Are you a beginning artist looking to deepen your understanding of the proportions of the human face? Check out this blog post below, where you can follow along with a printed worksheet.
Click here to print the worksheet. Use a red colored pencil and follow along with the tutorial below to draw lines and make notes on the photograph. In doing so, you will be analyzing the proportions of a human face on a real human to make visual connections!
WHAT IS PROPORTION?
Proportion is a principle of design that refers to how the parts of an image/artwork relate to the whole. When drawing a human face, for example, artists consider how the size of the eyes relate to the nose and how the width of the mouth relates to other areas on the human face. Knowing some tips and tricks about the proportion of the human face can help beginning artists to understand these relationships and become more intuitive as they further develop their skills.
NOTE: The facial proportions in this analysis are guidelines based on a photograph of a model. It is important to remember that these are rough guidelines, and all human faces are unique, beautiful, and may vary slightly from these guidelines.
LINE OF SYMMETRY
Draw a line down the middle of the face. This determines the vertical line of symmetry.
*FUN FACT* Most faces are slightly different on the left and right side.
EYE LINE
Find the MIDPOINT between the top of the head to the chin. Draw a line here. This line the determines the EYE line.
5 EYE WIDTH
Divide the eye line into 5 even sections. Note how you can fit “5 eyes” across the width of the face, with the eyes on section 2 and 4.
You can fit an eye almost perfectly between the 2 eyes! Wow!
NOSE LINE
Find the MIDPOINT between the eye line and the chin. Draw a line here. This line the determines the NOSE line, where the bottom of the nose will line up.
TEARDUCT/ NOSE RELATIONSHIP
Draw a vertical line down from the eye’s tear duct that stops at the NOSE line. This will line up with the width of the nose.
PUPIL/MOUTH RELATIONSHIP
Draw a vertical line down from the eye’s pupil to the corners of the mouth. Note how these line up to determine the width of the mouth!
MOUTH LINE
Find the MIDPOINT between the nose line and the chin. Draw a line here. This line the determines where the mouth will be placed. The bottom lip usually lines up on this line.
EARS
Note how the ears usually fall roughly between the eye line and the nose line.
Now you are ready to move onto part two of the worksheet. Click here for a guided tutorial of how to draw your own human face in proportion!
I hope you found this tutorial to be helpful! I would love to see the face you drawing using this tutorial! Feel free to send me your work at makeamarkstudios@gmail.com or tag me on Instagram @makeamark_studios. I’d love to feature your work if you are interested. Want to keep up with the latest from Make a Mark Studios? Follow me on Facebook!
-Stephanie Villiotis, creator of MAKEaMARKstudios
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