How to draw a realistic face with a pencil step by step. How to draw a person's face step by step

If you've ever picked up a pencil and drawn people, then you most likely know how difficult it is to create a portrait of a person. Indeed, in addition to general outlines, it is necessary to use three-dimensional graphics, the play of light and shadow. This must be done so that the flat image “comes to life” and looks more realistic. However, not everyone knows about the use of such technology. Therefore, we decided in our article to talk about how to draw portraits of people correctly.

What is a portrait of a person?

Before you start drawing, you need to find out what a portrait is. Basically this is an image of the head (from the crown to the shoulders). A little less often portraits depict people in full height. The purpose of such a drawing is to convey as accurately as possible the image that the artist sees in the model’s image. Portraits can be drawn with simple paints, crayons, or charcoal.

Every artist knows a person, regardless of the technique used and the tools at hand. In this case, the master performs a drawing using light and shadow. But in order to get a more or less realistic portrait that is close to the original, you need to practice. As practice shows, you need to make at least 50-100 drawings.

This is necessary in order to improve your skills and develop your own technique on the canvas.

What are portraits of people like?

Before you draw portraits of people, you need to find out what they are like. IN in this case it all depends on the gender and age of the model with whom the portrait is taken. For example, images can be of women, men, or children. However, they differ from each other. In particular, the male pattern differs from the female one in that it is coarser by the presence of a massive chin; in men it is sharper and wider.

In addition, male portraits are characterized by the presence of protruding parts of the face: cheekbones and brow ridges. Women's drawings contain more rounded shapes and smoothed corners in the forehead and chin area.

Prepare all drawing supplies

At the first stage, it is recommended to prepare a sheet of paper, several simple pencils with different levels of softness, and an eraser. Experienced Artists They also use a number of additional tools, for example, an electric eraser, which works more gently and does not leave such marks as a regular eraser. Before you draw portraits of people and make them realistic, you need to carefully follow our instructions step by step.

And, of course, take care of the model or find one from which you will draw a portrait.

Choose a simple pattern

If you are just starting to take your first steps in fine arts, then you should look for photos or pictures that depict not too complex portraits of people. For beginners, painting pictures made using complex techniques is not advisable. It's better to choose a simpler photo. As an example, we will tell you how to draw a female image.

Determining the top and bottom of the image

At the next stage, take a sheet of paper, carefully examine your model, study all the details and start drawing. Determine the top and bottom of the future sketch. Take visual measurements of the face parameters of the image. This must be done so that you get the most accurate picture possible. And so that everything fits on your worksheet: hair, forehead, chin, neck and, possibly, shoulders.

Next, we draw a portrait of a person step by step as follows: divide your sheet of paper exactly in half horizontally; repeat the same vertically; you should end up with four identical squares. At the same time, you should not put too much pressure on the pencil, since all these lines are auxiliary and will subsequently be erased.

Delimiting a plane on a sheet

Take your pencil and go to one of the nearest top squares. Divide it in half. Do the same with both squares on the bottom plane. Then divide the bottom squares in half again.

Outlining the oval of the face

Next, we draw a portrait of a person step by step, starting with a sketch. To do this, go to the horizontal demarcation line on the sheet, and then, stepping back a few centimeters from the beginning of the page, draw the lines of the face. Pull them all the way down and round them at the end. Moreover, the resulting facial lines should ideally be completely symmetrical. This way you will have an oval face, cheeks, cheekbones and chin.

We outline the lines of the nose, forehead and hair

At the next stage of drawing, in the middle of the oval of the face we outline the nose area with two lines. We outline the chin and the lines to the hair area more clearly. We make an indent in the forehead area. And then we draw the bangs and hair using wave-like movements.

We will talk further about how to draw a portrait of a person with a pencil using shading and an eraser.

Draw eyebrows and nose wings

The next step is to draw the eyebrows and wings of the nose. Move the pencil to the top plane of the drawing. Step back a little from the forehead and cheekbones. Draw eyebrows that resemble two identical and symmetrical, slightly raised arches. Then let's move on to drawing the nose. To do this, in the middle of two stripes (made in the previous step), draw the upper and lower parts of the nose. We make the remaining parts of the face more clear.

We’ll talk about how to draw a portrait of a person using light and shadow later, when our picture is completely ready.

Draw eyes and nostrils

The next step is to draw the outlines of the eyes and nostrils. To do this, draw two lines clearly under the eyebrows and draw slightly elongated ovals for the eyes. Then draw the pupils, eyelids and eyelashes inside them. Go down to your nose and line your nostrils.

Draw lips and ears

At the final stage of creating the sketch, we make a small drop-fold under the nose and draw the lips. Next we draw the ears and part of the neck. The sketch is ready. All that remains is to shade all parts of the face using a harder pencil and eraser. At the same time, in those areas where you are a little overzealous with the shadow, you can make white areas using an eraser.

Now you know how to draw portraits of people with a regular pencil.

Head:

We draw a figure that resembles an egg turned upside down with its sharp end. This figure is called OVOID.
Divide it vertically and horizontally exactly in half with thin lines.

Vertical
line is the axis of symmetry (it is needed so that the right and left parts
turned out to be equal in size and the image elements were not on
at different levels).
Horizontal - the line where the eyes are located. We divide it into five equal parts.

The second and fourth parts contain the eyes. The distance between the eyes is also equal to one eye.

The figure below shows how to draw an eye (the iris and pupil will be
are not completely visible - they are partially covered by the upper eyelid), but we are in no hurry
to do this, first let's finish our sketch.

Divide the part from the eye line to the chin into two - this is the line on which the nose will be located.
We divide the part from the eye line to the crown into three equal parts. The top mark is the line where the hair grows)

We also divide the part from the nose to the chin into three parts. The top mark is the lip line.
The distance from the upper eyelid to the tip of the nose is equal to the distance from the upper edge of the ear to the lower.

Now we make our standard preparation cry in three streams.
Lines,
drawn from the outer edges of the eyes will indicate to us the place where to draw the neck.
Lines from the inner edges of the eyes - the width of the nose. Lines drawn in an arc from
the center of the pupils is the width of the mouth.

When you color the image, notice that the convex parts of it
parts (forehead, cheeks, nose and chin) will be lighter, and the eye sockets, cheekbones,
contour of the face, and the place under lower lip- darker.

The shape of the face, eyes, eyebrows, lips, nose, ears and
etc. Every person is different. Therefore, when drawing someone's portrait, try
see these features and apply them to a standard workpiece.

Another example of how everyone's facial features are different.

Well, here we see how to draw a face in profile and half a turn - the so-called “three quarters”
At
When drawing a face in half a turn, you need to take into account the rules
perspective - the far eye and the far side of the lip will appear smaller.

Let's go to the image human figures.
In order to depict the body as correctly as possible, you need, as when drawing portraits, to know a few secrets:

Per unit of measurement human body"head length" is taken.
- The average height of a person is 7.5 times the length of his head.
- Men, naturally, are usually a little taller than women.
-
We, of course, begin to draw the body from the very head that we will be
measure everything. Did you draw it? Now we put its length down another seven times.
This will be the growth of the person depicted.
- The width of the shoulders is equal to two head lengths for men and one and a half lengths for women.
- At the place where the third head ends :), there will be a navel and the arm will bend at the elbow.
- The fourth is the place where the legs grow.
- Fifth - mid-thigh. This is where the arm length ends.
- Sixth - bottom of the knee.
-
You may not believe me, but the length of the arms is equal to the length of the legs, the length of the arm is from the shoulder
to the elbow will be slightly less than the length from the elbow to the fingertips.
- The length of the hand is equal to the height of the face (note, not the head - the distance from the chin to the top of the forehead), the length of the foot is equal to the length of the head.

Knowing all this, you can quite plausibly depict a human figure.

Taken from a group dedicated to graffiti on VKontakte.

Lip shapes

nose shape

Eye shapes

Women's brochure shapes

(c) Book "How to Draw the Head and Human Figure" by Jack Hamm

The proportions of a child's figure differ from
adult proportions. The fewer times the length of the head interferes with growth
child, the younger he is.

IN children's portrait everything is a little different.
The child's face is more rounded, the forehead is larger. If we draw a horizontal
line through the middle baby face, then it won't be an eye line like
was in the portrait of an adult.

To learn how to draw a person not only
standing like a pillar, we will temporarily simplify our image. Let's leave
just the head, chest, spine, pelvis and we’ll screw it all together
arms and legs. The main thing is to maintain all proportions.

Having such a simplified version of the human figure, we can easily give him any pose.

When we have decided on the pose, we can
add meat to our simplified skeleton. Do not forget that the body, it is not
angular and does not consist of rectangles - we try to draw smooth ones
lines. The body gradually tapers at the waist, as well as at the knees and elbows.

To make the image more alive, character and expression must be given not only to the face, but also to the pose.

Hands:

The fingers, with their board-like joints, are the widest parts of the bones in the entire skeleton.

(c) book "Anatomy for Artists: It's Simple" Christopher Hart

Every aspiring artist will sooner or later want to learn how to draw portraits. Of course, to create a full-fledged portrait, you will need unlimited patience and long training. For beginners, it is important to master the technique of drawing the main components, to work out correct proportions. A human face can be depicted in any form, and then work on the details and components.

Draw a person - difficult task, which is possible for those who are not afraid of hard work. Before starting the process, carefully study the techniques of applying shadows, drawing eyes, lips and other facial elements. Maintain proportions, but don't be afraid to experiment and never stop improving your skills.

Who among us did not draw pictures of our family in childhood and were not offended by those around us who “didn’t guess” who was who! And all because while the body could still be dealt with somehow, the face could not be managed at all. Modern children are luckier: they have access to a considerable number of descriptions telling step by step how to draw a person’s face with a pencil.

Portraits accessible to beginners

It is believed that only those painters who use the theory of the “golden section” of Leonardo da Vinci succeed in depicting faces. But non-professionals shouldn’t worry: to draw a person’s face with a pencil step by step, even for beginners it will be enough to familiarize themselves with the simplest technologies and learn a couple of important nuances. So acquaintance with the brilliant leadership of Leonardo can be postponed. But get hard and soft with simple pencils and with a black pen. Nowadays it is very popular among young people to draw portraits. famous personalities- let's take this mini-current as a basis.

The face of a representative of the stronger sex should have well-defined cheekbones and chin. Let's look at the technique male portrait using the example of a drawing by German actor Til Schweiger.

Materials:

• hard pencil;
• soft pencil;
• ballpoint pen with black ink.

Instructions:

Girls' and ladies' faces, unlike men's, have more subtle features. Therefore, in their depiction, preference is given to a hard pencil. As in the previous instructions for beginners, we will master a technique that describes how to draw a girl’s face with a pencil step by step, on a celebrity. This time - on actress, singer and model Hilary Duff.

Instructions:

When depicting aged faces, it is necessary to pay special attention to wrinkles, because they are what give the drawing a naturalistic look. Drawing a portrait of an elderly person with a pencil step by step is quite difficult for beginners, but detailed instructions make the task much easier. Consider a double portrait: there will be both a man and a woman.

Instructions:

Nuances in the depiction of faces

Here are the proportions main principle, which should be used to guide the depiction of a face. In addition, it would be useful for novice artists to know that:

• eyes are the accent of any portrait, but you should not draw them in the center of the oval of the head. We move them a little down, since we need to leave room for the forehead and hairline;
• the “mirror of the soul” occupies 1/5 of the face in the figure;
• the point of intersection of the horizontal and vertical lines in the oval is where the nose should be located;
• instead of an oval, you can mark the contours of the face with two trapezoids, touching long bases (which will be the location of the eyes and the top of the ears), and a triangle - the chin;
• When drawing eyes, you should start with the pupil, and then proceed to the eyelids and eyelashes;
• all lines are first drawn with a hard pencil;
• When darkening with a soft pencil, you don’t need to press it too hard, otherwise your face will turn out rough.

Very often, beginning artists neglect the study of the human skeleton and musculature, mistakenly believing that “it will work out just fine.” But ignorance of human anatomy leads to the fact that the drawn person turns out to be unconvincing, and his facial expressions and movements look unnatural.

Therefore, today we will look at the basic principles that you should follow if you want to draw a good and high-quality portrait.

1. Facial proportions

The skull and jaw are a slightly flattened sphere, so when looking at a human face from the front we see something like an egg turned upside down with its narrow side down. Two perpendicular lines, passing through the middle, divide this egg into four parts. Let's look at the details:

• Mark the midpoints of the right and left halves of the horizontal line. The eyes will be located exactly at these points.
• Divide the bottom half of the vertical line into five parts. The bottom of the nose will be located on the second mark from the top, and the line where the lips meet will be located one point below.
• Divide the top half of the vertical line into four parts. The hairline will be located at the second or third mark, this feature varies. The ears are located between the upper eyelid and the tip of the nose, but this rule is only true when the face is not down or up.

Helpful hint: The width of the face is usually the width of five eyes or a little less. The distance between the eyes is equal to the width of one eye. Very rarely in people this distance differs very much from the standard, but this feature will be quite easy to notice. The distance between the lower lip and chin is also equal to the length of one eye.

Another way to measure is to use the distance between the tip of the thumb and index finger. The figure below shows which distances can be measured in this way: ear height, distance from hairline to eyebrows, from eyebrow to nose, from nose to chin and from pupil to pupil.

Profile

In profile we can still see the shape of the egg, but its sharp side points towards the corner. Lines now divide the head into the face and skull.

On the skull:

• The ear is located just behind the vertical line. In size and location, it is still located between the upper eyelid and the tip of the nose.
• The depth of the skull varies within the limits indicated in the picture below in point 4 with dotted lines.

• Everything is located as indicated above.
• The root of the nose coincides with the horizontal line or is slightly higher
• The most convex part is the first point above the horizontal line that marks the line of the eyebrows.

2. Features

Eyes and eyebrows

The eye is simply two arches joined into an almond shape. No a certain rule in drawing eyes, because the shape of the eyes can be different, and there are a lot of such shapes, but we can notice the following trends:

• The outer corner of the eye can be higher than the inner corner, but not vice versa.
• If the eye shape is almond, then the rounded part of the eye will be closer to the inner corner, and the elongated part will be closer to the outer corner.

Eye details

• The iris is partially hidden under outer eyelid. It only touches the lower eyelid if the person is looking down, or if the eye is built so that the lower eyelid is higher than usual.
• Eyelashes grow from the inside out, not the other way around, and this is very important when drawing so that they look natural. The eyelashes on the lower eyelid are shorter.
• When trying to draw all the little details (tear ducts, lower eyelid, etc.), remember that detailed drawing does not always mean that the result will be beautiful.

In profile, the eye takes the shape of an arrowhead (with convex or concave sides), with a slight hint of the upper and possibly lower eyelid. IN real life you will not see the iris from the side, you will only see the white of the eye. But an eye without an iris looks strange, so draw at least a hint of it.

As for the eyebrows, the easiest way to draw them is to follow the arch of the upper eyelid. Often the widest part of the eyebrow is closer to the inner part, and the “tail” tending towards the outer part of the eye gradually becomes thinner.

If you look in profile, the shape of the eyebrows changes dramatically and becomes more like a comma. The eyebrow begins where the tips of the eyelashes are located.

The human nose is approximately wedge-shaped, it is quite easy to imagine and draw it in volumetric form before drawing the details.

The dorsum and wings of the nose are flat surfaces that are only outlined at the end, but it is still very important to take these surfaces into account when sketching in order to correctly calculate the proportions. The lower flat part of our wedge in the form of a truncated triangle connects to the wings and the tip of the nose. The wings fold inwards towards the septum to form the nostrils - note that the ventral view shows how the septum begins before the wings and connects to the face. It projects lower than the wings when we look at the nose in profile, which means that in the 3/4 view the far nostril is hidden by the septum.

Just as in the case of eyes, detailing does not always give good result. Therefore, it is more important to work out the proportions than to pore over details that can ultimately disfigure the drawing. When drawing from the front, the nose looks better if you draw only the lower part. If you are drawing a 3/4 view, then most likely you will be better off drawing the line of the bridge of the nose. You'll have to look at and study a lot of noses to figure out how and when to portray it.

Lips

• The line where the lips meet should be drawn first, as it is the longest and darkest line of the three that form the mouth. It's not just a wavy line, but a whole series of thin curves. In the picture below you can see an exaggerated example that will explain to you the movement of the mouth line. Please note that there is different shapes lips, and that the base line may reflect the lower or upper lip. Lips can be softened different ways. The line in the middle can be very straight to reflect a sharp look, or very blurred to weaken the lips. It all depends on the shape of the lips, how plump they are. If you want to achieve symmetry, start from the center and draw one half of the lip, and then the other.
• The two upper tips of the upper lip are the most obvious parts of the mouth, but they can also be either pronounced or almost in one line.
• The lower lip has a soft arch, but can also vary from almost straight to very rounded.
• The upper lip is usually thinner than the lower lip and sticks out less from the overall topography of the face than the lower lip. Try to highlight the upper lip with strokes.
• On the sides the lips are shaped like an arrowhead and what upper lip sticks out a little in this place, it can be seen very well.
• The midline of the mouth at the ends deviates downward from the lips. Even if the person smiles, it curves down before going up again. Never draw this line straight up if you are drawing a face in profile.

The most important part of the ear is the long C-shaped outer line. The inside of the ear is like an inverted U. There is also a similar curve just above the earlobe, connected to a small C-shaped arch. In general, the shape of the ear also varies.

When we see the face from the front, the ears are visible in profile:

• The rim, which was previously U-shaped, is now a separate part - as happens when we look at the plate from the side and see its bottom.
• The earlobe will look more like a drop and will stand out.
• How thin the ear line needs to be drawn depends on how close the ears are to the head.

If you look at the head from behind, the ear looks as if separated from the head: the rim is attached to the head by a funnel. Don't be afraid to draw the funnel too big, as it really isn't small.

3. Angle

Being shaped like a ball with a few minor changes, the head is easier to draw than expected. But despite this, you need to study how it looks from different angles. Of course, the appearance of the nose changes first, but the eyebrows, cheekbones, central part of the mouth and chin also change.

When we drew the face in front and profile, we practically simplified it to a two-dimensional plane. For other viewing angles, we need to think in three-dimensional space.

Look down

• All parts are rounded upward and the ears also move upward.
• Since the nose protrudes forward, it protrudes from the general line of the face and its tip is closer to the mouth.
• The eyebrow curve becomes smoother. In order for it to take a reverse bend, you need to turn your face in some particularly unusual way.
• The upper eyelid becomes more visible and covers most eyeball.
• The upper lip almost disappears, and the lower one sticks out more.
• Notice that since the mouth follows a general curve, it appears as if a smile has appeared on the person's face.

Look up

• All parts are rounded down and the ears are also moved down.
• The upper lip becomes fully visible and the mouth appears fuller.
• The brow line becomes more rounded, but the lower eyelid curves downward, giving the effect of an edgy look.
• The lower part of the nose is clearly visible, and the nostrils are also clearly visible.

Turn sideways

When a person is seen almost from the back, all that is visible is the protruding line of the eyebrows and cheekbones. The neck line protrudes and tends towards the ear. Eyelashes are the next thing that is visible when a person turns his face.

Then part of the eyebrow appears, and the ridge of the lower eyelid and the tip of the nose protruding from behind the cheek become visible.

When the face is already turned almost in profile, the eyeball and lips become visible (but the middle line of the mouth is still small), and the neck line merges with the chin line into one line. You can still see part of the cheek where the nostril hides.