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Description
I've been meaning to draw some profile studies for a long time now since drawing profiles has always been a challenge for me. The first piece outlines my process and provides a couple of notes based on observation. The middle two pieces are a bit more realistic and feature minimal shading on the facial features. The last piece was definitely the most difficult for me, and I think the challenges I faced with the shading are apparent.

Tips on drawing profiles/How I work:

-Circles/ovals are your friend = In all the pieces, there are both faint and bold outlines of circles and ovals in places like the nose, chin, cheekbone, jaw, space between the eyebrow and eye, and earlobe.

-The length of the ear is usually equal to the length from the end of the eyebrow (or the lowest point of the eyebrow) to the end of the nose.

-After drawing the basic shape of the head, I draw the nose, mouth, and chin before drawing the eye. I draw the eye last in this process because usually the eye begins directly in line with the ala of the nose (that curve that surrounds the nostril). I'm sorry if this is confusing!

-I like varying the width of the lines outlining the face to give the face a more realistic feel. I like making the outline of the nose thinner than say the outline of places under the nose and under the lips.

-For quick shading of hair, I shade the entire hair area with a neutral gray. Then I block in the darker areas based on the reference I'm using. For the highlights, I erase the neutral area. Lastly, I draw lines to represent the individual strands of hair. It helps to vary the thickness of these lines. To make hair look less stylized, I draw in places where some strands of hair overlap others. Finally, I draw some loose, wispy lines around the outline of the bulk of hair.

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Mechanical pencil on sketchbook paper, ~roughly 1-2 hours for each piece.

Description
I've been meaning to draw some profile studies for a long time now since drawing profiles has always been a challenge for me. The first piece outlines my process and provides a couple of notes based on observation. The middle two pieces are a bit more realistic and feature minimal shading on the facial features. The last piece was definitely the most difficult for me, and I think the challenges I faced with the shading are apparent.

Tips on drawing profiles/How I work:

-Circles/ovals are your friend = In all the pieces, there are both faint and bold outlines of circles and ovals in places like the nose, chin, cheekbone, jaw, space between the eyebrow and eye, and earlobe.

-The length of the ear is usually equal to the length from the end of the eyebrow (or the lowest point of the eyebrow) to the end of the nose.

-After drawing the basic shape of the head, I draw the nose, mouth, and chin before drawing the eye. I draw the eye last in this process because usually the eye begins directly in line with the ala of the nose (that curve that surrounds the nostril). I'm sorry if this is confusing!

-I like varying the width of the lines outlining the face to give the face a more realistic feel. I like making the outline of the nose thinner than say the outline of places under the nose and under the lips.

-For quick shading of hair, I shade the entire hair area with a neutral gray. Then I block in the darker areas based on the reference I'm using. For the highlights, I erase the neutral area. Lastly, I draw lines to represent the individual strands of hair. It helps to vary the thickness of these lines. To make hair look less stylized, I draw in places where some strands of hair overlap others. Finally, I draw some loose, wispy lines around the outline of the bulk of hair.

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Mechanical pencil on sketchbook paper, ~roughly 1-2 hours for each piece.