To get started drawing your own pictures, you must first be able to draw a decent head. After you feel comfortable with drawing the head of your character, feel free to move on to the body of your character. Guidelines are key when you start out, but not all artists use them. There are certainly more than one ways to draw a head, and my way isn't the only one. Try to develop your own techinques and guides to help you on your way. If you have any problems with the tutorial, please E-mail me concerning it.
Step One!
Start with a circle! It doesn't have to be perfect, just sketch in some lines to get an idea of where
the head will be on the paper.
Step Two!
Add lines to show the position of the face. Here I use one line for eye position, but some people find it
easier to have tow lines, one for the top of the eyes and one for the bottom of the eyes. Experiment a bit and
see what you are more comfortable using. After the eye guidelines, use a line perpendicular to that (vertical)
to show which way the face will be turned. The lines do not have to cross in the middle of the head, but for
the purpose of this tutorial I'll be showing a full-frontal view of our subject.
Step Three!
Add facial features. Make sure the eyes are spaced so that you can mentally fit another eye in between them. Usually the
top of the eyes is between the top of the skull and the bottom of the chin.
Make sure the nose and mouth are centered on the vertical line together. In men, the nose is usually a bit farther
down the face.
Step Four!
Draw in the face outline. Make sure the chin lines up with the vertical nose/mouth line, and try to keep
the cheekbones at an even height. If you're having problems, throw in another guide to help you out. My style
is a little wierd, I tend to draw more of a circle than I need. Don't space the edge of the face too far away
from the eyes, otherwise it will look weird. If you're having problems with this, look at some anime pictures
or look at yourself in the mirror. Usually men
have longer, more pointed faces and women's faces are shorter and rounder. Men's chins also tend to be a little
longer.
Don't forget the eyebrows!
Example of a generic male face ::
Example of a generic female face
Step Five!
Almost done. ^.^; Add eyeballs and chose a hairstyle. If you need to show the hairline, keep that in mind.
You can find an example of showing the hairline here. When you're choosing
a hairstyle, be sure to keep the eyes centered in the head. That is, there isn't more of the head above than below
or vice versa. When you add a neck, try to keep pretty much the same width all the way down. Women tend to have
longer, more elegant necks than men (careful, not too much longer!).