Want To Draw Both The Human Head & Face The Best Way? Let’s Take A Look At Their Main Proportions.

Now we took a good look at the basics of proportions, as well as the proportions of both the male & female body proportions. It’s time to look at the proportions of the human head, as well as the face. Compared to the previous lessons, this lesson is going to be much easier, as the head has much simpler proportions.

Just as usual, this post will focus on the proportions of the head & face, not their anatomy. I will focus on showing you the most important proportions, but you can take note of any other proportions that can help you draw the human head better.

Many of the proportions mentioned here are approximate, and so won’t fit 100% to the description. But they are more than enough to help you draw good heads in a realistic way. As deviating from these measures much can cause you to draw some funny-looking heads. For that reason, I will use multiple pictures to explain some of the proportions. You can check these proportions in some other pictures on your own if you like too.

As a reminder, this post is a part of a series on drawing proportions, you can refer to the first post of the series here in case you missed it. . You can always refer to my 6 Practical Exercises To Help You Draw Proportions Right post, which includes simple tutorials that can help you practice proportions in a simple yet effective way.

Now, let’s get started:-

The Human Head & Face Proportions (Front View)

Let’s start with the eyes. They are located close to the middle of head. If you looked at the head below, you will see it located at the middle of the two equal ticks. Notice how the top of the head wasn’t included in this measurement:-

You can see the same proportion in the following man portrait. The small part at the top of the head is not included in the measurement here as well:-

The head itself is about 5 eyes. My head drawing can be divided into 5 parts, as seen here:-

The middle part of each of the eyes aligns with the tips of the mouth:-

And the inner edges of the eyes align with the nose:-

The drawing I made to demonstrate the proportions is perfectly made for education purpose. To show you how the head proportions I just mentioned are all approximate. Let’s take a look at the same proportions in actual portraits.

In the following portrait, the middle part of each eyes still aligns with the edges of the mouth, but they don’t align perfectly, but good enough to makes it easier to draw the face accurately:-

The inner edges of the eye also align with most of the nose, but not the nostril:-

The head is about 5 eyes in length, or maybe a bit less:-

Now let’s take a look at the same proportion on another head.

Again, the middle part of each eye aligns with the edges of the mouth:-

And the inner edges of the eye aligns with the nose, in the same way as the portrait before:-

Let’s take a look on a new proportion. The distance between the bottom of the mouth and the tip of the chin is approximately one eye. I placed an eye here to illustrate that:-

You can see the same proportion on the other face as well:-

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The distance between the nose and the top of the chin can be divided to 3 parts, and using 2 lines. The first line indicates where the mouth is going to be:-

The Human Head & Face Proportions (Side View)

Now let’s take a look at the human head & face from the side. To make the proportions easier to see, I have drawn a rectangle around the following head to use for my demonstrations:-

If we divided the rectangle with a horizontal line at the middle, the line will cross where the eyes are:-

Notice how the ear is located mostly below that line. This can be seen on the frontal view as well:-

If we divided the rectangle with a vertical line, it will be easy to see how the ear is located on the left side of the original rectangle:-

If we dropped a line from the edge of the eye to the mouth, we can see how it aligns with the edge of the mouth:-

Finally

One of the things I quite like about the proportions of the human head & face is the simplicity of it. You simply have to align things in a confined space. As long as you do it well, you will end up with a very proportionate head. The proportions themselves are much easier to memorize compared to some of the ones we say in the previous lessons, possibly because we see human faces all the time.

I hope my post has helped you learn more about the proportions of the human head & face. And see you again in another post.

See Also:-

• • Getting started with Wacom graphics tablet and Digital Painting With Photoshop: Learn Digital Art & Paintings On Good Fundamentals
  • My Drawing And Digital Art Books
  • Introduction to drawing proportions, and how to get it right (With practical example).
  • How to avoid stiff poses and drawings?
  • Getting Started In Digital Art (or digital painting) for beginners, and what you need to know from the start
  • Best Affordable Pen displays and Cintiq Alternatives to buy in 2018 – Including Huion, Ugee, XP-Pen, Monoprice & other brands
  • My story with drawing, And how I improved my drawing within 3 years
  • How much Wacom nibs lasts? And how to make your graphics tablet nibs last longer