks like it's just the front angle cut in half but we see those curves for them better. Some people will have lips that are fuller on top and some are uneven so really you just have to pay attention to people's photos to get to get a more realistic variety in your lips. So now we're just placing that right on the line that we had under her nose and again she's facing slightly to the side that's how we're gonna draw it. One end is gonna be shorter than the other and on this other one it's easier because she's facing straight on so we just put it right at the center and again we're starting with the corners then to the center and then filling the rest in. On this last one it's sideways so we see the curves on the lips more. We also see the dip right below the lower lip right here before we move on to the chin. Now for the eyebrows some are more arched and some others are straighter but the strands mostly will just follow this direction. When you start off from the center the strands go mostly up and then the next ones will go over to the side while the tail of the eyebrows just overlaps onto each other. So now we're just placing those on the faces. As far as where they're placed we really start off with where the eyes start but end a little bit farther away so this is what they would look like in relation to the eyes and it will be the same for all for all of them in different angles in different angles. So now I'm just going ahead and filling in the rest of the features in and shading them. You can play around with it you can make the cheeks a little bit rounder and the chin a little bit pointier. It's really just up to you. Just remember that the hairline usually starts right where the forehead ends but you still need to remember to leave space on the sides of her eyebrows before we reach the hairline. So now we're gonna do some shading. Notice that I'm also following the planes of the face that I drew in initially and of course it would depend on the lighting but this will still give you the idea on where the shadows would naturally fall. That's why it's easier to draw faces like this. It just really helps you with the shading. So on this second one I've shaded most of the jawline from under her cheekbones and this really demonstrates how the lighting can make faces look slimmer and its overall effects on how the drawing will look like really. So I'm just doing the same thing for the third one before I go ahead and give you guys another two sets of examples. These ones have two different angles from the first three ones. So the first we're gonna draw this one with her head turned up. So you can't really see the circle because she's facing right at us but we can imagine it being right at the center still. So the jaw doesn't taper down as much because we're looking at her from below. I've made it pointier but that's not what her jaw is actually doing. That's just easier for me to shade it after. So the section for the eye is also smaller because it's farther back and that's what from this angle it looks like. All three of these of these sections are even when in reality this is what it would look like normally. So then the nose is still right at the center. It's much shorter in this angle. On this angle too I'm not too scared about having the lips look bigger because it's closer to us and that's how it looks from our point of view. So we see a lot of the nostrils this way with the tip of the nose going ahead all the way back. And now that I've laid down all the guidelines I can just go ahead and fill in the rest of the details with my shading. So for this last one I know this is so long but I really need to cover as many angles as I can. I'm choosing one where they are facing down and we are looking at them from above. So we can't see the cross that well because again she's facing right at us but on this angle the cross would be pointing way down. So the line's gonna swoop down but still following the contours of the circle. So then the nose will look like it's drooping and the eyes will look bigger and the lips will barely be visible. Mostly it's just the line for the mouth that we're seeing. On this angle we see the center of her scalp a little too. I'm just finishing off with the shading. I'd like to take this time to thank you guys for 21,000 subscribers. That's just insane to me. Thank you guys for subscribing and leaving comments. Thank you for making it to the end of this video and I'll see you guys soon.