How to Draw a Face: Step-by-Step Guide to Drawing a Face

Whether you’re using digital drawing software or drawing in your sketchbook, you can follow a few basic principles to make portrait drawing far easier. Here are a few tips for drawing a human face.

1. 1. Start with a grid. Using a lead pencil, draw a grid of vertical and horizontal lines to map out the proportions and shape of your face. Start with a circle or oval, and then bisect it with a series of lines to guide you to the locations of key facial features, like the brows, the eyes, the nose, the lips, and the bottom of the chin. This way you will be able to control the distance between features and keep your face symmetrical. When you’re finished, simply erase your grid lines.
2. 2. Divide your face into thirds for proportion. If you examine any face, you will see that it is divided into thirds from top to bottom—from hairline to the brow line, from the brow line to the bottom of the nose, and from the bottom of the nose to the base of the jawline. You’ll notice that the ears are slightly shorter than the length of one-third of the face. This basic rule of thirds will help give your face a balanced proportion.
3. 3. Practice your features. Practice drawing individual facial features first to perfect them before you draw your first full face. Eyes, noses, lips, and ears can be difficult to master on their own. Get a feel for the shape of each feature before tackling the full face.

Follow these step-by-step instructions for drawing a realistic face.

1. 1. Outline your face. Start by drawing a circle to form the top part of the head. Bisect the circle with one vertical line (which will be the middle line of your face) and a horizontal line (which will be your brow line). Draw a line just under the top of your circle, one just above the bottom of the circle, then one more a third of the way down from your bottom line. Now, you should have four equally-spaced horizontal lines; the top one is the hairline, the second is the brow line, the third is the bottom of the nose, and the fourth is the bottom of the chin. Draw two vertical lines on either side of your circle parallel to your middle line. Then sketch the outline oval shape of the face to fit inside the lines. The top of the head should be the top of your circle, and the bottom of the chin should end at the bottom line.
2. 2. Sketch the hairline and ears. Mark a light horizontal line just slightly below the brow line to find where the top of the ears should be. Draw the curved lines of the ears from the bottom of that line to the top of the nose line. Fill in detail in the ears. Draw the hairline by following the top horizontal line, which reflects the hairline.
3. 3. Draw the eyes. Divide the space between your brow line and your nose line into quarters, lightly tracing out the sections with a pencil. The first line down from your browline will be your eye line. Divide the circle into equally-sized horizontal thirds and mark with vertical lines to make sure that your eyes are symmetrical. For each eye, draw an oval that overlaps the center horizontal line, then add one large circle and one smaller circle for the iris and pupil. Contour the shapes of the eyelids as you wish. Shade the eye using a dark circle around the pupil with lighter shading inside You can also use an eraser to make one or two light spots on the pupil to achieve a glassy look.
4. 4. Draw your eyebrows. Sketch the eyebrow shape above each eye as beveled, curved rectangles. Shade the eyebrows with small, outward strokes beginning from the inner bottom corner of the brow and tapering them at their outer ends.
5. 5. Draw the nose. The top of your nose should begin at your eye line, and the tip should terminate in line with the bottom of your ears. Draw the tip of your nose starting from the nose line, mimicking a triangular shape. Once you’ve sketched the tip of your nose, draw the top. Starting from the inside of the left eye, shade down the length of the nose creating the desired contour until you reach the tip. Darkly shade up from underneath the noses' tip to create the two small nostrils. Repeat on the right side of the nose but with a lighter shading to create the effect of a shadow on the nose.
6. 6. Draw the mouth. Halfway between the tip of the nose and the base of the chin, sketch the shape of the mouth, giving the lower lip slightly more volume than the top. The corners of the mouth should align with the centers of your pupils. Then start by shading the upper lip, darker at the bottom and getting lighter at the top. Repeat this with the bottom lip. Add shading lines moving out from the center of the lips to make them look plump.
7. 7. Add the final details to your face. Add any other touches like beauty marks, freckles, or facial hair. Make sure the jawline is properly rounded out. Finish your drawing by giving your face your preferred hairstyle.

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