How to Draw a Face - PART 1 The Basics for Beginners

Hello .

My name is Paul Priestley .

Welcome to arch Tutorials online dot com .

Now , today we are going to be looking at how to draw a face .

Now , this is for absolute beginners .

Very , very simple .

But before we start , we need a face .

We're gonna use this one .

It's a bit old and weathered , but it will do .

Now we're gonna look at proportions .

So to do this don't do this at home because this could be a little bit dangerous .

I'm gonna take a piece of card , this piece of card here , and I'm gonna put it either side of my eye like that .

Do you see that ?

Now , if I put it in between my eyes , you notice that it is the same width as my eye .

The gap between my eyes is the same width as my eye , you see , Very important now , second piece of card .

This one here .

Now , if I put this on my pupils , I'm gonna close my eyes for this bit .

So it's on my pupils .

You'll notice that is an important measurement because it's the same size as my nose .

And if I put it underneath my chin , you see It's approximately the same size as from the bottom of my nose to my chin .

Not only that , if I put it back on my pupils again and bring it down straight like that , it's the width of my mouth .

And if I was to put it here and turn my head , it's approximately the size of my ears , You see , Now there's one final piece of card , which is really important .

This one here .

Now , if I put this here , you'll notice that from the my centre of my eyes to my chin , you see that measurement ?

It's exactly halfway down my skull because , look , if I was to do that you see , my eyes are halfway down my head .

Now you need to know these things if you're going to draw a face .

So we're gonna start now by drawing some very , very simple basic faces just to get these proportions right so you can practise them .

And then in the next video , we're going to do some proper drawing the faces .

So let's make a start .

Come on .

I'm gonna use an eight B pencil simply so you can see what I'm doing .

But you can use any pencil you like for this .

It's not a problem .

You'll notice .

I've drawn a few ovals on here .

We'll go over these in a minute .

Now we're gonna go over the first one .

I'm simply drawing an oval shape .

Don't draw a circle .

It's not good enough .

Draw an oval shape halfway down , if you remember , is where the eyes are going to be .

OK , line down the centre just to make sure everything is symmetrical .

Line dividing the area between the eyes and the chin .

A horizontal line .

I'm drawing the eyes .

You'll notice by just drawing a curve and a blob underneath line on top .

We're just trying very , very simple basic ideas to get the proportions right .

Nose , two dots , two lines .

That's all we're gonna use .

All very simple .

Anyone can do this simple line to represent the mouth .

That's all .

Now the important thing is the ears are alongside the top of the eyes .

Bottom of the nose , right ?

Don't make the ears too small .

The neck again .

Don't make the neck too narrow .

If you take a line out from the edges of the mouth , it's roundabout there and then , of course , shoulders would go wider than the , uh , neck and the head .

As you can see , we're beginning to suggest here just gonna suggest some hair on top .

I'll cover drawing hair properly in a later video , But there we have just a very simple face in proportion .

That's what we're aiming for to get the thing in proportion .

Now imagine this time we're going to draw a face where we are got the face looking upwards .

Now this changes everything .

I'm going to draw the line down the centre , but I'm not gonna complete the oval shape this time .

Now , the centre line is this curve .

You'll see what I'm doing in a moment .

That's the curve for the mouth there .

OK , so the two dots for the eyes , you notice already it looks like the face is looking upwards .

But this time we will be looking up the nose , which effectively is a triangle .

So we're just gonna draw in a very simple triangle shape , put a couple of blobs underneath just to represent the nose .

You see the idea ?

The mouth then just becomes below that and then the chin below that .

Now , when you've got the head looking up like this .

The ears are now below the eyes .

Can you see where the ears are ?

Can you see There they're below the nose as well and just a slight curve there to represent the jaw .

And you have a face looking upwards .

The neck is now very long and the shoulders are much lower , you see , because the head is looking upwards .

We just suggest a little bit of hair .

You wouldn't see very much there .

So we'll just strengthen that line a little bit along there to see the idea .

Now imagine we do exactly the same thing .

But this time we get in the head to look down .

So this time we're going to get the curves to curve down .

So do the centre line .

This is going to be my centre line here .

You see how it's curving down this time ?

OK , there we go .

So the eyes now are here .

You see ?

Just the simple blob again .

Two dots and a line .

The triangle shape Now for the nose points downwards .

You see little triangular shape .

You see how it does .

And the mouth is just below that .

The ears now are above the eyes , you see , instead of being below the eyes in the previous drawing that makes it look as though we're looking down on the person .

Now , if you've got your head looking down , the shoulders are much closer to the head .

You see , there's no neck .

Now you can't see this .

The best thing to do is actually to get someone to stand in these positions , to move their heads and really look at what happens to the ears and the nose and the necks in relation to each other .

Right in this one , we're going to have the drawing point into the or looking to the left .

Now we draw the oval shape as before , But the centre line this time these are the horizontals .

They stay exactly the same .

But the centre line is curved , Do you see ?

Got the curve to the right .

So what we've got to remember here is the I I'm going to draw now .

We're only seeing part of it .

So it's It appears to be much smaller than the one we can see on the right of the line .

You see , I'm just representing that with a little blob .

But this one larger one because I can see more of the eye again .

Look at a person from an angle .

You'll see what I mean .

We've got the nose .

Just draw a very simple shape for the nose mouth , then would be underneath that you can see there .

We just pop the mouth in OK , small amount of mouth , one side longer , part on the other side .

That's the crucial thing to remember Now .

We'll just draw the shape of the face .

We'll do this properly , as I say in a later video .

When we draw , we do the drawing of the faces properly .

Put a bit of a chin in .

We'll come back to that in a second .

The ears are going to be some way back here , but again see just above that line just below that line , popping the ears .

Now you'll also be able to see a little bit of the back of the head as well .

Here , Um , rather strange jaw there , But not to worry .

So we need to extend the back of the head a little bit because you'll see a little bit more of the back of the head there neck down , and we can see the shoulders , then come down from the neck .

And again you'd extend the shoulders .

You see the idea .

But now the face is looking to the left .

All because we've adjusted that centre line .

Very simple .

You see , just blocking in the hair again .

There not a problem .

Now we'll move to a face looking the opposite direction .

This is exactly the same system .

So you have to just practise these .

Just draw these oval shapes , the two horizontal lines and the vertical line .

This time again , it's gonna be curved the other way , You see ?

Very simple .

So again , the eye on the right hand side of the line is smaller because we can only see part of it .

You see , because of foreshortening effect .

Put in the eyes .

Here .

Look .

You see there , we're doing doing the same thing with the eyes there .

So it's smaller .

Put the nose in between .

Comes down to that second line there , you see ?

Brilliant .

There we go .

So we got the nose suggested in there just very , very simply OK .

The same with the mouth .

We'll just use a simple horizontal lines again .

There we go .

Looks a sad face this woman .

Not to worry .

You see , the line is longer to the left of the line .

OK ?

You just draw the outside of the face , give it a slight little bit of shape and come down for a chin underneath there , up to the top , and then we'll pop in the ears .

You see , the ears are gonna be quite some way back again above that line slightly below the line .

Do you see the idea ?

Take the head right around a little bit more of the head there .

OK , put in the neck and work from there and just finish off with doing their hair as well .

Now , I would suggest you try and practise as many of these as you can do , because in the next video , we're gonna draw the face properly .

Uh , rather than just using this almost cartoon way of drawing it .

But get the proportions right once the proportions .

Right .

You're almost there .

So good luck with your drawing .

Thank you for watching .

I hope you've learned something about how to draw a face in proportion .

In the next video .

We're gonna be doing it properly .

Yes .

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That would be wonderful .

Thanks again .

Goodbye .