5 Minute Creativity: Drawing a Face in Proportion

1. Draw a Face in Proportion: Let's talk about the basic proportions of the human head. If you placed a line at the top of the skull and another at the bottom of the chin, and then split that measurement in half, you get the placement of the eyes. Basically, the eyes are located at right about the center of the head in a straight on view. Now, notice how I didn't say the top of the hair. Because some hairstyles can get quite puffy, try to think through the hair to where the skull would be. In a straight on view, the eyes will always be placed at about the middle. When you start to veer away from placing the eyes in the middle, that's when you can start to get some characters that may look out of proportion or just not as human. Although some cartoonists will push proportions to the extreme like this, and that works perfectly fine, too. Now, if you place a line across the brow line and then across the top of the forehead, that will give you a certain measurement that you can then copy to other places. The top of the forehead to the brow line, then from the brow line to the bottom of the nose, and finally from the bottom of the nose to the bottom of the chin are all close to equal spatial relationships on the human face. Basically, you can split the top of the forehead to the bottom of the chin into thirds to help you place the brows and the bottom of the nose better. Not only do these lines help you in placing the features of the face, but they can also help in redrawing that same face. Simply use lines to make sure the forehead, brows, nose, and chin hit on the same line. We won't get into this in class, but once you nail down these basics of your character, you'll be able to draw her for more difficult angles. Now, there's one more proportional measuring trick I want to show you. From the bottom of the nose, to the part of the lips, to the start of the chin, to the bottom of the chin can also be separated into thirds. At each line, you can place an important facial landmark. If we split the nose to the chin into thirds, we can easily place the part of the lips, which is at that first third. Everything in these drawings is exactly the same except for the placement of the lips. You can see how important it is to know these basic proportions. I often don't indicate the chin too much in my character portraits, but having these basic proportional measurements in the back of my head really helps me place things better. Now remember, these proportions will only work in a straight on view. Once the head tilts up or down, the spatial relationships will then change because of the perspective. But knowing these basics will be extremely helpful if something is looking off in your drawing. Now, with character drawing, you can push the proportions away from true human proportions, if you wish. You can exaggerate the size of the facial features and exaggerate the space between the facial features as you desire. Practice and push things around as you start drawing to figure out what look you like best. If you'd like to practice proportions that are tried and true though, print out these worksheets and give them a go. They will guide you through the basic proportions of the human head. They'll also help you get to know your unique taste, which will help you in developing your style. Now, in three-quarter view, you'll find that these basics still apply because there's no tilt to the head, up or down. Again, the eyes are the halfway point of the head. The face is broken down into nearly equal thirds, and then finally from the bottom of the nose to the bottom of the chin can be broken down into thirds as well. Like I said, often I don't indicate the chin in my character drawings, but if you ever want to draw a little shadow under the lips, often that third line down is where the shadow will end. Give the proportion worksheets a try. Keep it simple and just try to get your brain familiar with the spatial relationships of the head. Then when you're feeling comfortable, let's start drawing some eyes.