Draw Exaggerated Faces With Style: Learn and Defy Proportions

1. Introduction: Have you ever wanted to learn how to draw faces? Or give your characters a little bit more personality, but didn't know where to start? Well, in this class, I'm going to be teaching you some of my simple tricks for drawing the face in proportion and where to place the facial features. By knowing the rules and knowing where everything goes on the face, then you can learn how to bend the rules later on when you start to exaggerate and create your own imaginative characters. Hi, I'm Erica, and I'm an artist, photographer, and cat mom. This class is perfect for beginners who are just starting out learning how to draw faces. Or for even intermediate or advanced students who just want to learn how to give their characters a little more personality. This class is divided into three parts. First, we'll build confidence by learning the blocks of constructing a face like proportion and placement of the features. Then I'll assign mini tasks so you can practice what you've learned. Then we'll dive in to using exaggeration as a form of creative thinking, asking ourselves, how can we emphasize the features and faces to create new characters? Finally, we'll take what we've learned and combine it altogether to refine and complete your faces, incorporating your own personal style, using fantasy and imagination to create a finished character. Your drawings can be easily adapted to a variety of media, such as painting, illustration, or digital artwork. Learning to exaggerate will help stretch your imagination, to build your personal style and set you apart from the pack. As a bonus, I'll also be including my process and how I finish my characters. Don't worry if you've never drawn faces, I'll be walking you through the steps from start to finish. Are you ready to draw some faces? Then let's get started. 2. The Project: For today's class, we'll be walking through the steps to create your very own exaggerated faces. Your project is to share your portrait in the project gallery to open it up for feedback and to inspire our community. For your mini tasks, you'll start by practicing drawing the proportions of the head. Then you'll complete a series of drawings of the eyes, lips, and nose, creating a variety of styles and building your library of images. Next, you'll practice drawing and exaggerating the face, incorporating the drawings of your facial features for your characters. Finally, you'll choose your favorite character to refine and add your own personal style and inspiration. Don't worry if you've never drawn faces before. I'll be walking you through the steps from start to finish, so that by the end of this class you'll be confident to begin drawing faces on your own. Are you ready? Then let's get started. 3. How to Draw the Head: Welcome back. For our first lesson. I'm going to be teaching you about the proportions and placement of the features on the human head. Once you understand the rules of where everything goes, then you can start to experiment with moving the features around on the head to really give some personality to your characters. By understanding the rules, you can learn how to bend them later. Let's dive in. You're going to need pencils and eraser, a pencil sharpener, and a sketchbook or some plain white paper. We're going to talk about the proportions of the human face, which are just the relationship between the size of the features and the head. This is going to be really important later on when we start exaggerating the features so that we can play around with the size relationship between the features and the head. Start by drawing an oval. It can be round or it can be pointed at the bottom. Then we divide the face into thirds. This will help us place our features later on. Then divide the middle section in half because the eyes are halfway down the face. Then I split the face down the center, so I know where the middle of my face is. The eyes are halfway down the face. They should be equal in size, and there should be an eye space between them. An easy way to check to see if your eyes are the same size is hold your pencil against the eye to measure. Slide it over to see if they're equal length. Make sure you're drawing lightly so it's easier to erase later on. The eyebrows are directly above the eyes, starting at the inside corner of the eye. They curve upwards in the middle and slope downwards towards the outside of the face. Keep in mind if you're drawing a male eyebrows, they're generally thicker and straighter. Female eyes are generally thinner and more curved. The nose is going to be in the center point right at the middle of this cross and the outside edges of the nose line up with the inside corners of the eyes. The mouth is slightly higher than halfway from the bottom of the chin to the bottom of the nose. This is where the lips touch. The outside corners of the lips line up with the centers of the eyes. Men's lips generally tend to be a little bit thinner than female's, and women's tend to be a lot thicker and more curvy. Ears start at the top of the eye and curve down to the bottom of the nose. You now have a face that's in proportion. Let's review. First, start by drawing a round or oval shape for your face. Then divide the face into three sections. Remember that the eyes go about halfway down the face and the lips are about halfway between the bottom of the chin and the bottom of the nose. The nose is an eye-width wide, your eyes are an eye apart, and the corners of your lips align with the centers of your eyes. Now, it's your turn. Practice drawing at least four different faces using the skills that you've learned in this class. I can't wait to see what you've created. I'll see you in the next lesson where we learn to practice drawing eyes. 4. Eyes: In this class, we're going to learn how to draw eyes using simple shapes and techniques to make them look more three-dimensional and realistic, and this will make your characters look more life-like and unique. The eye can be divided into three basic parts. The pupil, the iris, and the overall shape of the eye, which looks like an almond or can be broken down into a kite-shape. I usually start by drawing the inner part of the eye first. That's made up of two circles. The outer circle, which is the iris, which determines what color your eyes are and the inner circle, which is the pupil, that's the dark part of your eye. Then the basic overall shape of your eye, which is usually an almond shape. Then I break it down even further into geometric lines, so your eye looks almost like a kite. Don't worry about the sharp edges or if it doesn't look perfect at this point. I'll show you how to refine this later. One of the key things to remember is that you never see the entire line of the eye, and that the pupil is actually partially or half covered by the upper eyelid. You want to make sure that you draw your upper eyelid partially covering the pupil and the iris. You also want to make sure that when you draw the lower eyelid or that bottom curve, that it also partially covers that bottom part of the iris. Once I have my basic shapes drawn and I have the eye placed out, then I go back, and I trace around the edges and I round out the corners, softening and erasing any sharp edges. The curve of the upper eyelids follows the shape of the eye. Just by changing the width of the eyelid, you can create a variety of different styles of eyes. Eyelids should always have a curve to them. Again, this is going to help your eyes look more realistic. This is something that you want even in stylized eyes. The decision you have to make is how curved you want your eyes to be, how slanted do you want them to be. These are all creative choices that you can make as you're drawing your eyes. One of my top tips would be, to draw just a suggestion of a lower lid starting from the outside corner of the eye and extending to just beneath the pupil. One of the things that adding the lower eyelid does, is it helps to set the eyes in the face and it makes them look more three-dimensional and more realistic, even in stylized faces. Adding a little highlight to the eyes or like a sparkle will also help make your eyes look a little more realistic. It will add a little bit more life to your characters eyes. It will also help show which direction the sun is shining on the eyes. The highlight is basically just any light sources of reflection on your eyes. I've got my light source reflecting on the right side of the eye. You can make the light reflecting from any direction that you want, just by changing the direction of that little highlight, and that's just by drawing a little white circle in the pupil of the eye. The key to drawing lashes is not to draw each individual one. Because they grow in clusters, it's better to draw the suggestion of eyelashes instead. Just by darkening this line, I'm making the lashes appear fuller and more feminine. But you can draw your lashes lighter or further apart. Experiment with the different styles and see what you like. The style and shape of your characters lashes can really define the eyes and help make them unique. I tend to draw them much thicker at the corner of the eyes, and thinner and further apart along the lower eyelid. Sometimes I don't draw lashes on my lower eyelids at all. If I'm drawing male characters, I leave the lashes off all together. Although men have lashes, I just find that it makes them look more feminine in my art work. Now we're going to draw the tear duct. It's the inner corner of your eye, where the tears come out. I simply curve the inner corner of the eye to make the tear duct. Personally, I try to use as few lines as possible and simplify everything to its most basic shape. I find that when you do that, you can really draw anything. I'm just darkening the edges of the iris and blackening in the pupil. The color is more pronounced around the outside of the iris, even in brown eyes, although it might not be as noticeable. That contrast in the eye is a really great way to make the eyes pop. Although how much detail you add is really up to you, so have some fun and play around with it. Underneath the eye, where the eyelid is and the eyelashes are, there's a shadow, so that's another really great way where you can add a little bit of depth or some three-dimension is just by darkening in the shadow. I tend to work in a circular motion radiating out of the center from the pupil. That also helps to create a little bit more of a realistic effect just by shading out from the center of the pupil. Then I erase all the extra lines and round the edges, making sure that I have a clean drawing and a nice round eye. Now it's time to experiment. Try drawing the eyelids closer together. Move the pupil to change the direction the eye's looking, and then widen the part of the eye closest to the pupil so it's in proportion. You can also extend the lines at the corners of the eyes to create laugh lines or wrinkles, and make sure that you don't forget to add the lower lid. Simplify the lashes even further for a more cartoony look. Experiment and draw as many different styles of eyes as you can. It will help you to get a sense of your own personal style, and create characters that are unique to you. Experiment with heavy eyelids by drawing them further apart to make your characters sleepy or more relaxed. A tip for drawing slanted or angled eyes is to draw the iris and pupil first, and then draw a diagonal line right through the center of the eye. This will give you a guide when you're trying to draw the shape of your eye. The higher the angle, the more slanted the eye will be. Let's review. First, start by breaking the eye down into two circles for the pupil and iris. Remember that the eye is almond shaped and that the eyelids cover the eyes. Simplify the eyelashes and remember not to draw every single one. They curve up and outward away from the eye. Now it's your turn. Practice drawing as many eyes as you can. At least five. Make sure to consider the size, shape, and style of the eye, the direction of the pupil, and whether or not they're male or female. Experiment with different styles and have fun with them. As an added challenge, see if you can draw some eyebrows on your characters eyes as well. I'll see you in the next lesson where we practice drawing mouths and lips. 5. Lips: In this class, we're going to be talking about how to draw mouths. I'm going to be teaching you my simple tricks for how to draw the lips using just three simple shapes. Grab your pencil, paper, or your favorite sketchbook, and join me in the lesson. I'll see you there. Everything can be simplified into shapes. I start by breaking the lips into three parts, two ovals for the top lip and one for the bottom lip. These can vary in size, but they'll help guide you in constructing the lips. I draw the corners of the mouth and trace around the curve of the ovals. Now, I have to decide what shape I want my lips to be. You can make them curvy or pointed, it's really up to you and helps make your character unique. A top tip to remember is that male lips are generally thinner and straighter and female lips are usually thicker and curvier. That's not always the case, but it's a general rule of thumb. The curves at the corner of the mouth help make them look more three-dimensional and round. This will help make your characters' mouths look a little bit more realistic. Try varying the size of the ovals you use for your lips and experimenting with pointy or curved or thick or thin lips to get a wide variety of mouths for your characters. It will give them a unique look. You'll have a greater variety of mouths to choose from when you're creating your final character. For really full lips, you can try just drawing two large ovals instead of three and leaving out the curve in the top of the lip. This will give you those really full Angelina Jolie movie-star lips. Darkening the curves at the edge of the mouth will also help to make the lips look even fuller and more exaggerated. Try experimenting with drawing your lips at an angle. Simply draw one of the top ovals smaller than the other and tilt them in the direction that you want your lips to be turning. The side of the mouth that's turned away will be less visible and smaller, while the side that's closest will be larger. The line of the mouth will be longer, and you'll see more of the corner of the mouth. The bottom lip sticks out much farther when the face is turned. So make sure to exaggerate and make the bottom lip much curvier. Also, the side of the face that is closest to you will be larger and the side of the face that's farther away will be much smaller. You can simplify the mouth even further by just drawing the corners and the lip line and a large bottom lip with just the suggestion of an upper lip. I like to draw these types of mouths when I'm drawing mustaches. Now, it's your turn. Try to draw as many different mouths or lips as you can. Draw at least 5‐10 different styles and post them in the project gallery so that we can see where your progress is. Try to keep in mind the different styles, shapes, and sizes of your mouths and whether or not they're male or female. There's a lot of different things that you can consider, like whether or not they're pointy or curved, straight, thick, or thin. I can't wait to see what you've come up with and I'll see you in the next lesson where we talk about noses. 6. Noses: Hi, welcome back. In this class we're going to be talking about how to draw the nose. The nose is something that people tend to over-complicate or draw the outline of the nose. I'm going to be teaching you ways to simplify the nose using as few lines as possible. So grab your pencils, your paper, or your favorite sketchbook, and I'll see you in the lesson. You want to simplify the nose using as few lines as possible. We tend to want to outline the nose when really it's just a collection of shadows. I started out by breaking the nose into three circles. A larger one for the tip of the nose, and then two smaller ones for the nostril. This circle will be the tip of the nose and the outside circles will be the nostrils. Nostrils look like parentheses and the key to join them is not to connect them to the corners or tip of the nose. That I partially darken the edges of the nostril shapes because the corners of the nose are in shadow. This is when you can make a decision on the size and shape of your nostrils, making them either large, small, square, or oval. Then I darken the bottom of the nose because that's the part that's in shadow and casts a shadow on the upper lip. I'm being careful not to connect it to the two nostrils because I don't want it to look outlined. Drawing or sketching in a slight shadow above the tip of the nose will help create a more three-dimensional feel to it. I tend to draw a simplified line or use a bit of cross hatching. You can also add a slight shadow along the side of the nose to emphasize the size and shape. Then erase any unnecessary lines and congratulations, you've successfully drawn a nose. By simply starting with three ovals, you can experiment by changing the size and shapes of your ovals to create a variety of noses. Play around and try making it larger or maybe flat and square. The possibilities are endless. Now it's your turn. It's time to start practicing drawing noses on your own. Things to keep in mind are what size and shape their noses are. How big are the nostrils? How wide are they? Are they round, pointy, flat, thick, or thin? Draw these noses on your own and don't forget to post them in the project gallery. I suggest drawing at least 5-8 noses on your own. I can't wait to see you in the next lesson where we start to put everything together to draw our very first faces on our own. 7. Exaggeration: In this class, it's time to put everything together. I'm going to teach you everything that you've learned about proportion, to bend the rules and stretch your imagination to exaggerate the face. I like to fold my paper into four sections so I can use the front and back. But you can draw thumbnails or sketch them out in your favorite sketchpad, whatever works best for you. The key is to think outside the box and try to draw a variety of different shape types. You don't have to stick to the rules. Fill the space and no teeny tiny heads. I like to combine shapes to create more unique faces. I use the line where the shapes overlap as a guide for where I place my eyes or the other features on the face. Drawing the angle of the head at an extreme tone it is a great way to play with the proportions. It's also a great way to emphasize your character's mood or personality. Next I'm going to divide by face into thirds, but I'm not going to worry too much about the correct placement, because I'm going to start experimenting with the proportion and bending the rules. What I'm doing is enlarging the features. I enlarge some features and make others much smaller. I tend to pick one feature to emphasize and make them either really tiny or really large, or I choose to make them opposite. For example, the eyes and nose, I'll make really large or the nose really tiny. I find that making all of the features the same size just doesn't have the same impact. Try making your eyes different sizes. Play around with the proportions. The more you experiment, the more fun you're going to have, and the more unique your characters are going to be. Try drawing at least four faces using contrasting features or unbalanced proportions. Another great trick I like to use for exaggerating my facial features is by either placing them higher or lower on the face or spacing them farther apart. Really tiny eyes can be fun to play with. Just like really large eyes can be fun to play with. This is true for any of the features. You can play around with the position and the height of any of the features on the face. You can place the nose much higher on the face and squish it closer to the eyes. You could have the lips much farther down on the face and the rest of the features much closer to the top of the head. Experiment and see how you can move the features around on the face, to exaggerate and bend the rules. For this face, I'm going to do the opposite. I'm going to make the eyes much closer together and the lips much smaller. I'm not really worried about the correct placement of the features. I'm more worried about how can I make my character look more unique? How can I emphasize one of the features on the face more than the others? The third way you can exaggerate faces, is with the position of the head by elongating or shortening the neck and drawing the head at an opposite angle. It emphasizes the changes and proportion between the neck and the head, making it more dynamic. I could also extend and make the neck much longer in my final drawing on a larger sheet of paper. Let's review. First, draw a variety of head shapes. Next, think about ways that you can create contrast with the size, shape, and proportion of the features. Then, think about ways that you can change the position of the features creating contrast, by either placing the features higher or lower on the head, or spacing them closer together or farther apart. Finally, exaggerate the angle of the head by either elongating or shortening the neck and drawing the head and neck at opposite angles. Now what I'd like you to do is practice drawing eight different exaggerated faces. You're going to choose your favorite one for your final project. Find a character that you really love. That's going to be the one that you pick for your final project. I can't wait to see what you've created and don't forget to post them in the project gallery. 8. Fantasy and Style: Congratulations on making it this far in the class. For this lesson, we're going to be talking about how to take all of the pieces that we've learned in this course and putting them together, and starting to find some inspiration to really give our character some personal style, using our imagination, inspiration from the Internet, and anywhere else you think you could find some ideas for making your characters unique. Pull out your sketches from the previous lesson. It's time to decide which character you want to explore further. You'll need to copy your selected your drawing onto a fresh sheet of paper for the final project. I'll be using a Sharpie and pencil, but you can easily trace your drawing by placing a new sheet of paper over your drawing and using a window. I really like this character. I think it's fun and interesting, and there's a lot that I can do with it. Tracing my lines with the dark Sharpie makes it easier to see my drawing to the paper when I'm tracing. If you don't have a Sharpie, you can use any dark colored marker, colored pencils, or just retrace your drawing with a pencil pressing more firmly to darken the lines. This will allow you to see your drawing when you place a fresh piece of paper on top of it. I'm starting to refine my drawing at this stage. I'm retracing my character, making decisions about the line quality; how thick or thin it is. Simplifying my drawing, and eliminating any unnecessary lines or shapes to avoid having to erase as much as possible. This is where my personal style starts to pick through. I use to work as a graphic designer, and I have a background in animation. Once you've copied your drawing onto a new sheet of paper, you can take your original drawing aside. Pinterest gives you access to thousands of photos, illustrations, and artwork to find your inspiration from. I suggest searching mythical, fantasy, or sci-fi to start. TV and movies are also another great place to find ideas with many different genre to choose from. Books and comics are also great visual resources, but be careful not to copy other people's ideas. So I suggest making a collection of images and resources for you to choose from, that way you can pull from more than one idea and you're drawing will be original. I'm really drawn to repetition and contrast. I tend to simplify my drawings using line to communicate shading, rather than add a lot of detail. I was inspired by a character from Carnival Row for this piece. I really like the curves of his horns and the path that he still looks human. To make sure that the horns look like they're sitting in the head and not just on top of the head, I'm making sure to draw a curved line where the horns attach. This will make them look more three-dimensional, and more realistic. Because the head is slightly turned at an angle I want to make sure that I draw the horn on the other side of the head, making sure that I continue that repetitional shape in the second horn. Ask yourself where you can create contrast, either through line or shape, or even through a pattern. Right Right I'm trying to create a little bit of contrast by creating two horns that are different sizes. Then I'll continue the repetition of those shapes in the earrings and the eyebrows. This is a great time to add small details to the face, like darkening the eyelashes, adding wrinkles around the eyes, even some wrinkles or bugs underneath the eyes, or facial hair. You can decide whether or not you want your eyelids to be heavier, or you want your eyelashes to be really thick, or you rarely want them to be there at all. Remember to keep it simple. Simplify your shapes and lines, and think about where you can create contrast with lines and shapes. Repeating patterns throughout your character will really help to push that exaggerated feel. Now it's time to finalize our drawing. Erase any extra straight lines, and outline your drawing. You can do this by either inking it with a Sharpie, or your choice of pen, or you can press firmly on the lines with a pencil. Let's review. Remember to copy your drawing onto a clean sheet of paper. Erase any unwanted lines, and simplify it to where you want your character to be. Collect images of inspiration and ideas, so that you have an idea of what you want to incorporate into your character. Add your fantasy or personal style elements to your drawing. Finally, complete your drawing by retracing all of your lines with either a dark marker pen, or simply darkening them in with a pencil. Try not to lift your pencil off the paper, so you avoid those sketchy or lose marks. Don't forget to post your work in the Project Gallery, so that we can give you some feedback and we can check on your progress. I can't wait to see what you have created. 9. Bonus: Adding Color: I'm just going to show you a few ways that I add color and mix media to really enhance the exaggeration of my portraits. I have some newspaper, some watercolor paints, some water, and glue. I also have a few good brushes and some old used brushes that I'm going to use for applying the glue. Next, I choose a color palette. I tend to go with brighter colors and complementary color schemes to really push the exaggeration, and bold color choices can also emphasize your fantasy or imaginary elements in the drawing. I suggest sticking with just two or three colors for your peace. I don't really worry about whether or not the paint is evenly applied or perfect, but I do try to stay inside the lines. Keeping in mind that the more water on your brush, the lighter the color, and the more paint on your brush, the darker the color. I'm going to paint my character blue, and then I'm going to paint the horns sort an orange or dark complimentary color. I really like the sense of imperfection that I get by not applying the paint perfectly evenly. Although I do rinse my brush with clear water from time to time and spread out the paint just so that the entire area that I'm working on is filled in. I also like to continue the sense of repetition in my color choices. For example, I'm going to paint the horns orange, but then I'm also going to paint the facial hair orange as well. This is a great way to enhance the exaggeration that you've already created in your line drawing. I'm going to add some brighter colors to really make the rest of this character pop. Adding another contrasting, complementary color scheme is really going to help to enhance that exaggeration even further and elevate my drawing from just an imaginative character to a character that has a lot of life and personality. Once my painting is dry, I'm going to go over the lines with a sharpie making sure to emphasize any of the shapes and outlines of the features. I'm also going to add a variation of line quality so that some lines are thicker and some lines are thinner, and this will add a little bit of texture and some depth to my drawing. It will also help to show what parts of the face and what characteristics are closer to the front and what parts are farther away. This is when I start darkening in the nostrils, outlining the eyes, thickening the eyelashes, and really start to emphasize the parts of the face that I want to stand out the most and I want to be exaggerated the most. The thicker and heavier the lines really helps to really push those parts of the face to the front of the drawing or to the foreground. I'm also going to blacken the pupils and make sure I leave a white spot for the highlight. Then I add any final details to the skin and hair just to give it a little bit more character. For this one, I think I'm going to add some scales to really enhance the idea that this is a fantasy and imaginary creature. It will also help to give the skin a little bit more texture. To really push the idea that this is a fantasy creature, and since I gave him some scales, I decided to add a little fish tail as well. Using a mixture of glue and water, I'm going to apply the glue to the negative space around my character and then using torn book pages or newspaper or even bits of magazines, I'm going to apply them and overlap them until the entire background has been covered. This is going to add even more texture to my character and also give the idea that this is some kind of a mythical creature out of an old world document. Once the background is dry, I go over the entire background with a final wash of color to give it an aged look. You don't have to paint the background if you don't want to. Make your own choices and decide what works best for your character. Maybe you want to draw a background in, or maybe you want to choose photographs from an image that you really like. The possibilities are really endless. Have fun with this. I'm looking forward to seeing all of your imagination come to life. Don't forget to post your projects in the project gallery so you can get feedback from our community and inspire others. I'll see you in the next lesson. 10. Final Thoughts: Well done. Congratulations on completing the course. We've covered everything from drawing the face in proportion and placement of the features to simplifying and refining our drawings for a finished character. We also added a bit of personal style and fantasy to really make them unique. I bet you have an awesome character to show for it. Please don't forget to post your projects in the project gallery so you can get feedback from our community. If you share your projects online, you can tag me and I will comment on them there. If you like the class, please leave a review and you can follow me to keep up-to-date with future classes. Thanks for joining, and I'll see you soon.