If people tell you that not anyone can draw like a pro, they are wrong. Anyone can draw like a pro if they strive to learn how to do it. If you want to learn how to draw realistic faces the right way, there are a few basic things you need to know about drawing the human face. First, you need a pencil, preferably 7B and 4B, a ruler for starters, an eraser, paper and a sharpener. Once you have your materials, the next thing you need is to find a nice, comfortable place to do your drawings. Once you’re ready to sit down and get down to drawing, here are some pointers to keep in mind.
1. It all starts with drawing a ball- When constructing the human head, it helps to sketch out a ball figure first, and form the rest of the head shape from there.
2. Proportion – The key to a successfully drawn realistic face is mastering the correct proportions for each type of face. The proportions for a man’s face are the most important proportions to be learned. From there you can tweak the other proportions to fit the right size according to age and sex.
3. Angled vs. Curving lines- As a general rule, men have angled features and women’s faces are made more of soft curving lines and strokes.
4. Forehead- Forehead size is a good way to portray differences between ages and sexes. The younger individuals are, the larger their foreheads are as a standard. This is seen in babies, who have larger foreheads that seems to shrink as the individual grows older. Between the sexes, the male appears to have a shorter forehead than the female in general.
5. Eyes- The differences between drawing men and women, adults and children, lie in the eyes. Children’s eyes appear larger than an adult’s in proportion to the head size, and you can tell the person is advanced in age because of wrinkles around the eyes. Between men and women, women tend to have rounder eyes and thicker eyelashes than men.
6. Stroke weight- One tip to making your drawing look more natural is to vary stroke weight within one stroke. Strokes that are all of the same weight don’t look too natural, so draw with thick and thin stroke weights.
7. Avoid “scratching” strokes and outlines- Smooth, long, single strokes looks the most natural and appealing in a drawing. Unless you are trying to convey texture, avoid using scratching strokes, especially when making outlines.
8. Giving depth to your drawing-The difference between a drawing that looks flat and a drawing that pops out more lies in the shading of the drawing.
9. Throwing proportion out of the window- Since we’re talking about realism in drawings, correct proportions are just an ideal. Not everyone’s face follows the guidelines, so you can give a face some character by deviating from the standard proportion.
10. Drawing faces from different countries- You will notice that eye shape, nose shape and brow structure change across people of various continents, so pay attention to the changes to those parts of the face when drawing people from all parts of the globe
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