Drawing Animals Using Basic Shape Construction

Drawing All Types of Faces

Drawing the (Adult) Head in Correct Proportion

This week we are drawing two pages, one showing the male head from front and side views...

...and one showing the female head from front and side views.

Begin with an 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of white paper turned horizontally in front of you on your drawing table. As always, draw (freehand) a 1" border all the way around the page and hand-letter your name between guidelines at bottom right.

Again, working only freehand, sketch a circle in the top LH quadrant of the page as shown. The exact size and placement isn't important. Just try to approximate what you see in this example. Lightly draw guidelines dividing the circle in half both vertically and horizontally.

Extend vertical guidelines down from both sides of the circle, allowing them to taper inward slightly as shown. Extend the centre guideline down as well. Using the half circle as a unit of measure, lightly mark a guideline below the circle so that you have three equal units in height. This is the total height of the head, from the top of the skull to the chin.

Lightly sketch in guidelines 1/3 of the way down from the top of each unit of measure as shown. Note that each guideline represents a landmark on the face, from the top of the head to the chin. Important:Note that the centre horizontal line of the circle if the brow line, NOT the eye line, which is 1/3 below the brow line. Also note the bottom of the circle is the bottom of the nose and that the mouth is 1/3 the distance to the chin - not halfway!

Here's a little trick: if you draw five equal sized ovals touching end to end across the width of the circle on the eye line, the second and fourth ovals are the correct size and shape for the eyes.
Lightly draw guidelines straight down from the centre of each eye to arrive at the corners of the mouth. This is how you establish the width of the mouth.

Since we are drawing a male head, do NOT draw the lips all the way around! Look at how I drew the line for the opening of the mouth and try to mimic it. Add just a sketchy line under the mouth. this represents the shadow under the bottom lip.

Draw a triangle from the centre point of the eye line to the corners of the mouth. point where the sides of the triangle cross the nose line (the bottom of the circle) represent the width of the nose.
Also note how I have drawn angled lines from the side guidelines at around the mouth line to complete the chin. On a male face, always use angled lines, not smooth curves.

Try to draw the nose in the manner shown. A dip in the centre, slight upwards curves for the nostrils, then curved verticals for the outsides of the nostrils.
Extend the eye and nose guidelines outward a bit at both sides of the head. This gives you the height of the ears. Draw a shallow "C"- shaped curve for the outside shape of the ear.

Try adding the interior ear lines as I've indicated. You can now heavy up the eyebrows 9use angular lines as shown) and the top lip and bottom lip shadow, also as shown.

Now extend all the horizontal guidelines across to the right side of the page.

To draw the head in side view as show at the top of this page, follow the instructions at this link, this link and  this link

How to set up you "mug shot" reference photos for this week's Sketchbook Assignment

Begin by taking front and side view photos of your own face using Photo Booth.

Launch Photoshop. Go to File>New.

Create a new file, 11" horizontal, 8.5" vertical. 

NOTE: I started with a 300 px/in document, but it was actually too large. Use 100 px/in instead.

Open the front view photo. Use the Rectangular Selection Tool to select only the part of the photo you will need. Press Command C (Copy)

Go to your newly created 11" x 8.5" file. Press Command V (Paste).

With the Mover Tool, position your photo on the LH side of the page.

You may need to resize your photo. Go to Edit>Transform>Scale.

Grab the corner box on the Transform frame that appears around your photo while holding the Shift key down. This will allow you to scale your photo without distorting the proportion. Once you're happy with the new size, double click anywhere inside the photo to complete the scaling operation.

Open your side view photo file. Use the Rectangular Selection Tool to select only the part of the photo you will need. Press Command C (Copy)

Click back on your horizontal view file. Create a rectangular selection area on the RH side of the page. 

Press Command V (Paste).

 Drag Guidelines down from the top of the Photoshop window and line them up with all the important markers we learned about in class. The top of the head, the brow line, eye line, bottom of the nose, mouth, and chin.

You may need to resize your 2nd photo to get both photos to line up. Go to Edit>Transform>Scale. Repeat the scaling operation described above.

Print the file in b/w and mark up both faces as we learned to do in class, then use the print as reference to draw your face in your sketchbook in front and side views.