This site is very graphics intensive
Please allow time for images to load to fully experience this page
This tutorial is to help you better grasp how to draw the head at many different angles. This tutorial is rather old, and if you want to get a better grasp of how to draw a head, I suggest you check out the General Head and Face Structure tutorial, since it is a bit newer and I knew more about drawing when I made it, then I did when I made this. But there may still be some useful stuff here, and I feel that this tutorial is better than the male heads one.
The three most commonly covered facial poses, in tutorials, are the front view; the profile view; and the 3/4ths view. I will cover these, but I will also give some examples of different face shapes. Not all faces are created alike! However the different shapes the face can take on are virtually limitless - in fact, they are only limited by your own imagination. It all depends on the character you are drawing.
I'm only going to go over a few basic, or simple face shapes first. Nothing extravagant really. These are just to give you an idea of the different shapes you can go with.
![]()
This is an example of a very long pointy face. This type of shape is usually used on more serious or villianous characters. ![]()
I've seen this shape mostly in Saber Marionett J - but I know I've seen it in other anime as well. Anyways, with this type of shape, the cheek is exagerated and the chin is brought in a lot more then usual. ![]()
This is a little more common-place. However I believe I've seen this type of shape used more with male characters then with female characters. But it really varies between artists and between series. I didn't come in much where the eye is with this one, so the cheek isn't very defined. ![]()
This is a much smaller type of face. And the chin is a lot less pointy. I tried to round this one off a little more then usual. I also came in a lot more where the eyes go on this one. Just remember that different shapes can express different characters. As you probably noticed, all of those faces began with a circle. That is the way all faces begin. A circle is the basic guide-line for any face, no matter where it's facing. Although it certaintly doesn't need to be perfect. Don't spend an hour trying to draw a perfect circle, when in the end, you're just going to be erasing most all of it. It's a guide-line. And guide-lines are only meant to help you get all of the shapes and proportions right.
I'm going to be starting with three different positions of the same head. One thats at a 3/4ths view (slightly to the side), one that is facing forward, and one that is almost at a profile... I'm not sure why I didn't just make it a profile, but I didn't. Don't worry - I do go into more detail on profiles later one. ^_~
Well, as you probably noticed, with each circle placed above, there is a line going through it. Those semi-verticle lines show the placement of the center of the face. The bottom of the line showing 'aproximityly' where the chin will be. No matter where you place this line, or which direction the face is facing, the rules will always be the same. You start with a circle - and a line.
Before adding anything, I had to make a few decisions. First off, I had to decide what shape the face would be. How pointy the chin would be - how much it would indent where the eyes would be - and what kind of eyes I would be placing.
For the most part, you just bring down two lines from the circle to the bottom of the center dividing line. As for the semi-horizonal lines that I have crossing over the center line, the only reason that I have two is because I decided that I was going to be using 'large' and 'tall' cute-girl anime eyes for her. I drew two lines to show the top and bottom of the eyes, instead of one line to show where the eyes would be placed.
The only one that I had to deal with the nose on was the 3rd face. Since this face was so close to being a profile, I had to put the nose in to get a better feel of the shape. It wasn't nessecary to put in the noses on the other two faces yet.
At this point, I cleaned up a lot of my guide lines, and added in a few more details. I drew in the eyes, using the guides I had placed to define the tops and bottoms of each. You'll totice that while in the front view the eyes are both the same size, in the 3/4ths view the left eye is much smaller - this is a lesson in physical perspective! The Left eye is further away then the right eye so it is... SMALLER! It's fun to learn, ne? ^_^ And on the almost-profile face, the right eye is almost completely invisible.
I also added in the ears here. My personal habbit is to make the years really small - but that is just me. There are plenty of artists who make the ears really large - Akira Toriyama for example (he's the guy who draws Dragon Ball) - Huge ears!
Anyways, no matter how large you make them, they should always be placed at relatively the same location on the head. The ear is just at the end of the jaw-bone, and the top of the ear is usually even with the middle of the eye.
And as for the nose... well that's one of the neat things about drawing anime style - you don't have to worry much about the noses - They're certiantly not the most difficult thing to draw.
![]()
I went for a pretty basic hair style. Large poofy bangs, and long fairly strait hair. I cleaned up the faces... well, a little ^_^ And went over my final lines a little more, so define it a little. Faces really arn't that hard once you get to a point when you can actually picture in your mind the way it looks facing different directions. I don't think that you should learn how to draw a face facing forward - a face facing profile and a face facing to the side. You should learn how to draw a face. If you ever get stuck, just try pictureing in your mind. How far out would the cheek be at this position? How much of the jaw bone is visible at this position? Would you be able to see the right/left year when the head is facing so-and-so direction? Would the nose be covering up the left/right eye when the head is turned that much to the right/left? You've got to think of the head as a 3-Dimentional object to completely visualize how it would be shaped depending on it's position. Once you've trained your mind to do this, you will be able to draw the head facing any direction.
As for drawing the hair at any position - now that can get trying! Just remember that it doesn't have to be perfect, and that if you keep trying for perfection, it will probably end up looking worse, then if you had just drawn it without giving it too much thought.
So... What do you think? Do I talk too much? ^_^ It's okay - I know it already. Anyways! Like I said, I'm going to go into profiles more.
You may have noticed that some mangaka artists, and anime artists have a funny way of drawing profiles sometimes. Take, for example, Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, Lum ect.) In the profile, the face isn't shaped anything like what a real human being's profile is shaped like. You also see this look in Tenchi and quite a few other manga/anime characters.
However I feel that it is most obvious in Rumiko Sensai's artwork. She usually doesn't even make a defining mark to show where the nose ends and the rest of the face continues! Whether or now you choose to use this style as an influence, is completly up to you. There are many ways to draw the profile, and this is only one of them.
This is a fairly more realistic example of a profile. The brow is defined much more sharply with this example, and the change from the nose to the lower-face is also much defined.
In this drawing, the nose is rather long and slender. I also chose to make the eyes much thiner, simply because it seemed to fit better. It seems, to me anyways, that the shape of the face, defines the eyes, the hair, and all of this combines to express the personality of the character.![]()
![]()
And here is one last example of a profile. Only on this one I went to a little more effort and actually put some hair on her. I think that is is sort of a combination of the last two examples. The nose is shorter and sticks out more like in the first example. Yet there is a little more definetion between the end of the nose and the lower face.