It’s a universal desire for all artist to be able to draw people. Probably the number one question I get from artists both new and experienced is “how do I draw people”? Because they are such a centerpiece to so many forms of art (cartoons, figure drawing, portraits, etc.), it’s a critical skill most artists want to have.
When asked this question, I’ll often tell people to break the subject of a ‘person’ down into its components. When learning how to draw people, you have to start somewhere, and I recommend starting with the head. You can learn to draw a head by first sketching a circle as a framework, and then a vertical and horizontal line as the baseline for the other features.
Once you’ve done this, your artistic skills and sense of perception have to go to work. Begin to imagine the head in a 3 dimensional manner, as if it was facing to the left or right (up or down is ok too). If the head is looking off in this direction, where would the features be? These takes practice, but think carefully about where the eyes, nose, and mouth would be, and again draw baseline lines both vertical and horizontal for each. Read the rest of this entry
