Tutorial: Under Arrest! Human Face Structure and Shading

I decided to do a tutorial on this drawing since the girl is attractive. A variety of different elements all add up to create the attractiveness of this drawing. When you first start trying to draw humans, you're going to find that you tend to make them uglier then they really are. Well that's what happened to me when I started. Now pay attention to the soft lines that make up her face, combined with the soft shading. Those soft lines are why her whole face looks cute, since if you go overboard on the shading on her face you lose that soft look which is why it is important to start light. The shading here is the bare minimum you need to help distinguish the curves of her face. Although soft lines and shading help to add to the overall attractiveness, you're going to need to learn how to draw attractive people to start. Also capturing the facial expression of human faces is difficult to create. The slight lip tilt and the small opening of the lips in the drawing above is an example of this, just a minor adjustment can create an expression.

I suggest you try and find a celebrity's picture or any sort of actor then try and replicate them onto paper. The hardest thing about drawing a face is creating two identical eyes, so don't stress if you can't do that. I personally start drawing eyes first when I draw faces, but you can start anywhere you're comfortable. Always start light, if you're struggling to consistently stay light with your drawing, then I suggest getting a graphite pencil that is either H or 2H. It takes time and repetition in order to draw realistic people, so if you can't draw whoever you want to draw to perfection, just try again with another picture. Rinse and repeat. The picture above has a hand included, hands are also difficult to draw to the correct proportions so don't worry if you can't replicate it.

Feel free to post your results in the comment section below, have fun!

Artist: FLY_MOLO
Picture retrieved from: Under Arrest! [sketch on moleskine]

Artist's comments:
 I spent a good 20 minutes drawing the hand, had difficulty. Need more practice.