How To Draw and Shade a Face

Hey , everyone .

This is Wei .

Thanks for checking this out .

And for this video , I will be doing a quick female head sketch on plain white paper and I'll be using the regular graphite pencils .

So let's get started and I'll talk about it along the way .

All right , let me sketch this real quick .

It doesn't have to be exact .

Just gonna start off with the I from there .

You got the nose coming down if you go straight down and hit the edge of the nose and then from here you can measure this angle like this from there .

So probably around here again , I'm just kind of roughing it in real quick .

It , the nostril I'm drawing on a regular um print paper and your regular and a half by 11 paper .

So it's , it's pretty smooth and since I'm drawing pretty small , um this should work well because I I'll be able to get a little bit more detail with the uh because it is a smooth paper , eyebrows face comes down , sure straight down , draw the eye real quick .

You're here probably somewhere right here .

Again , if you need an exact um you know , you you can do some more measurements or whatever .

But in this case , I just , I just want to get something down so I can start shading .

Ok .

And then the shadow looks like I made her eyes a little bit too big , but that's ok .

That should make it look a little bit better .

Ok , dear .

Here , here .

Ok .

All right .

So to shade , um , I'm gonna start again .

I'm , I'm still using the two pieces .

I'm just gonna rough in .

I'm gonna start on the left side .

I'm just gonna start , you know , getting in , in , uh , some basic tones for the , uh , her skin and you can see it's really rough and the key is to keep your , um , pencil really light as you're shading .

You know , you don't want to push it too hard , just very lightly .

I mean , get used to doing this kind of stuff where you can , you know , have multiple strokes .

I know you can see , uh , you know , the , it gets progressively darker with , with this stroke and it's very slow .

Um , so that's how I'm holding the pencil come straight down .

See ?

So I'm gonna go ahead and just make the nostrils a little bit darker and see where they are .

Yeah .

OK .

Let's go back up to the eye , start doing the eyebrow and let's get the eye defined a little bit better .

So I know where it is that I'm gonna draw a little highlight that the circle for the highlight , the dark area and then just kind of shade around it usually it works really well to actually just drawing the highlight , you know , outline the highlight .

First , second here it got a little bag under her eye which is kind of dark .

So I'm gonna straight that .

OK .

So let's get there's a lot of subtleties in in the eye and it's actually very complicated .

Um So if you're not sure , you know , just kind of start slow .

So right here , you , you notice how this is a little bit darker .

All right .

And then there's a huge , uh , highlight area right there , kind of flat .

OK .

So I'll come straight down .

It's a little bit of light here , shade here and then the cheeks , let's continue downward , cheeks .

No , so dark .

Now , the highlight of the nose is very important .

Um , so I'm gonna sketch that right here right around there .

So I know where it is and then I'll shade around it in the nose is actually something really fun to draw because , um , you , you know , once you draw correctly , you can really , you know , feel it coming toward you .

You know , it's pretty neat .

So here's the highlight , it's a dark area .

It's a nostril dark , the shadow is dark .

Ok .

This is a little bit lighter here , here's the dark area and if you like , you know , you can exaggerate the , uh the reflective lighting , you know , on the nose generally works pretty well if you exaggerate , um , the lightings on the face , you know , don't try to draw it .

Exactly .

You know , a me as you see it , you know , it's actually ok , it's like right here the cheeks , I mean , you can make it darker .

It's ok , you know , probably look better too .

Ok .

All right .

So let's continue downward now for the lip .

Um , just kind of join this dark area .

You see these lines that kind of radiates outwards .

Um , you can actually shade it like that , you know , it's going this way since you need those lines anyways , you might as well just follow it right .

So it's kind of like it's radiating from , from the inside of the mouth .

So , right .

And the lip is usually dark tucks in it .

It was always a bulge right here , right ?

And you have to follow that direction to the way you shade it .

Ok .

Sure shit .

Correct .

I'm just gonna concentrate on her right side of face for now .

It's a little highlight right here .

I mean , if you , if you like you can , you can actually go like this , you know , just to , um , define it , you know .

So , so you know where to shade and you can smooth it out later .

Ok .

Dark , dark , good , dark , good .

Ok .

Oh , hair dark .

So now I'm gonna switch to , um , let's see .

Hold on , let me get this a little bit cleaner before , before I switch .

Ok .

So Now I'm gonna switch to A A four B , uh , just so that I can draw a little bit quicker .

So I'll start with the eye since this is the darkest part and I get used to the pencil .

So I'll just go ahead and sketch that .

It's usually when you , when you pick up another pencil , you , especially if it's a different grade , it might be a little bit rusty .

So just start off in dark areas so you can get used to it first .

Now , for this um line here , I'll slightly rotate my pencil .

So I get a sharper edge , right ?

If I rotate back , I get a flatter edge because it's kind of chisel to , to uh to one point .

Ok .

So I'm not sure .

Hi , bro .

So you can see with the four B and now , you know , the shape is coming , um because it's darker now .

Now , you know , everything is just kind of gives it a lot more depth , right ?

And you can shade a lot of it with the four beat too .

If you just , if you , if you can just do a real light , you know , you can actually simulate a two B but it's a little bit a little bit softer , you know , now this kind of area right here with this little highlight , um when you draw , you know , you , you can , you can exaggerate like that , right ?

Even though it's obviously this is a little bit darker than that .

Um , but , but in drawing it's actually ok because again , if , if you shade it exactly , it's , it's rather boring .

Um , and you , and you see that a lot when , when people shade the nose , um , there's a lot of exaggeration there in terms of light , the reflective light .

And , and so , and you notice some of the , the nose , um , the people and town looks like Rudolph , you know , as , as , as a business , there's a glow to it , you know , and that's just um exaggeration in , in the , in the drawing and it actually makes it look better .

So , yeah , so you see how our nose kind of looks like uh as it's kind of reddish , right ?

That gives it a lot more form though .

It is , makes , makes the draw more interesting .

And again , you know , it is a drawing .

So don't , you're gonna copy exactly then what's the point ?

Right ?

All right .

So now I'm gonna do , well , let's get back to this area .

So let's do the lip a little bit since it's , this is fairly dark , I'm just gonna go ahead and , and you gotta look at the subtleties right , right here , see how , how there's this line here .

It is a little bit darker and you guys start seeing that , you know , once , once you put down like a basic , uh you know , gray over , then you , then you gonna start realizing that there's , you know , all the shapes is actually very complex .

So like the edge right here and the little top right here is a little bit darker , right ?

And then even here , you know , you have the highlight and this is this , there's a line here that it's a little bit darker under the , underneath , underneath the lip , so it's dark .

So I guess let's do the , uh , ok chicks area .

Yeah , I'm just gonna have a really nice and flat , so I'm gonna rub it off a little bit here .

So , like here , you know , it's a little , um , sinks in a little bit and you can , you can exaggerate that too .

Corners of the lips are usually pretty dark .

So you can't that if you like , so see like jawline and the jaw line , you know , you , you can do this kind of strokes , right ?

And they'll give you the target but , you know , try , try to do it like , um , these lines trying to do it , you know , words , multiple strokes and not just 11 hard line because usually hard lines are rare in , in , in the human body , you know , just , and if you draw the line too hard , it just looks like , um , it looks like a line drawing as opposed to something that's shaded and actually has definition darker .

See the nose .

Now I'm picking up this area , it's a little bit dark , a little highlight there .

This is dark in this area .

You can exaggerate and make it darker or even this , you see the line right here .

A lot of artists , I mean , a lot of portraits you see that it's pretty exaggerated .

Well , it actually still looks correct .

Ok .

Sure .

Let's try to lie a little bit darker here .

Eyes a little bit darker .

See it's , it's really subtle .

I don't even know if you can see this , but this area is a little bit lighter .

It's like this area right here because this comes out a little bit , right ?

It bulges , you leave that area no dark in here , dark .

All right .

So you see how it works , right ?

I mean , um it's just , you know , from , from this point on it's just , you know , looking into more of the , uh , you know , really look , start , start looking into these , you know , highlights and shapes and try to define it more and you just kind of keep going .

But that's the idea , you know , when you , when you're sketching , it's just , you know , keep it loose , uh , start with two B and just rough and stuff and then , you know , put in a general uh shading area with your , with your two B and then once you have the general gray , then you go in with , with the , uh with the four B or darker pencil , you know , just to get it barely fine .

So like here , you know , the hair like , I mean , you might as well use , uh I'm gonna switch to a A five B you know , which is a little bit darker and that give along a punch .

It's a little bit quicker too when you shade .

So that's the hair and you can go in with a five B if you like and darken up some areas , right ?

So you get the idea .

It's just , uh , I mean , I'm gonna , I'm gonna push this a little bit more , but the process would be the same .

OK ?

So here's the final drawing and I pushed a little bit more mostly with the five B just so that I can get it done quickly .

So when you look at this , you know , um like a quick sketch like this , you see that I exaggerate some of the features , right ?

Like I gave um right here a little bit of a rim lighting , whereas right here is almost , you know , invisible .

So by exaggerating , you know , like the , the cheeks or the nose , um you know , you , you give your drawing some life , you know , because you don't want to shade it exactly like this because it's really boring .

Um And you actually , you would , you know , you spend a lot more time just shading uh just to make it look like this like realistically .

But for um sketches like this , you know , just keep it loose and it's OK to show your strokes , you know , um As long as you get the right uh form , you know , the strokes can be rough and it still looks good .

So just keep it loose and , you know , have fun with it .

And uh you can check out some of my other videos where I talk about , you know , my lines and just different ways of shading .

Give it a shot and see how it goes and hope you enjoy this and I will see you next time .