#ryjules

Hello again ^^

In a matter of fact, yes, I do have a few tips!

First of all, use a good quality picture as a reference. It should be big, sharp, not too dark and not to bright. You should be able to distinguish details easily. These things will help you with drawing a basic outline.

The basic outline is crucial. If you do it well, you’re halfway through getting the resemblance right. The other 50% depends on shading, but let’s talk about it later. The basic outline is based on general things like the shape of a face [squarish, oblong...] or the placement of face elements like eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth and the shape of these elements.  People’s faces vary not only because of the different shapes of mouth, eyes and so on. They are also different because of the placement of these elements, e.g. some people have a bigger distance between eyes than others. You should keep that in mind. There are several ways of getting these things correctly, like the gridding method, using a ruler to measure the significant points on a reference picture like the tip of the nose, the inner edge of the eye and so on and the golden ratio proportions [I believe it’s called like that], you can read about them here. These methods will make it easy to get the placement of eyes, mouth and nose right. When it comes to the shape of individual elements, you should pay an extra attention to details like:

the width of mouth - Is the mouth big or small?

the lips - are they equally narrow or thick? Is one of them bigger? What is the shape of the upper and the bottom lip? Are they even or not? Are they downturned?

the shape of eyes - are the outer edges downturned or not? Are the eyes big or small? Round or narrow? How do the eyelids look like? Are they big, thick or this person doesn’t have them at all [well, I mean if they are visible]? Anyway, the eyes are the most crucial when it comes to resemblance. Much more than the nose or mouth.

the eyelashes - is there plenty of them or just several? Are they short or long, thin or thick? What angle do they direct? Of course by that I don’t want you to count every eyelash. Just get the general impression.

the nose - is is wide or narrow, does it have a hump or not? Is it snub? What shape do the nostrils have?

the cheekbones - does this person have them?

unique marks - moles, scars... do this person have them?

wrinkles - try to capture the most visible wrinkles. You don’t have to draw them all, including the tiniest wrinkles and draw the exact number.

facial hair - moustache, stubble or beard... pay attentions to their lengths, density. When it comes to stubble, take into consideration that all hair is shaved equally so try to draw lines of the similar length.

Once you answer on these queries, it will be easier to draw a perfect outline. Not only good art supplies or practice is the key, but observation as well. Be patient when drawing an outline. Don’t rush.

Another thing that matters is shading. Focus on shades on the face. Proper level of darkness or light in every fragment of the face is important [also the colour, if you use something else than graphite pencils or charcoal] as it indicates how convex or concave something is. For example: the darker shadows around the eyes, the more deeply embedded the eyes seem to be. The lighter cheeks are, the chubbier they appear. Simply emphasize the shape of the face by paying attention to shadows and lights, but don’t overdo it! “Build” shading slowly, darkening it gently in places that require darkening. Just analyse the reference picture, see where the shadows are.

Well, I guess that is all. I wish there was some other way than practice and observe, but really, that’s the key, sorry xD

I hope I helped, nonetheless... ^^