Drawing heads and faces

[froggydafroggy]

What is your process for drawing heads faces? Loomis, box, a mishmash of things- what is it? I'm still trying to figure them out. I struggle most with placing the eyes. I want to draw in a more comic-book style but I'm not quite sure how to get there. It is also harder to draw from different angles.

[aapiarts]

I draw hair, then head, then lastly the face. I either start the face with the eyes or the mouth. Rarely start with a nose.

[TreasurePlanet]

genrally i start with blockingout basic shapes, starting with the right eye

lately ive been using adifferent method

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_mwf6P3zYE

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/W7TUKy8O-q8?feature=share

[Spaggo]

At 8/23/23 09:46 AM, froggydafroggy wrote:What is your process for drawing heads faces? Loomis, box, a mishmash of things- what is it? I'm still trying to figure them out. I struggle most with placing the eyes. I want to draw in a more comic-book style but I'm not quite sure how to get there. It is also harder to draw from different angles.

Currently I sketch the head and do the little madness grunt face reference thing, the. I do the hair, then I draw the face and rub out the reference

[MondoBilby]

First, I draw a circle. Then, I draw a face on the circle.

Man, I always think I can give helpful insight with these things because I’m decent at art but I don’t really know anything on the technical side, I just draw very subconsciously.

[Thetageist]

What I do is start the head with a circle, then add a cheek/jawline shape to the bottom. Face comes next.

Sometimes the face starts with a “Madness face reference” (a line down the middle of the face and a horizontal line across the middle), and maybe some extra lines to position the features exactly. Other times, I can draw it without making that structure first.

First facial feature is usually the nose, since it marks the center. The order of the rest depends on how much difficulty I’m having drawing those features that particular time.

[Waterina]

Draw the face outline then draw eyes, nose and lips. Next draw hair then add color on it then add shadow to the drawing. Finish

[Drazah]

Circle -> cross -> snout/jaw -> head -> eyes

If it's something simple then I cut out the snout/jaw part.

[vlsrb]

My main strategy with drawing faces in the past was "play by ear", and indeed, when I look at the art I made during that period I now notice a lot of wonkiness. The Loomis method was honestly an eye-opener for me, in the sense that it finally gave me a simple set of rules to follow when drawing heads/faces to achieve consistent results. While I'm still far from being good at it (I, like OP, struggle a lot with eye position), I feel like I've improved compared to the wonky face era.

If you're interested, Youtuber Jazza has a short book about drawing faces that you can buy from his website. It covers the basics and gives tips on how to convey specific looks and character types. I would recommend it if your art is on the more cartoony side - if like me you prefer a more realistic look, then Jazza's faces can get a little too exaggerated and over the top.

[lucifertan]

1. find reference of what i want to draw.
2. draw a sphere representing the cranium, doesn't need to be enclosed as long as i can gauge the width of the head.
3. draw a cross as a guideline for features, placement of horizontal/vertical lines and curvature depends on the angle, with facing front and face at eye level being the most symmetric and straight.
4. a dash at the bottom of the cross to mark the chin, to gauge the height of the head at that viewing angle.
5. place the features using simple lines starting with eyes under the horizontal line, with the eye further away from viewer placed closer to the vertical line if not facing front.
6. place brows above the eyes
7. the tip of the nose is furthest away from the vertical line when the head is facing sideways and the base of the nose is around the center of the horizontal line and the chin.
8. mouth would be placed around the center of the base of the nose and the chin.
9. now comes the hardest part which is to draw the cheek and jaw connecting to the cranium, because this is where the face gets encapsulated to present form, any inaccuracies with the size or placement of features and the cheek/jaw line will make the face looks off.
10. so i will zoom out and flip the canvas around while moving/resizing/redrawing each element i described above to reach my desired outcome.
11. outline ear somewhere between brows and base of the nose, exact position depends on angle and perspective.
12. add details to the features.
13. draw hair.

[CarolineSparkle]

When I draw heads, I usually start by drawing a circle as a base, and then add the other features. The hair, I tend to draw last.

[tydaze]

Usually I draw the face first, then the hair to frame the face, then the chin.

[NecroNovaNG]

For faces, i just use basic shapes like trapezoids and a barrier shield-esq design most of the time for characters. I then do either a simple face, and add some eye-lashes if its a female character im creating.

For heads, since im more of a Robot Artist than a Human Artist, i just go off the walls for what i do. If it looks possible to animate, its golden in my book.

[Skoops]

I do a hybrid of Loomis and Bridgman with the head. Loomis' measurements are a pretty good guideline, but I feel like things get mushy when trying to build any real structure that makes a face unique, which is where Bridgman's more cubic approach comes in handy.

[froggydafroggy]

At 8/26/23 03:30 AM, Frontlined-Backend wrote:First I draw the face and head

then you erase it and get a circle?

[froggydafroggy]

At 8/24/23 04:17 PM, TreasurePlanet wrote:genrally i start with blockingout basic shapes, starting with the right eye

lately ive been using adifferent method

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_mwf6P3zYE

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/W7TUKy8O-q8?feature=share

thanks for the new artist rec!