Maglot

HOW TO DRAW FACES

	Noses are a little hard to draw for me personally, if I'm trying to get it to look realistic. Sometimes I get the shadows wrong, but they come out pretty presentable. Look at these noses. The first nose there is usually how I draw my noses. It's just like a rectangle shape with a circle on the end of it. The nostrils go on either side, and then you can add a little shade beneath the nose to make it look 3D. The second one is just the end of the nose, and not the whole thing, but as you can see, it still looks like a nose. The third one has barely any detail at all, but you can tell it's a nose. It just depends on how you like to draw it personally.

	Here also, I put up 3 profiles of a person's face. See how the noses are done? Most of the time, it's really close to the face near the eyebrows and then stretches out to a curve or a point, or anything, depending on how your character's nose should look.

	I really don't know how to tell you to draw an ear, so I just decided to put one up and have you look at it. I'll tell you this, I learned from experience. Everything I know how to draw, I taught myself, and when it came time to learn how to draw an ear, I basically took a mirror and drew my ear. It's best if you do it that way. Or, save yourself some time and look at this picture for reference. And when I say that, I mean actually try drawing it a few times. When you draw it, you'll remember what you did and when you need to draw an ear, it"ll be a reflex.

	Here is what a person's ear looks like from behind. The shape is basically the same except that now you can make out the "funnel" of the ear now, which is the part that connects the outer earlobe to your head.

	Lips are kinda hard to do. Just keep in mind that when your mouth is open, it's usually an O shape, and when it"s closed it's a horizontal slant. Then if you do lucious lips for a woman, exaggerate them a bit and make them shiny looking if she's wearing lipstick. I used a simple oval shape to show light hitting the surface of the lips.

The top lip has this weird flattened /\/\ shape. If the person isn't wearing lipstick, the top lip should be shaded a bit to show the shadow. For a man, you actually don't need to draw the top lip at all and still make the face look good. The bottom lip is like a reflection of the top lip, only it"s wider and more spread out than the top lip is. For a woman you can add dimples near the corners of the mouth to give it added detail.

	Here are male lips. The top lip is really really thin, almost to where you can"t even see it, while the bottom lip is drawn normally.

	Now it get's tricky. Take a long look at this picture. Are you confused at where to begin? How about the lips? Concentrait on the shape of the lips, not the outside, but the inside of the lips. You'll notice it makes a C. This guy here is angry, and what makes it harder to draw are the wrinkles, but just go slowly and focus on small parts first and not the overall picture. The wrinkle on his face goes from the nostrile over to the side of the mouth, and that is actually where your cheeks are. One thing you have to remember is that every time you draw an open mouth, the bottom teeth will be the most prominent. You'll see very little of the top teeth, because when you frown or scream like this, your mouth turns downwards, which of course reveals more of your bottom teeth. And don"t forget to draw the gums! To do that, just keep drawing U's, like this: UUUUU and it gives the illusion of a gumline.

	Here's an open mouth. The view is slightly to the side, so the O shape of the mouth isn't as noticable. Pay attention to inside the mouth now. Remember that your tongue and molars go into your head, so draw them that way! Do not draw your tongue going up unless the view should make it look that way. And notice again that the bottom teeth show more than the top teeth do. Also, take note that just because the view is from the side doesn't mean that the cheek on the opposite side won't be visible. One last thing, see how the lips connect to the nose? The line from the end of the top lip goes up to the nostril, making it look like it's sticking out from the face like it does in real life.

	Hehe, I know this picture is funny looking but bare with me. :) Ok, look at the mouth once more. It makes an oval shape because it is opened up so wide. Also, look at the lips. You'll notice that the further the mouth opens up, the thinner the lips stretch. So, when your character is yelling or whatever, make sure to draw the lips thinner, and when they're just talking or smiling, make the lips a bit more plush.

Below is a picture of a human head. All of the parts are assembled together. Can you see how it's done? After you draw the oval shape that makes the head, you "stick the pieces on" until it's full. You should look at this as a guide for learning placement of the facial features.



Notice that the eyes go directly in the center of the face, and should be drawn first. This helps you to place everything. If you have trouble spacing the eyes apart, just remember that the distance between your eyes is actually an eye! Just draw an eye where the nose should be and then the real eyes on either side of the middle one, then just erase the middle one and contiue on. The ear starts at your eyebrows and ends at the bottom of your nose. Remember that and you'll have no problem with the correct length of the ears. Well, that's all the guidance I can give you for now. Feel free to email me and ask any questions you may have about stuff I most likely missed cuz I"m just plain lazy.

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