Portraits & Faces

A portrait is a drawing or painting that focuses on a person's face and expression, and learning a few simple guidelines makes faces look realistic and balanced.

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Definition

A portrait is an artwork that shows a specific person, usually focusing on their face. Artists use guidelines to place facial features in the right spots so the face looks natural. The most important rule is that eyes sit in the MIDDLE of the head, not near the top, and all other features are spaced out below.

Remember the rule

Eyes go in the MIDDLE of the head. Space the face into equal halves: top half = forehead and eyes, bottom half = nose, mouth, and chin. Eyes are one eye-width apart.

Key words

Portrait: An artwork that shows a real person's face and captures what they look like or how they feel.
Facial features: The parts of the face: eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and eyebrows.
Proportion: How the size and placement of one part compares to another, so everything looks the right size and in the right place.
Symmetry: When both sides of the face look like mirror images of each other, roughly even left to right.
Guideline: A light pencil line artists draw first to help place features in the right spots, then erase later.
Expression: The look on a face that shows a feeling, like happiness, sadness, surprise, or anger.
Contour: The outline or edge of a shape, like the curved line that shows the shape of a chin or cheek.
Self-portrait: A portrait an artist makes of themselves, like looking in a mirror and drawing what they see.

Worked examples

Where do the eyes go on a face outline?

→ Draw an oval for the head. Find the very middle from top to bottom and draw a light horizontal line. The eyes sit ON that middle line, not up near the top of the oval. · Most beginners put eyes too high because the forehead looks big and empty, but that empty space is correct.

How far apart should the two eyes be?

→ Measure one eye. Leave that same amount of space between the two eyes. So the spacing goes: eye, gap the size of one eye, eye. There is also room for about half an eye on each side near the ear. · This is called the 'five eyes wide' rule because the full face is roughly five eye-widths across.

Where does the nose go?

→ Find the space between the eye line and the chin. The bottom of the nose lands about halfway down that lower half. Draw a light mark there to guide the nose tip. · The nose is roughly one eye-width wide and lines up under the inner corners of the eyes.

Where does the mouth go?

→ Look at the space between the bottom of the nose and the chin. The center of the mouth sits about one-third of the way down that space, closer to the nose than the chin. · The corners of the mouth line up roughly under the center of each eye.

Where do the ears go?

→ The tops of the ears line up with the eyebrows. The bottoms of the ears line up with the bottom of the nose. Draw them on both sides of the oval in that zone. · Ears are often forgotten or placed too low; using these two landmarks fixes that.

How do you show a happy expression versus a sad one?

→ Happy: curve the mouth upward into a smile, raise the cheeks slightly, and have the eyes look relaxed or slightly squinted. Sad: curve the mouth downward, pull the eyebrows up and together toward the center so they form a gentle arch inward. · Eyebrows do a huge amount of work in showing emotion, so always draw them with expression in mind.

Common mistakes

Putting the eyes too high, near the top quarter of the head instead of the true middle.
Making the eyes two different sizes or shapes without realizing it, breaking symmetry.
Forgetting to draw ears, or drawing them too small and too low on the head.
Drawing the mouth too wide, past the outer edges of the eyes.
Pressing too hard with the guideline pencil so the lines cannot be erased and show through in the final drawing.

FAQs

Why does my person always look like an alien with a huge forehead?

It usually means the eyes were drawn too high. Go back to the true center of the oval and move the eyes down to that line. The forehead will still look big at first but that is correct for real faces.

Do real faces have to be perfectly symmetrical?

No! Real human faces are slightly different on each side and that is totally normal. In art class, we practice close symmetry to learn proportion, but small differences actually make portraits look more lifelike, not wrong.

How do I make hair look like hair and not a hat?

Hair grows from above the oval outline and also has volume, so draw it starting a little outside and above the head oval. Add a few flowing lines in one direction rather than drawing every single strand.

Can I use a ruler to make my guidelines?

Yes for the center lines, but use it lightly. Most feature placements are measured by eye using the 'one eye-width' comparison, so practice estimating that distance by holding your pencil up and squinting to measure.

What is the difference between a portrait and a cartoon face?

A portrait tries to follow real proportions and shows a specific real person. A cartoon face exaggerates features on purpose, like giant eyes or a tiny nose, and does not have to follow the middle-line rules.

What should I do if my portrait does not look like the person I was drawing?

Focus on one unique feature of that person, like a wide smile, bushy eyebrows, or round cheeks, and make that detail more noticeable. Likeness comes from capturing those specific details, not just getting proportions right.

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