Learn to draw

By Tissa Hewavitarane

Drawing and painting human faces

Fig 1 - depicting where the ear should go

Fig. 2A Frontal view

Many beginners worry about drawing too many details on the face. One of the many things about recording the human face is the way we all differ from one another in every feature. No two mouths, noses or even nostrils are the same. Each pair of eyes is unique. Most of us have uneven faces.

Fig. 3A A complete profile of a male face

Fig 4 - Lady's face in colour

A common mistake when drawing a face in profile is to put the ear in the wrong place. It is much further towards the back of the head than is often imagined see Fig. 1. The distance from the outside corner of the eye to where the back of the ear comes should be roughly equal to the space from there to the bottom of the jaw.

This, of course will wary slightly between people as do all other features. After practising frontal and profile sketches we move on to find out what to do when the face is partly turned. The drawing procedure is the same although we are seeing the person from an angle.

Think of the egg-shaped and how dotted frontal position lines would give an illusion of a curve of the egg were turned, then sketch your drawing on the right structure.

Notice the Fig. 2 and 3. Fig. 2 shows how the outline can be simplified into sound structures on which to sketch a drawing. Observe the head being like an egg with the broad end on the top frontal view on Fig. 2A. Halfway from the top to the bottom of this is where the eye line is.

Then half way between the eye and bottom of the jaw, is the underside of the nose. Half way between the end of the nose and the chin is where the mouth line should be.

Fig. 3 shows an outline drawing of a side face and 3A a complete profile of a male face drawn with black Indian ink. In colouring faces, first a pale colour should be applied. Fig. 4 shows a profile of a lady's face in colour (the first coating before shading is done.