How to draw a face in 3-D

Wondering how to draw a face in 3 dimensions?

Flat faces are easy, but how to draw a face when your character turns her head is a bit more challenging.  Time to figure out how to put some depth in there ?

how to draw a face

Drawing a face in 3D involves:

  • deciding which direction your face is looking
    deciding whether the head is tilted up or down
    keeping all the features in the right positions in relation to one another

The easiest way to do this is through the use of the equator line and lines of longitude.

What’s the Equator Line?

You know that the eyes sit approximately halfway between the chin and the crown of the head, right? Well, imagine horizontal line passing through them. That’s the equator line… because the Equator runs all the way round the globe at the mid-point between the North and South Poles.

What’s a longitude line?

On the Globe, longitude lines are the ones that show how far east or west a place is. The lines run vertically round the globe, passing through both the North and South Poles. For our drawing purposes, the longitude lines always connect to both the crown of the head and the chin, and they show us whether the character is facing left or right.

“How to draw a face” top tip: the cross-hairs

Where the two lines cross is a very important spot because that is where the nose sits. And the nose will face in whichever direction the Longitude line bends.

This may sound complicated, but the video will make it all crystal clear. It will also explain how to turn a face further and further in one or other direction, as well as how to tilt your character’s face or head up or down.

Time to get watching ?. Grab your pencil and paper and check out the tips below for some drawing exercises.

How to draw a Face in 3-D

Get drawing now!

Practice how to draw a face using the equator and longitude line method. Draw faces looking both left and right. Draw faces tilted both up and down.

Think about what you will see, and what will be hidden as the head rotates and tilts. e.g. the furthest eye may be concealed by the nose, the furthest ear will seldom be visible, the crown of the head is only visible when tilted down, similarly the throat (beneath the chin) is only visible if the head is tilted way up.

The extra mile:

Try some extreme tilts to test your limits. Also, try drawing the face straight-on, but tilted to the left or right as if the character has their head on one side.

Next Step?

Take a look at Cartoon Face Expressions — How To Add Dynamism