How to Draw People Faces – Proportions of the Face (This article is brought to you by http://howtodrawpeoplefaces.org/. For more FREE drawing tips and lessons, just visit http://howtodrawpeoplefaces.org/ and sign up for the drawing newsletter.)
Summary: When learning how to draw people faces, proportions is one of the most important aspect that an artist need to attention to. Without proper proportion down, your drawing will always look off. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to draw the proportions of the face. If you would like to be able to draw people’s faces accurately, the most important thing you need to get right is the proportion. Nothing makes a portrait drawing look weird and amateurish than out of wack facial proportion. This is probably the most common mistakes that beginner artists make. Fortunately it is also one of the easiest to remedy. In order to get a solid hold on facial proportion when drawing people faces, you just have to remember a few rules of thumb. Here they are:
Proportion of the Head – Rule #1: When viewing the head from the front (face to face), the width of the head will be approximately 2/3 of its height. When viewing the head from the side, the width will be approximately 7/8 of its height.
Proportion of the Head – Rule # 2: If you divide the face into 4 quarters by drawing evenly spaced horizontal lines (as shown in the picture below), the following rules apply: 1. The distance from the top of the head down to the end of the hair line will be in the first quarter. 2. The second quarter will contain the distance from the hair line down to the middle of the eyes. The eyes will be roughly leveled with the top of the ears. (Notice that this also marks the middle of the face.) 3. The distance from the middle of the eyes down to the base of the nose is contained in the third quarter. 4. And lastly, in the fourth quarter will be the distance from the base of the nose to the base of the chin. Now, if you were to draw another horizontal line, dividing the fourth quarter in half, the mouth would be positioned just above this line.
(Remember, these rules only apply when viewing the subject’s face head on. If the angle of viewing were to change, you need to change the proportion accordingly. This is referred to as “perspective” and it is a different subject entirely. Another post, another time perhaps.)
Proportion of the Head – Rule # 3: If you were to divide the face into 5 columns using vertical lines, the width of each eye would occupy one columns. One column would separate the eyes and the other two would sit on the out edge.
Proportion of the Head – Rule # 4: The width of the nose will be equal to the width of one eye. The width of the mouth should be slightly wider than that of the nose. A good test to use is to draw a triangle that start at the center of the head (right between the eyes) and goes through the corners of the mouth. If the lines of this triangle is also tangent with the edge of the nose than your mouth is of the proper width.
So there you have it. Just keep these simple rules in mind when drawing people faces and your drawings will come out 10 times more realistic.
Remember, these rules are just guide lines to keep your drawing in proportion. Don’t obsess about getting all the measurements exactly right. Yeah, it’s great if you want to get as close as you can, but don’t fuss to much about it. The proportion of the face varies from person to person anyway and it would actually be pretty hard to find a person in real life that matches these rules perfectly. So if you are a little bit off on the measurements, it’s ok. That will actually make sure drawing look more natural. As you continue to drawing using these guidelines, you’ll begin to develop a natural feel for where everything is suppose to go, so start practicing! And if you'd like to get free in depth drawing tutorial on how to draw people faces, just head over to http://www.howtodrawpeoplefaces.org and sign up for my FREE drawing newsletter.