Drawing Portraits: Sketching Eyes, Noses, Mouths

Welcome to this class on sketching the features of the face. In this class you will learn techniques to help you see line and tone and accurately draw eyes, noses and mouths.

Faces are one of the most intriguing and also the most difficult subjects to draw, in large part because of the preconceived ideas we have of what a face SHOULD look like. In this class I'll help you to cut through what you think you know about faces to help you see exactly what you are looking at in terms of line and tone.

And it's a long one! The full class starts by taking you through drawing a set of eyes from start to finish with direction and tips as we go. After this you will see two short videos showing a similar process that have been sped up to fit within five minutes. This is repeated with the noses and then again with the mouths.

How best to use this class:

Ive attached free image sheets of the eyes, noses and mouths I use in this class in the Project & Resources section and I would really encourage you to draw along with the first video of each feature of the face so you can notice the elements I discuss and practice applying them to your own drawing. You can then see these concepts repeated in the two quick following videos.  (Please note: Resource downloads are not available on the Skillshare app, only through the webpage).

Give yourself enough time to go slowly and look carefully at the images you are drawing. Practice makes better than no practice!

This is an intermediate level class that assumes an understanding of basic drawing techniques including sketching and shading. If you feel you need more practice in these areas you could check out the following classes:

https://www.skillshare.com/classes/Drawing-Line-Quality/894565513

https://www.skillshare.com/classes/Drawing-Shading/670481197

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask via the Discussion tab.

• Intro To The Class
• Your Project
• Why I Teach This Way (And Why Portraits Seem So Tricky!)
• Eyes 1: The Full Process
• Eyes 2 (Sped Up Process)
• Eyes 3 (Sped Up Process)
• Nose 1: The full process
• Nose 2 (Sped up video)
• Nose 3 (Sped up video)
• Mouth 1: The Full Process
• Mouth 2 (Sped Up Process)
• Mouth 3 (Sped Up Process)
• Summary