how to draw a head from any angle

Graphic novels are all nigh story, and stories are usually about people, and then people are probably THE most of import cartoon topic to actually learn if y'all want to create a bang-up novel. I love cartoon landscapes and techy looking vehicles and buildings but pick whatever series of novels y'all want, take the people out of them and you're not left with much!

So with that in mind hither'south the offset part of my tutorial on how to draw heads from any angle, a skill worth developing as you'll be using it over and over again. The really good news is the better you get the MORE yous'll desire to do it, I know how frustrating it can be when you start out but trust me, take your time, acquire it and you'll be glad y'all stuck with it!

NOTE: There are a few different methods to construct heads, but when I was learning I started with the Andrew Loomis method and kinda stuck with it, for those of you lot who don't know, Andrew Loomis was a great illustrator who wrote some fantastic books on the subject and is definitely worth a look.

At beginning this will seem like a long process simply once you've learned the guide lines you'll exist flying and eventually you won't need to draw the guidelines at all yous'll only 'see' them in your head and yous'll be cartoon free hand!

drawing heads

Start off by gratuitous handing a circumvolve and drawing a cantankerous through the middle of it. Draw information technology quite large to brand information technology easier to see what yous're doing. When you get some practice you'll be able to depict this tiny if you demand to! The horizontal line determines the EYEBROW position, an like shooting fish in a barrel mistake to brand is to place the EYES themselves on this line which will make the face looked stretched.

drawing heads

THIS STEP IS Important! Next draw a line a little way inside the pinnacle and bottom of the circle every bit spaced from the center line, the meridian line determines roughly where the hair line volition exist (even if your graphic symbol is bald nevertheless put this in as a useful guide!) the bottom line determines where the bottom of the olfactory organ volition be. By varying these two lines you tin can create dramatically unlike shape faces only for now stick to the basic shape and have fun with information technology subsequently! And then bear on and add a horizontal line beneath the circle IN EQUAL SPACING to the other lines, this gives you a jaw/chin line. Over again yous can vary it to give yous unlike shapes of face but while y'all're learning keep the lines equally spaced.

drawing heads

Now we're going to box off the rest of the head, this gives you the width.

drawing heads

Ok so at present we can come across the beginnings of a face! What I've washed here is add in rough ear shapes, the ears sit down between the eyebrows and the nose, make sure you fill this section with ear! They sit down on the outside of the box but try not to extend them beyond the circle. I and then roughed in a jaw line, the jaw line begins to narrow where the rima oris line is, which is where the lesser of the Circle is.

Roughly an eye is 1/5 the width of the head and the distance between the eyes is one eye width and the space either side of the optics is too 1 eye width, get that!? Basically whatever size the eye from left to right information technology goes:

space – eye – space – eye – space

Now the nose but happens to be roughly one center wide besides! all you have to do is sketch in the eye placement and and then follow down from the within edges of the eyes down to the horizontal nose line and there you have an ideal nose width marked out!

drawing heads

OK now we're getting somewhere!I've jotted in some lines for eyebrows and an underlip line and indicated the chin crash-land. I've created a simple nose shape around the guidelines dropped down from the eyes and slightly widened the jaw. The biggest change here is the addition of the hair line, in that location's lots of different ways of doing this depending on your characters style and so I've called a eye of the route hairstyle, you can larn a lot and create tons of new characters easily by just irresolute the hair, become hold of a newspaper or magazine, anything with photos of people volition actually assist with clues how to create pilus shapes!

drawing heads

The mouth can cause problems from fourth dimension to time considering information technology's quite a complex shape and it changes shape too! but from this angle there's an easy mode to remember how to do it. Firstly position, as I mentioned before information technology sits on the circle line, so nosotros know where abouts it goes but how wide do we make it? Well if you've drawn your eyes in you tin can utilise those as a reference, in this example I've fabricated the mouth as wide as the heart of the eyes! You can of course vary it and use the edge of the iris or centre lid as a reference signal simply the heart of the eye works well for a tut!

How about shape? Quite often when drawing men you wouldn't describe the top lip, only the opening, the lesser lip and the indentation above the pinnacle lip, as top lips on men tin can sometimes look quite feminine! If you're working with colour you lot could suggest a top lip with a darker skin tone for shadow. I wanted to describe the pinnacle lip to show yous how to think the shape and the meridian lip illustrates it all-time. It'due south a stretched 'M' shape! All three lines that make the oral fissure are variants of the letter of the alphabet 'M', like shooting fish in a barrel!

Here I've besides roughed in some eyes, unremarkably to get the shape I would have two lines making the top lid and three lines making the bottom lid.

drawing heads

I've left in the full construction lines for the eyes to show you lot where the eyeball sits in the head in relation to the eyelids. Of course this is quite a neutral expression so in this case the eyelids sit just above or on the pupils, if you depict the pupils in the heart of the eyelid your character volition wait shocked or surprised! It's something to have fun with when you've had a bit of practice doing the basics, merely if your version looks unlike bank check the student/eyelid position as that volition probably be the cause!

I've added in some ear detail likewise, I'll exist doing another tutorial on super shut upwardly detail of the features presently!

drawing heads

Well-nigh washed, I've firmed upwards some major lines, added in cheek bone lines and had a general tidy up.

drawing heads

All washed, construction lines erased and set for some ink! As I said at the first this may seem a long procedure just when yous look dorsum at it, at that place's actually not THAT much to remember information technology'due south just a circle with some lines across information technology, go on practicing and believe me you'll be creating cracking looking heads in no time without ANY guidelines! Try to memorise the position and shape of the guide lines and 'project' them onto the newspaper in your mind!

In Function ii of this tutorial we're going to look at the next set of angles for heads, the side and 3/4 views. I'thou also going to exist looking at female heads too!