Welcome
to the start of your
journey to draw great looking faces!
Even if you’re a total beginner
you can still learn to draw great looking faces once you know the simple rules and formulas that make up each and every face. The most important thing to keep in mind is that if you can hold a pencil and draw a circle and a straight line, you already have everything that you need to get started.It’s our job to show you how you can use those simple forms and arrange them into great looking faces as well as provide you with the essential knowledge that you need to understand the how and why behind it all. And the best part of all is that it’s only going to take you a few minutes per day to go from a complete beginner to someone that can draw a face right out of your mind without needing to look at any reference or photo.
…Let’s get started!
PENCILKINGS.com
Our mission is to provide the world’s aspiring artists with the best training possible. Our members are free to learn wherever they want, whenever they want and at a price that anyone can afford.
We want to level the playing field and bring the best artists right into your home so that you can follow your artistic dreams and let them take you wherever you want to go. This course is just one of many that we offer on our website where we cover a wide range of beginner through to advanced art topics.
How to Get the Most out of the Study Guides
Each study guide is laid out into three parts:
1.
Lesson Intro & Key Learning Points
2.
Guidelines for 5 Minutes of Daily Homework
3.
Printable Tracing Guides
Start by reading the lesson intro and taking note of the key concepts that you should grasp and then
watch all of the videos in the series. Then look at the daily 5 minutes of homework, and spend at least 5
minutes per day working on these key concepts. We recommend drawing first thing when you wake up
in the morning. It only takes 5 minutes, so just get it done – no excuses! If you need additional practice
Start with Drawing the Eyes
Firstly, make sure you're logged in to the site using the username and password we sent you by email.
Next, pick up those pencils or drawing tablets and let’s get started, using Sycra's series on how to draw the eye.
Keep these important points in mind while watching the eye drawing series: • Remember the eye is an imperfect, spherical object
• The eyelids stretch over the eyeball to protect it • The eyes appear roughly halfway down the head • Everyone's eyes are different
• Drawing both eyes at the same time will help you get the best result
Five Minute Homework
Everyone's got five minutes to spare and practicing your drawing technique in this short time span is by far the best way to improve your artistic skills! This will do wonders for your art – whatever subject you're drawing.
Eyes as Spheres &
Eye Placement
For this series, practice drawing the eyeball as a 3D object until you're happy with the result. Then, apply what you've learned to drawing both eyes on a face.
Draw an oval shape for the head, then draw a horizontal line roughly halfway down where the eyes will be. Sketch in some eye sockets, draw some circles for the eyeballs and you've got the basis for any portrait.
Creating Different Eye Styles
Create different kinds of eyes by playing with eyebrow and eyelid variations. Remember, along with the mouth, the eyes are the most important aspect of any portrait, so just by perfecting this feature, you'll be improving your drawing skills 100 per cent!
We're all done for today, but remember - the most important thing in all these lessons is to enjoy what you're doing. Don't worry if you don't get it right first time – that's what sketch books are for!
Tracing Guides
We know that it can be tough to start out, especially if you are really new to drawing. Use these guides to trace over and build confidence and pencil control. Some people feel that an artist should never trace anything, but we completely disagree with this. In order for you to learn the concepts and begin to make big improvements in your own drawing, tracing is completely acceptable. Remember – don’t be too hard on yourself. Learning to draw is a process that should be enjoyable, and over time you will see yourself quickly improving.
Eyes as Spheres
Practice drawing the eyes as a three dimensional sphere and begin thinking of it as more than just a flat circle.
Eyelids
Practice drawing the eyelid as it folds over the eye sphere. Remember that the eyelids have thickness and shading.
Now practice drawing the eyelids over these eyes from different angles. Keep in mind the ball shape of the eye and that the eyelids need to follow the spherical form of the eye.
Eyebrows
Remember that three different strokes create the eyebrows and the male eyebrows are thicker than the female.
Trace over the differences between the male and female eyes.
Different Eye Shapes
Eyes come in all different sizes. By now you should have a good grasp of how to draw all of the parts of the eye, so it’s time to start experimenting by changing the shapes. Try tracing the eyes above, and then creating your own new eye styles below.
Eye Expressions
Now that you’ve covered all the parts of the eyes, try creating new expressions
Here’s what the Pencil Kings Members had to Say about these Lessons on Drawing Eyes
This is a must see for anyone who wants to improve their work. I love it. The lessons are great. It is easy to understand the instructor.
Richard Neely
Wow! Those eyes look so realistic! I wish I could draw like that... Thank you for all your tutorials, you’re fantastic.
Mathilde
This is very helpful! I have experience in sketching but never go deep with the details. After watching the video, I realized that I still have a lot to learn. Thank you!
Phil Godin
That’s it for this guide on drawing the eyes! We’ll be back in a few days to give you the next set of
study sheets. Feel free to pass these on to a friend and tell them about this free course – our goal is to
help as many artists as possible, and we need your help to make it happen!
Face Drawing Proportions
Now you've mastered the eyes, it's time to solve one of the biggest artistic problems you might come across – how to draw the proportions of the face.
This may seem complicated at first, but don't worry! Our simple guide will show you how to create perfect faces each and every time. So, get your pencils or drawing tablets at the ready and let's go!
Here are the key things to focus on while you are watching this lesson:
• The Andrew Loomis method taught in this lesson is one of the easiest ways to understand the face • The horizontal line is the brow, the vertical is the nose
• Females have a slightly higher hairline than males • Divide the face up into three equal sections
• Once you've got the proportions right, adding features is easy
Five Minute Homework
For this series, first practice drawing a sphere for the head and then drawing in the basic shape of the face.
Mastering the Basics of Proportions
At first, just work on drawing the front view and get comfortable with the basic proportions. As you keep working on your homework day by day next move to the side view, and then eventually the three quarter.
Remember to keep your lines sketchy and don’t worry about making mistakes. If you are a new artist this might seem difficult, but remember that this is the foundation for drawing the face from all different angles, so the time that you spend working on this skill is time very well spent.
Extra Homework (for the keeners)
If you want to do extra work then try to draw in the full eyes, nose, ears and hair, but from a basic understanding point if you can just grasp where to place those features, that is enough for now, and in the future lessons you’ll go into more detail on those individual features.
Tracing Guides
If you’re having trouble with the 5 minutes homework, or you just want some additional help in getting started these guides are the right place to be spending your time.
Just like when you were drawing the eye spheres from different angles, it’s important to draw those spheres again. Even if you feel like a master of spheres at this point, take a minute to go over them again as a refresher – this is another skill that will always come in handy.
The next step is to divide the head into sections and draw a line coming down from the nose to create a guide for where the mouth and chin will be placed.
Next, place in the eye sockets and eyeballs, the jawline, nose and ears. Don’t worry if you can’t get the ears right at this stage – you will be covering those in a future lesson. Just do your best and keep going!
In this last step, add in the eyes, eyebrows, mouth and hairline. When you are drawing the mouth in the three quarter view, remember to give it a curve to create a 3D effect.
Now that you’ve gone through these examples, use the following 5 guides to practice drawing in the features of the face in proportion on a larger sized head.
Here’s what the Pencil Kings Members had to Say about these Lessons on Proportions
OMG!! Since I found Sycra in YouTube short time ago, I have been follow faithfully. But I didn’t know about this AWESOME site. This is like having a private teacher and it is so cheap. God Bless You for creating this wonderful website!!!!!
Judy
Love the video series. I was really struggling with making a face that was functional and didn’t look fake. Obviously eying proportions was outside of my skill set. Glad to know this technique! Can definitely see practice will be needed to get this down well.
Ryann Jones
I've followed to this tutorial from lesson 1 to 4, what I wanted to say is that it is great and I didn’t know about this kind of drawing technique before! I didn’t realize that drawing the head with proportion is like a
mechanical drawing! Really scientific! Americo Neves
This has the right amount of detail without getting too complicated. This lesson is very helpful. I’m excited to get started.
Stephanie
Looking for more great lessons from Sycra Yasin?
How to Draw a Mouth
The next part of drawing a face concentrates on another equally important feature – the mouth. If you've ever drawn one that looks really flat, this guide will help you understand how to get perfect results each and every time.
While you are watching the videos here are the key points to keep in mind: • The mouth sits on a curved, cylindrical surface
• Drawing four oval shapes gives you a good basis for the lips • Imagine the top lip as a stretched-out 'M' shape
• Female lips are curvy, males are angular • You don't need to draw each individual tooth
• The upper part of the jaw never moves – only the lower jaw does
Five Minute Homework
Practice the basic cylinder shape to get the curve of the mouth, then draw as many different mouth expressions as you like – smiling, angry, sad or shocked! Try making some faces in the mirror and notice how the position of your mouth and jaw changes.
Tracing Guides
Here are some additional front and side view mouths to practice with.
Now start with a curved surface and practice drawing the mouth on top of the curve. While you are drawing this remember to keep the curve in mind so the lips of your mouth naturally follow the form of the curve.
Drawing the lips as they form around the teeth is an important part of drawing believable mouths. Use the teeth guides below to practice drawing different expressions.
Lastly, with the skull defined in the previous two lessons, practice drawing the skin as it lays over top of the opened jaw. Don’t worry too much about the other features of the face at this moment – just focus on the mouth. To see where the crease lines are formed on the face when the mouth is opened in an extreme position like this, study your own face in the mirror as you open your own mouth as wide as possible.
Here’s what the Pencil Kings Members had to Say about these Lessons on Mouths
WOW!!!! Another great lesson. Video series has helped me understand how to draw the mouth and so much more.
Richard Neely
Thank you very much, best tutorial I’ve seen. Brian
How are you doing so far?
We really hope that you’re learning a lot from the previous three lessons. You’re now at the half way mark in this short course on drawing the face, and you should have started to see some magical things happening with your drawing ability.
If you find that you’re still having some difficulties, don’t worry about the things that aren’t going right – focus on all of the progress that you have made so far and continue on with your daily homework and tracing guides. Sometimes your brain just needs a bit of time to grasp a topic, so have faith that the results you desire will come with time and practice.
And even if you don’t believe me, just keep at it. By the time you have gone through the full course you will see some very big improvements – we promise!
How to Draw Noses
The nose is made up of four main parts. Luckily, not only is each part of the nose easy to draw, you'll be able to draw any kind of nose imaginable once you've followed the lessons in this series.
Now, watch each video and keep these important points in mind:
• There are four parts to the nose –bridge, septum, ball and nostrils • Think of the nose as flat planes viewed from different angles • You can draw any nose once you've mastered the basic shapes • To place the nose, divide the head in half and then in half again
• Female noses are smaller, narrower, softer, rounder and less defined than males
Five Minute Homework
Everyone has five minutes to spare - why not spend it being nosey?
Practice drawing the basic shapes that make up the nose, then see how many different noses you can come up with in just 5 minutes. While you’re drawing remember to practice both male and female noses while keeping in mind how they are different. Have fun with this and don’t be afraid to push the limits to create some really funky or exaggerated noses.
Happy sketching from all your friends at Pencil Kings!
Tracing Guides
Start off getting warmed up by tracing over some nose variations. While you’re working keep in mind the order that you draw the features so that you can train your brain to approach drawing noses the exact same way each time.
How to Draw an Ear
Listen up! The ear may look complex, but once you've mastered its basic shapes, you'll be able to draw this part of the face from any angle.
While you are watching the videos in this series keep these important points in mind: • Start your ear drawing with a curve
• Keep practising the basic ear drawing until you get it right
• Draw a box shape to help you understand the front view of the ear
• Imagine the shape of a question mark when drawing a rear three quarter view of the ear • Use the eyebrows and nose as guides when placing the ears
Five Minute Homework
Got five minutes to spare? Let's get some practice in!
Keep drawing the side view of the ear until it becomes second nature. Once you've got this down to a fine art, drawing the ear from different angles won't seem so difficult. See how many you can draw in five minutes!
Happy sketching from all your friends at Pencil Kings!
Tracing Guides
This is the basic ear that you should practice for your five minutes of homework. Each image in this series is one step in drawing a complete ear.
These guides show the differences between the side and front view ear. The last two images show the final details in the front view ear.
Here’s what the Pencil Kings Members had to Say about these Lessons on Drawing Ears
Another great video! Sycra, you never cease to give good instructional videos. Thanks and God bless!
Paul Nathan Gibson
Another great lesson. Richard Neely
Some Other Cool Lessons to Check Out!
So far you’ve been following along with Sycra Yasin’s videos, but there are a number of other great
instructors at Pencil Kings that we have been fortunate enough to record their lessons for you to learn from. Here are some of the most popular lessons that the Pencil Kings Community has enjoyed.
Drawing Hands and Feet with Laurie B!
Face Fundamentals with Laurie B!
Sketching on Location with Brian Wong Drawing Hair & Clothing with Laurie B!
How to Draw Hair
Spiky, curly, brushed forward or parted – there are many hairstyles, but only one way to draw hair. Here are the key points to keep in mind while you are watching this series:
• Drawing the shape of the skull first will help you get the hair right
• The hairline is roughly half the distance from the top of the head to the eyebrows • Don't draw the hairline with a heavy outline – it should have a soft edge
• Women tend to have a higher hairline than men
• Draw and shade the hair in sections rather than individual strands
Five Minute Homework
Got five minutes to spare? 'Hair' we go!
Practice drawing the hairline positioned correctly on the head and then try experimenting with different hairstyles. Add shading and highlights to give the hair real depth. If you are having trouble visualizing hairstyles right from memory, or if you are just starting out this is one area of drawing the face where looking at a reference photo can really help you out. Happy sketching from all your friends at Pencil Kings!
Use these front view faces (with hair line guide mark) to practice drawing different hairstyles. By this point you should be comfortable with all of the features of the face, so feel free to spend additional time and draw in all of the details.
Here’s what the Pencil Kings Members had to Say about these Lessons on Drawing Hair
This is very helpful and informative. All the lessons are. Steven Codekas
I really like the way this site is presented. I will visit often. Thank you! Richard
That’s it – you’re all done! Give yourself a pat on the back!
By now you should have a really good understanding of exactly what it takes to draw the face and all of the individual features that make up the human head.
If we could ask one thing from you; that would be to tell your artist friends or your teacher (if you’re in school) about this course if you think it could help them out as much as it has helped you. At Pencil Kings our goal is to inspire and enable as many artists as possible, so we appreciate you helping us to spread this course and our message to as many people as possible.
What’s next and where to go from here
If you would like to continue on learning about faces and learning from Sycra and the other great instructors at Pencil Kings, then we encourage you to join our community of inspired art students by upgrading your account to a full Pencil Kings membership so you can unlock and watch all of the lessons including all future lessons that we put up on the site.
Pencil Kings is the most affordable professional art training available anywhere online, and if you would like to become a member please follow the link below.
