Video 64 (Intermediate) Practice: Draw a Face (Patreon)

✍️ (Intermediate) Practice: Draw a Face – Semi-Realistic

By Pogzart

This exercise pushes beyond feature-by-feature drawing. It’s about constructing the whole head, balancing proportions, and unifying the features with light, form, and hatch flow.

🎯 Objective

• Practice drawing a full face (front or ¾ view) using construction techniques.

• Reinforce understanding of:

  • Facial proportions

  • Feature placement

  • Form lighting

  • Crosshatching flow

• Keep the face anatomically grounded, softly stylized, and form-based.

🧱 Step-by-Step Construction

Step 1: Lay the Head Base

• Draw a basic ball and jaw construction.

• Use a vertical centerline and a horizontal eye line.

• Add a light nose line, lip line, and chin based on standard thirds.

Step 2: Place the Features

• Eyes: Halfway between top and chin.

• Nose: Ends around halfway between eyes and chin.

• Lips: Sit around ⅓ between nose and chin.

• Ears: Line up roughly from brow to bottom of nose.

Step 3: Define Planes

• Lightly indicate brow ridge, cheek planes, and side planes of the nose.

• Break the face into simple 3D forms (boxes, cylinders) to prepare for lighting and shading.

💡 Lighting and Hatching

Choose a light source (top-left is ideal for practice).

• Shade with light curved hatching to follow the surface (especially on cheeks and forehead).

• Hatch under the brow, side of the nose, under the lips, and jawline.

• Use soft gradients, not outlines, to build form.

✔️ Tips:

• Hatch around the sphere of the forehead and eye socket.

• Crosshatch under the nose and around the chin.

• Keep hatching consistent with the contour of the face.

🎨 Stylization Guidelines

• Avoid full anime or caricature — keep semi-realistic form.

• Use stylized simplification only after form is clear.

• Facial expression should be neutral or subtly emotional (e.g., calm, focused).

🧠 Optional Challenge Ideas

• Add hair, neck, and basic clothing collar.

• Try switching between female and male faces.

• Use top-down, side, or under-lighting for variety.

• Practice from imagination, then compare to real reference.

🔁 Practice

• Draw the same face in:

  • Front view

  • ¾ view

  • Slight tilt (up/down)

• Hatch one version with full light rendering, and another with line-focused style.

• Add light shadow block-in with hatching only (no smudging, no fill tones).

Drawing the face is about connecting forms, not just placing features.
Focus on plane transition, proportion rhythm, and controlled hatching.
– Pogzart