Tutorial: Human Face, 30 Minute Sketching

Although this drawing was done within 30 minutes, the artist was able to capture the person they were drawing onto paper fairly well. All the lines are kept light and only the lines that were necessary were added, this is shown by the hair as it has a lot of white space to represent the lighting. Now the proportions of the face are done perfectly as well as the shading, which is why this simple drawing looks so nice so keep those in mind while drawing. I don't expect this kind of detail when doing a relatively quick 30 minute sketch, but with practice you can build your drawing skills up to this level. A good way to practice is to start by sketching simple objects such as a sphere or a cube, then continue to move up to human portraits or features etc.

What makes this drawing stand out is the shading of the hair and tiny touches of white in the eye, glasses and lips. The shading of the hair is relatively difficult to create, but try to figure out what are the most important lines that make up the hair. As you can see above where the hair sprouts from her head is the darkest part, and the hair near the bottom is shaded as well, their is only a light line to distinguish the curves of hair. All those lines are the most important parts that make up her hair. Natural hair can look deceptively easy to draw, but trying to figure out the shading then putting it to paper is difficult, so don't worry if you can't create the hair shown above.

The tiny touches of white added on the eyes, glasses and lips are easy to create, but you need to know where the light hits the face and what points are the brightest. You can create the tiny white highlights by drawing a very soft outline of where you want the white spot to be, then never drawing in that outline. Another way is to use a white pencil as the artist has done above, or just use your eraser if you have drawn over where you want the white spot to be. The problem with the eraser is that once you draw over the spot, the paper below will still be slightly dark from your previous lines so your white highlights won't be as bright.

Feel free to post your outcome in the comments section below, have fun!

Artist: sultryhotwife
Picture retrieved from: Charcoal portrait 30mins