Techniques & Tips Archive - Illustration & Drawing Blog

How to draw a female face

Sabrina — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 15:17:34 +0000

Learn how to draw a beautiful female face with the right proportions

Easy tutorial with step-by-step instructions

In this tutorial you will learn how to easily draw a basic female face with the right proportions step-by-step.

In the past few years a lot of people have asked me to write a tutorial about facial proportions. When I asked you guys on Instagram what your greatest struggle is, the answer that came up the most was: “proportions”. “The eyes always look different” and “I never get the nose right” were the things you complained about.

Well, here I want to show you an easy solution to this problem by sharing my strategy on drawing a basic face with construction lines.

NOTE: I’m going to show you some basic guidelines, but always keep in mind that everybody’s face is laid out differently. They might be very close to these facial proportions – or they might be pretty different. At the end of the article you’ll find a photo of myself with guidelines to show some of these slight variations.

This tutorial is for everybody! You don’t need any prior knowledge or experience for this.

So without further ado, let’s just jump right into it!

Materials:

Pencils
Paper
Eraser
Ruler (optional)

Overview of the steps to draw a generic female face:

Time required: 30 minutes

Here’s a quick overview of the steps we’re going to explore further later:

Draw a circle
In the first step you will draw a circle.
Cut off the sides
In the next step you’ll slice off the sides of the circle.
Draw 6 equal squares
Next, you’ll add some more lines to create 6 equal squares. Now the basis for your drawing is done.
Draw the contour of the face
In the 4th step you will draw the hairline, cheekbones and jawline of the face.
Draw the neck
Add two lines to indicate the neck.
Draw the eyebrows and eyes
Now you can draw in the eyes and eyebrows.
Draw the nose
Next, you’ll add three circles to map out the nose.
Draw the mouth
Then you can add the lips.
Draw the ears and hair
You’re almost done! Now you can draw in the ears and the hair.
Erase
In the last step, erase all guidelines.

Get your FREE PDF instructions!

Free download

How to draw a face step-by-step

1. Draw a circle

We’re going to begin by drawing a circle. Don’t worry about being perfect at this point. You can refine everything later.

NOTE: Draw everything very lightly with an H or HB pencil, because we have to erase the guidelines later. We don’t want any lines dividing up our face on the final portrait.

Breaking down your motif into simple shapes helps you get the proportions right.

2. Cut off the sides

The next thing you need to do is slice off the sides of the circle.

Your sketch should look something like this:

3. Draw six equal squares

Next, add a horizontal line at the bottom of the circle.

Then, I want you to divide the circle in half vertically.

Now add another horizontal line above the bottom line. You should place the line so that it creates two equal squares.

Repeat this one more time on the top and one more time at the bottom to create 6 equal squares. You can measure the distances for every square but you can also draw by eye.

The squares don’t have to be perfect. Remember, you’re just drawing rough guidelines.

4. Draw the contour of the female face

At this point you can start drawing the contour of the face.

The hairline starts at the top horizontal line and the chin starts at the bottom line. Draw the jawline and cheekbones at the sides of the face and use the squares for guidance. Now the outline of the face is done.

5. Draw the neck

Next, add two lines from the jawline downwards to give the head a neck.

6. Draw the eyes and eyebrows of the female face

The next step is drawing the facial features. I always start with the eyes and eyebrows. The eyebrows are placed directly under the second line. Try to place them in the middle of the squares, leaving equal empty spaces on the left and on the right.

For the eyes you can draw an optional horizontal line which should divide the whole head (starting from the top of the circle down to the chin) in half. The pupils of the eyes should be placed on this line (see images below).

For the distance between the eyes, try to imagine another eye in the middle.

7. Draw the nose

Next, draw the nose.

To find the right position for the nose draw two vertical lines from the inner corners of the eyes down to the circle. This marks where the sides of the nose will end.

Draw a small circle in the middle for the tip of the nose and then draw two more small circles on each side for the sides of the nose. You can also draw to lines reaching from the eyebrows to the nose to mark the nasal bridge.

8. Draw the mouth

Draw the mouth in the next step. The mouth should be a little wider than the nose and the line between the lips should be relatively straight.

9. Draw the ears and hair

Now we’re almost done! In the next step, draw in the ears and the top of the head. The ears are positioned right in the middle of the squares. And for the top of the head you just have to trace the circle. Depending on the hairstyle you’re choosing, this line can vary.

That’s it! You’re done with the basic sketch. Now erase all construction lines.

Because people look different and facial features will not always look the same you can use this basic sketch as a starting point to further define your portrait. Allow yourself to play around with the facial features and create a character that is unique!

Here’s also a shaded version of this generic face – feel free to complete your portrait sketch using this as a guide for shading. If you’d like another tutorial on how to shade a face, let me know down in the comments!

Reality check

As promised at the beginning, I also want to show you that these guidelines don’t apply to every face. Have a look at this photo of me for example. My face is thinner, and also the space between my eyes is smaller than in the portrait sketch. Naturally my mouth is a lot wider because I’m smiling.

This tutorial is designed to give you a better understanding of facial proportions. But what I want to emphasize is: Don’t let these guidelines limit your creativity.

Hope you liked this tutorial! I’d love to see your drawings, tag me on Instagram so I can see them (@sabrillu_)
If you’d like another tutorial on how to shade a face, or how to draw a generic male face, let me know in the comments below!

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About me

I’m Sabrina Hassler, an artist from Austria. I love drawing detailed pencil drawings of both people and animals. I work with publishers and advertising agencies any many of my illustrations appear in books or on various products. Apart from drawing, I enjoy sharing my knowledge and techniques with other creative people. On this blog I share drawing tips and tricks and helpful resources for you to practise what you have learnt. Take a look at my portfolio of different works.

Maybe you’re also interested in these tutorials: My best tips for pen and ink drawings How to draw skin tones

This post How to draw a female face was first published on Illustration & Drawing Blog.

My 5 best tips for pen & ink drawings

Sabrina — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 17:05:31 +0000

Draw with pen & Ink

Do you want to learn how to draw with pen & ink? These tips will help you!

Some time ago, I decided to practice my sketching by drawing in my sketchbook every day. I had made my own drawing challenge. For the past month I have worked on an ink sketch every day, and I’ve learned along the way. I’d like to share what I’ve learnt with you – so here are my 5 best tips for ink drawings.

Drawing with fineliners or ink pens may scare some people, because you can’t undo a line once it’s on the page. It cannot simply be erased again. However, the technique also offers some advantages, which I want to show you here briefly:

Highly contrasting drawings on white paper
Perfect to combine with other techniques, e. g. watercolour
Strong light resistance (colour changes little over time)

Tip # 1: The first and perhaps most important tip I want to give you is: Don’t be afraid of “bad” lines.

If you have ever drawn with pen & ink, you’ve probably already experienced this: you want to draw the perfect straight or round line and for some reason your hands shake suddenly, leaving a wobbly line on the page. This is particularly annoying when drawing outlines. Maybe you even think your picture is ruined now and you have to start over.

To make it an extra challenge, I made my ink drawings even without pre-sketching – that means, I drew directly with ink on the empty sheet – of course I made some inaccurate lines!

Don’t let a few skewed attempts irritate you. This is quite natural, and even happens to the best of us. Instead of just throwing your page away, you should continue drawing in a more relaxed way.

Most of the time, individual outliers are no longer visible in the finished drawing, or they sometimes even make the picture more interesting. So, my tip for you is: just keep drawing and don’t lose your nerve. You will intuitively compensate for mistakes with other lines.

If you have blurred your outlines, try to trace the first blurred line with a thick pen. You will probably succeed on the second try and you can hide the wobbly line a little with the thicker pen.

Tip # 2: Try different hatching techniques

When drawing with ink pens or fineliners, you cannot shade as you’re used to with the pencil. Smooth gradients are a little more difficult to achieve and you should definitely practice different hatching techniques.

Note: If you want the surfaces to look flat, try to keep the same distance between the parallel lines (see 1st example). But if you want to achieve a three-dimensional effect, start to leave a little less space between each line. This way it will gradually get a little darker and it’ll look like a gradient.

Another way to shade an area in three dimensions is to draw lines on top of each other. This way you increase the amount of black and thus create a shadow. Ordinary hatching (lines look in the same direction) or cross-hatching (lines cross each other) are particularly suitable for this. You could also shade objects with dots.

It’s also exciting to shade objects with lines that follow the shape. I think it creates an interesting effect and emphasises the shape at the same time. For example, I used this technique for this ink drawing (on the nose e.g.).

Tip # 3: Use thick markers or liquid ink to darken large areas

By drawing a lot with ink pens, I found out that I can really make my drawings pop when I paint the background completely black. This is how I did it with this goat, for example.

The sketch of the candle only really works because of the dark background.

A thick marker or an ink pen with a broad brush tip is particularly suitable for such large black areas. Of course, you can also just take a normal brush and paint the background if you have a glass of ink or another very opaque black colour at home.

Tip # 4: Use different pen thicknesses

Use a very thin fineliner for the first rough sketch. This way it doesn’t really matter if a line is not where you wanted it to be, because you will later draw over it with a stronger pen anyway.

For light shading, you should also use a pen that is as thin as possible – this way you’ll achieve smoother gradients.

For outlines that you want to be easily visible, use a medium pen width so that the outlines stand out from the other lines.

Use a thicker pen if you want to emphasize dark areas – for example, a shadow under the chin.

Use a thick marker or brush pen for an opaque black area.

Tip # 5: Draw with pen & ink daily!

Like pretty much all things in life, the more you do them, the better you get doing them. So just start and try to do at least one little sketch every day. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate drawing – 10 minutes are enough. Don’t be afraid of wrong strokes and just let mistakes happen to see where they might take you.

I bought myself a sketchbook for this purpose and made a little drawing every day. Sometimes I only draw for 15 minutes, sometimes much longer. The main thing is that you get a routine and just stick with it. You’ll improve so much over a short period of time..

Download my free hatching exercise sheet!

Here I have briefly summarised a few hatching techniques for you. You will also find sample images of the techniques in use. If you print out the PDF, you can also practise the most important hatching techniques and draw with pen & ink directly on the exercise sheet.

With this in mind, I hope you enjoy drawing with pen & ink and that these tips will help you a little along the way.

If you want to show me your results, tag me on Instagram @sabrillu_ – so I can give you feedback on your work.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments down below.

Sabrina

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This post My 5 best tips for pen & ink drawings was first published on Illustration & Drawing Blog.

How to Draw Skin Tones With Coloured Pencils | Video Tutorial

Praktikantin — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 12:22:58 +0000

How can I draw skin tones with coloured pencils?

Have you always wanted to know how to draw realistic skin tones with colored pencils? I’m sure you know the one “skin color” that is included in every colouring pencils set, but you’ve probably noticed: it doesn’t look realistic at all.

Many of you have probably already drawn black and white portraits with pencils. You don’t have to worry about the choice of colour, you can concentrate on facial features, light and shadow, as well as contrast.

Drawing regular pencil portraits is easy compared to coloured pencil portraits. This tutorial should help you to take the next step to coloured portrait drawings!

This tutorial is suitable for advanced creatives. As a basis for this tutorial, you should already be able to draw faces with the correct proportions and understand the basic rules of light and shadow.

Guest Post

I am very happy to show you this super helpful tutorial that the lovely and very talented Anna prepared for us.
Anna supported me as an intern for 4 weeks and is currently studying to be a graphic designer. In her spare time, she draws playful characters and is also a real professional when it comes to realistic drawings. At the moment she prefers to use coloured pencils for her creations and can help us understand the complexity of skin tones in this tutorial.

Extra

Anna also made a timelapse video where she shows us how she uses coloured pencils to draw skin. Watch her colour in her portrait drawing!

Jump to the video

Preparations

Before we can start, you first need a suitable portrait photo that you want to draw (as an exercise, you can also use the same photo I used). It doesn’t matter whether you have your photo printed out or in digital form. These are the drawing materials you will need:

Coloured pencils (I used Polychromos from Faber Castell)
and the basics, such as erasers, sharpeners and paper

Part 1: Analyse Colours

First we will analyse the skin colour of the person in the portrait.
You are probably familiar with the typical “skin colour” that can be found in all well-stocked coloured pencil sets. Have you ever tried to draw skin with it?

If you only take one colour from the box to draw human skin, your result will most certainly not look realistic. Skin normally looks too orange or simply unnatural when coloured in this way. So, if you want to draw realistic skin tones with coloured pencils, you have to know the following:

People's skin tones are never just one color, but many different colours!

Take a close look at your portrait photo and try to identify individual colours. Write them down on a piece of paper.

At first glance, it seems almost impossible to see multiple colours of the skin when looking at the photo. It takes some practice to break down the many nuances of the skin into multiple colours. But there are ways to make this easier!

Option 1: Analyse Colours Digitally

I first divided the skin colours in Photoshop using “Posterize“. If you have access to a computer with an internet connection, you can also download a (free) photo program (e.g. Gimp) and try it out yourself. The number of colours in the picture is reduced and colours that you wouldn’t have noticed before become more visible in larger coloured areas.

What this tone separation shows us is that there are many unusual colours hidden in a person’s skin! In the picture you can see the individual areas and below them some colour boxes with the most important skin tones.

You will have noticed straight away that in the shaded (darker) areas of the skin there are a lot of so-called “cold” colours (in this example especially blue and green tones). In contrast, in the brighter parts of the face, the colours appear warm and rosy.

A good balance of cold and warm colours makes your portrait drawing look much more realistic.

Of course, you won’t find all the colours that you’ve just discovered as colouring pencils in your box. This is why you need to apply and mix different colours on top of each other to get the right result.

I can assure you that there is a way to mix any colour!

Take a white sheet of paper and try to mix the skin colours as similarly as possible with your coloured pencils. You can also use this practice sheet for mixing colours.

Write down exactly which pens you used so that you can select them again later for your drawing. I find this method very helpful. Even if you don’t have that much experience, you have at least chosen the right colours!

Option 2: Improve Your Colour Perception

If you only have a printed photo to hand, or would prefer to work without digital help, this tip can definitely help you!

For this you’ll need a white sheet of paper in the same format as your photo, a pair of scissors / cutter and a set square. Draw a 1cm x 1cm square in the middle and then cut it out.

Then you put the paper on top of the photo. Move it so that you can see different areas of the skin through the hole. Because you only see a small section of the skin, you can focus on each individual colour. This “little window” allows you to see the colour as a sectioned-off area on the white paper. The comparison with the white of the paper will help you to objectively analyse the color. This way your clever brain can no longer tell you that every face is only made up of pink tones. 🙂

The next step is the same as in option 1. Take a second sheet of paper and place it next to the window. Try to recreate the shade you see through the hole with your coloured pencils.

Part 2: Drawing Process + Video!

When drawing with colored pencils, the following applies in general: Use even movements applying the same pressure and add several thin layers on top of each other from different directions.

Step-by-step: Drawing Skin Tones With Coloured Pencils

Sketch the outline of your portrait.
Lightly erase the sketch so that it becomes only slightly visible. (a kneaded eraser is very suitable for this)
Start your drawing with a first layer, which should serve as a base. I used the brightest pencil for this. Choose a neutral color. In my case it was a light, warm shade of grey. Try to apply this first layer very evenly to dark areas and leave the light areas lighter or completely white.
Then start in the darkest area of the face. It is always easier to make dark areas even darker afterwards instead of making light areas lighter. For example, if you start in the light area and it turns out to be too dark, it is difficult to touch up with an eraser later.

Therefore, always start drawing in the darkest areas of your portrait. Warning: that doesn’t mean you should draw with the darkest pencils first!
Always work your way from light to dark.

Work in very fine layers without applying a lot of pressure. Take your practice sheet to hand – you have already written down all the colours that you need for your drawing. Then always choose the lightest colour you wrote down for the colour field and slowly work your way to the darker colours.
In my case, I started on the far left (near the ear) with light green and light brown and then gradually built up the right shade with dark brown and dark grey. I used a lot of brown, grey and green in the neck area

You shouldn’t use black at all at the beginning. The darkest accents are best set at the very end, when it is already clear what light-dark balance the picture has or needs.
It gets significantly lighter on the cheeks and warm shades such as purple and red are used.

Tip: Try to draw in small curved movements, this will give you smoother transitions.
When you are satisfied with the colours and shades, take your lightest coloured pencil (white or grey) and move it in a curved motion over darker areas that you would like to appear “softer“. The pencil will blend the underlying colours and make the surface appear smooth. Repeat the same for the light areas of the face with a white pencil.
Finally, take a dark coloured pencil (dark brown or black) and use it to set contrasts. For example, under the chin there is a space that separates the face and neck, which you can emphasize a little. This way you give your drawing even more contrast. Remember to be very careful with the dark tones. Black and other dark colors are more suitable for drawing eyelashes and hair.

Wow! What an amazing tutorial! A huge THANK YOU to Anna for sharing her tips on how to draw skin tones using coloured pencils with us!

Your turn!

Did you try the tutorial? How did it go? What strategies help you to draw lively skin tones with coloured pencils? Tell me about it in the comments and

TAG SABRILLU IN YOUR DRAWINGS ON INSTAGRAM

Do you use Pinterest?

Save these pictures to your Pinterest-board for later:

Find more tutorials here:

How to draw a female face

In this easy step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to draw a beautiful female face with the right proportions. You only need pencils and paper, let’s go!

Draw a rabbit with pencils

In this easy step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to draw a realistic rabbit with different pencils. Drawing animals is so much fun!

My 5 best tips for pen & ink drawings

Here are my 5 best tips for learning how to draw with pen & ink. So grab your drawing materials and improve your ink drawings instantly!

This post How to Draw Skin Tones With Coloured Pencils | Video Tutorial was first published on Illustration & Drawing Blog.

Video-Tutorial: How to Draw Realistic Hair with Pencils

Sabrina — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 07:29:28 +0000

What steps can make drawing hair easier? What are the basics you should know to get realistic and natural results when drawing hair?

Yes, drawing realistic hair is a painful subject for many. A lot of skill and patience is required to achieve great results.

This blog article is especially helpful for those who like to draw people or animals. It is so much easier once you know a workflow with which you can create believable, natural hairstyles and fur.

In this post you will get: A helpful video guide on how you can draw a great hairstyle in 8 steps.

Because I have been dealing with the subject of “portraits” for a long time, I had to deal with drawing hair eventually. I hope this tutorial will help you to get better and faster at drawing hair and hopefully the process will be much more enjoyable for you 🙂

Materials:

pencils (H-4B)
black coloured pencil (e.g. Faber Castell Polychromos*)
blending stump or cotton swab
pen-style eraser (e.g. Tombow*)
regular eraser
drawing paper

*unremunerated advertising

So gather your materials and let’s start drawing!

I also wrote a detailed step-by-step desciption on Erika Lancaster’s Blog – Read it here.

Quick Start Guide:

Here are my best proven steps to draw realistic hair:

Draw a rough sketch of the head and hair
Analyze the strands of hair
Basic shading
Fine shading
Blur and smooth transitions
Pull out highlights
Add contrast
Draw in details

Save this photo to Pinterest.

More about portrait drawing

This post Video-Tutorial: How to Draw Realistic Hair with Pencils was first published on Illustration & Drawing Blog.

Techniques & Tips Archive - Illustration & Drawing Blog

How to draw a female face

Learn how to draw a beautiful female face with the right proportions

Easy tutorial with step-by-step instructions

So without further ado, let’s just jump right into it!

Materials:

Overview of the steps to draw a generic female face:

Get your FREE PDF instructions!

How to draw a face step-by-step

1. Draw a circle

2. Cut off the sides

3. Draw six equal squares

4. Draw the contour of the female face

5. Draw the neck

6. Draw the eyes and eyebrows of the female face

7. Draw the nose

8. Draw the mouth

9. Draw the ears and hair

Reality check

About me

My 5 best tips for pen & ink drawings

Draw with pen & Ink

Do you want to learn how to draw with pen & ink? These tips will help you!

Tip # 1: The first and perhaps most important tip I want to give you is: Don’t be afraid of “bad” lines.

Tip # 2: Try different hatching techniques

Tip # 3: Use thick markers or liquid ink to darken large areas

Tip # 4: Use different pen thicknesses

Tip # 5: Draw with pen & ink daily!

Download my free hatching exercise sheet!

Do you use Pinterest?

Have you seen these posts yet?:

Join my newsletter to get drawing tips directly to your mailbox!

How to Draw Skin Tones With Coloured Pencils | Video Tutorial

How can I draw skin tones with coloured pencils?

Guest Post

Extra

Preparations

Part 1: Analyse Colours

People's skin tones are never just one color, but many different colours!

Option 1: Analyse Colours Digitally

Option 2: Improve Your Colour Perception

Part 2: Drawing Process + Video!

When drawing with colored pencils, the following applies in general: Use even movements applying the same pressure and add several thin layers on top of each other from different directions.

Step-by-step: Drawing Skin Tones With Coloured Pencils

Always work your way from light to dark.

Wow! What an amazing tutorial! A huge THANK YOU to Anna for sharing her tips on how to draw skin tones using coloured pencils with us!

Your turn!

Do you use Pinterest?

Find more tutorials here:

How to draw a female face

Draw a rabbit with pencils

My 5 best tips for pen & ink drawings

Video-Tutorial: How to Draw Realistic Hair with Pencils

So gather your materials and let’s start drawing!

Here are my best proven steps to draw realistic hair: