40 Days of Art: Constructing the Head

[tealin]

I made up this little tutorial in the last semester of college, when I really had no time to be doing so. This, I believe, is proof of the adage 'If you want something done, give it to someone who is busy.' You may recognise it from my How to Draw page ... or not, because the link to it is pretty well-hidden on my site. No reading ahead! (Unless you want to.)

Anyway, it's not perfect, but it gets the idea across.

	The foundation of the head is the cranium, which is more or less a sphere. On paper, of course, you can't make a three-dimensional object, so this is indicated with a circle. It doesn't have to be a perfect circle (it helps to get as close as possible, of course) and can be very sketchy. Even though it loos flat, though, remember it's a sphere!
	Draw a curved, horizontal line across your circle. This is your eye line, the line on which the eyes of your character will rest. Depending on the character, it can be in different places. If you want to have some fun, you can vary its placement and see what effects you get. Generally, the lower you put the eyes in the face, the younger the character looks. If you want to draw someone realistic, don't make the eye line too high. It's curved to give the illusion of depth: it's wrapping around your sphere. Keep telling yourself your drawing is three-dimensional; don't let the flat paper throw you off. You don't have to draw it perfectly level - tilting it is how you depict a tilted head.
	Next, draw a vertical line that is at a right angle to the eye line. This gives you the idea of where the center of the face is. It's very important to keep the features placed in the same place on either side of the line ... unless you're drawing some sort of deformed creature. But the most important thing is to keep it at a right angle to your eye line, or else your face will look all wonky.
With these crosshairs of the face, you can make the head circle look like it's facing any direction. This grid is also your roadmap to being able to draw the same character in different poses, because you'll be able to plot the features at pre-arranged places according to how far they are from the center lines. From here forward, the order in which you do these steps is entirely up to you.
	Draw in the contour of the face, remembering the eye socket, flesh for the cheeks, the chin, etc.
	Draw in the nose and ear. I like to draw the nose first to cement the centre of the face and the perspective in which I'm working, as well as the shape of the eye sockets.
	Draw in the rest of the features. In real life, the eyes are usually one eye width apart and the mouth is halfway between the nose and the chin, but these are cartoon characters, so they don't have to obey the rules. It's good to know them anyway, though.
	Sketch in the general shape of the hair, paying attention to the way it parts and the volume of each section.
	Add texture to the hair, especially where the line changes direction. Don't make the tufts of hair zigzag in a sawtooth pattern, make random shapes and sizes, which makes it look more realistic and interesting.