🎥 Video

Intro

Hello there, this is Tamil. Today I wanted to talk about FACES. Most importantly, how to approach faces from different angles. Drawing faces from front and 3/4 view is great, but I love to push my horizons, even if I fail in the end :)

 

Watch the video in case you wanted if you like watching rather than reading. ( I am bad at reading too hehe )

 

I wanted to share basic techniques that helped me when I was learning how to draw faces.

 

Let's get into it!

Proportions

It's good to know general proportions for faces before getting into it. I will keep it as simple as possible.

This is a regular head without too many details.

• Half a head, where the eyes are.

• Usually eyes are 1 eye apart from each other.

• Half between eyes and chin, is where the nose ends.

• Half between nose and chin is where the mouth will be.

• Ears start on eyebrow line and end on the nose.

• Corners of the mouth aligns with inside eye edges.

 

I did not want to get too much into it because usually it's hard to check these rules if the face moves or is in perspective. It's good to know them, but is not always always true. A lot of artist break those rules to make the character more evil or more cute. It's all about experimenting and studying references.

 

For example, I like to make lips bigger and wider to make the character more cute.

Triangle Method

I like to sketch with this method a lot. It's a very simple way to get started with your character.

You can start by drawing a simple triangle. This will establish the main points of your character. The top edges are usually eye brows. Bottom part is chin.

 

If you divide it in half, there you will find your nose. For the nose I like to just draw a simple diamond shape for simplification.

 

Since we know that half between nose and chin is moth, we can just draw the mouth in there already.

 

Eyes will be 1 eye apart. We can just draw two simple circles for the eyes to get our eye sockets.

 

We are almost done. Since we know that eyes are usually the middle of the head and we already have the chin, we can just add half to the top part for the forehead. This way we can easily find the tip of the head.

You can draw triangles in any perspective you want, which is why this method makes for a really good practice. Just like with everything, it's just a good starting guide, nothing is a hard rule.

 

To practice, I recommend to start with simple references. Find photos of faces in different angles and start drawing on top of them. See how the triangle works on real people before trying to approach this method. Sometimes it's good to draw on top of photos to study them.

 

After that start practicing with photos next to it. Don't add any shadows or a lot of details. The key here is to simplify things. Even a few lines for the eyes will be fine. If we are learning, it's good to start learning with baby steps and not go overboard with it :)

 

For the last exercise, you can try drawing the faces with triangle without photos. Don't feel like it has to be perfect! It's hard to draw without references. I usually never recommend it. The key here is to test how much you know and what parts are the hardest. Do you struggle with eyes? What about placing ears? Find your problem and go back to photos to study those parts more.

Paper Method

Paper method is very similar to triangle method, but this time we want to add more 3D feel to our drawings. Our faces are not flat surfaces. It's good to remember that our face features curve around in real life.

Think of the face as a paper that is going to bend a little bit. This way you can start thinking of faces more realistic.

Start to bend the paper. See which direction it's going. Make sure you draw through it. shade the back just to know which side is closed off. Start with simple angles first.

Start adding faces. You can draw the face in the middle just like with the triangle method. It's the same principle. I honestly had tons of fun making these. Even though they are not "correct", it still sells the idea of the face and how it looks.

Then we can start adding the skull and other features like neck and simple shading. Drawing ears becomes super easy because we just need to align the nose and eyes.

Rest is history. Once we have this, we can start adding shadows or grab more references to see what we are missing and add more to it. Drawing like this is like a puzzle you can solve step by step. With this method you already have half the work done. The rest will depend on the idea and what kind of style you want to do.

Just like with triangle method I recommend doing a few exercises.

 

Draw the paper bend on top of photos first.

Draw the paper looking at a photo and try to figure if you made any mistakes.

Draw bend paper features without any references to see what you need to do.

 

Our goal is to tackle general shapes and angles. It's good to take it slow when learning.

Loomis Method

Loomis is a very classical technique for drawing heads. It deserves it's own video with separate instructions. For now, I just wanted to go over it very briefly to show how it works. Usually people are instructed to learn this way first, before you get into other methods of learning.

First we start with a CIRLCE. I know. How crazy original.

Then we draw a circle inside. Depends where your character will look. For this example I will be drawing a 3/4 view looking a little to the left.

Now we can start with perspective lines. The main here is the "X" on the side. This will determine our eye line. Following the main X line we can draw out more around the circle.

In this case the character will look a little bit down. By adding sides we will get our cheekbones. You can make it wider or slimmer depending how close you will draw it. Making the chin more pointy will give a feminine feel to it.

The place for "X" is where our ear will be around. The middle of the face can be divided into 3. That way we can get the eyes, nose, and mouth at the bottom. Usually the neck starts a little it behind or very close to the ear.

The middle of our ball will be where the hairline is going to be. Adding hair on top is relatively easy for this method.

In here I drew a little bit of line work on top to show how the X and the ear aligns with the reset of the face. This is the same thing we drew from "proportions" section. Nose goes in the middle. Mouth is between the chin and nose.

There are many great videos on Loomis method. Just search it up. I personally like to draw more loose, so I am not enjoying this method as much, but it is a good start if you have never ever tried doing it before.

Asaro Head

Asaro head is another great resource that I love using. One day I will make a separate tutorial just for that. Put simply, asaro head is a very simplified version of the head that has all the important edges for you to study.

Secret resource link that will be super helpful if you never used it before. William Nguyen, a great 3D artist shared asaro head. In there you can rotate it, see the light change and study how it affects different angles. If you ever feel stuck with a difficult angle, it's a good start to double check yourself for mistakes.

Let's take a look at my own drawing and see if I can improve it.

If you rotate the camera in the right direction you can find the angle that you need to use. A lot of times it will not be exact proportions, but it is a good start in getting the general placement right.

We can also start shading with general light that is on our asaro head reference. I did not even use that many colors ( only 3! ). The image already looks more 3D and has more depth to it.

 

As a general idea. Just rotate asaro head and find different lights to see what gives you the most information. Copy it. Try to memorize it. It is a really good way to getting started.

3D head from CSP

How can we forget that we also have 3D inside Clip Studio Paint? Even without asaro head or any other reference, we can just drop different models into our canvas and start sketching. It will give us a general start for any drawing.

I made a tutorial for using 3D models inside Clip Studio Paint if you want a refresher.

It goes in a lot of depth. If you wanted to just get started, then it's not too complicated :)

In 3D materials you will find the character models. Just drag and drop them on the canvas.

Once on the canvas you can use these handles to move the camera around. Put the character in the right position. If you click on the head, you will be able to rotate it in any direction you need.

Very quick and simple. Our model already has the guides that show us where the eyes will be and how it curves around. Combined with asaro head, we can start adding more light information.

It's always good to back up your 3D with a reference. Find a natural photo that can help you in getting a natural pose or look for your 3D.

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading. I hope this was helpful. The methods I showed take years to master. Do not feel like you are behind if it does not look good in the first place. I studied for 5+ years, and I still feel like I am not good enough.

 

The only thing I asked is to like and share my video if you found it useful. Comment what was your favorite part :) It will mean the world to me.

 

Happy painting!

 

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