How to Draw Facial Proportions, by Jescia Hopper on YouTube. 12 min 26 s.
- Video length
- 12 min 26 s
- Time to do it
- 20 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 9
What you need
Steps
Lightly draw an oval for the head. Make it a little narrower at the chin than at the temples, and keep the pencil pressure soft.
Draw a vertical line down the middle of the oval. This center line keeps the eyes, nose and mouth lined up as you work.
Mark the eye line halfway between the top of the head and the bottom of the chin. This is where the eyes sit on a typical face.
Mark the brow line just above the eye line, the nose base halfway between the eye line and the chin, and the mouth line halfway between the nose base and the chin.
Draw the eyes on the eye line with one eye width between them. A typical face is about five eye widths wide.
Place the nose so its width matches the inner corners of the eyes. The bottom of the nose should touch the nose line.
Set the mouth width at about the center of each eye. Draw the lips around the mouth line, with the lower lip slightly fuller.
Add the ears between the brow line and the nose line. The top of each ear usually lines up with the brow, the bottom with the nose base.
Check the guidelines against your drawing, then erase them gently. Darken only the features and outlines you want to keep.
Tips and common mistakes
Keep your guidelines very light so they are easy to erase and do not dent the paper.
Use an HB or 2B pencil for general sketching; harder H pencils can score the paper and softer B pencils smudge.
Hold the pencil at arm's length to compare distances on a reference photo, then mark the same distance on your page.
Turn the paper upside down or check it in a mirror to spot lopsided features before you darken the drawing.
Questions
Where should the eyes go on a face?
On a typical face, the eyes sit halfway between the top of the head and the bottom of the chin.
How wide should the nose and mouth be?
The nose is about as wide as the space between the inner corners of the eyes. The mouth is roughly as wide as the centers of the eyes.
Do I need a ruler for facial proportions?
No. You can use your pencil as a measuring tool by holding it at arm's length and comparing distances.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
