How I Draw Faces Using Simple Supplies

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Do you need fancy supplies to progress your drawing skills and create the artwork you'd like to share with the world? How does one go about drawing a believable face? Why is keeping a sketching habit important for artists of all kinds? 


In the time lapse video included within this blog post I share my entire face drawing process, starting with creating the head shape, moving onto laying down guidelines to help with the effective placement of facial features, sketching in individual elements and finishing up by adding quick shading using a combination of hatching and crosshatching. 

Drawing believable portraits (and any part of the human figure) is challenging, as it requires us to not only have decent drawing skills to be able to render form/three-dimensionality as well as different textures like hair and skin, but it also entails having a good amount of knowledge on proportion. 

You see, faces are probably what we see most as human beings. Due to this, even non-artists are usually able to tell when something looks off, even though they may not know exactly where the error is.

In this YouTube video, I take you step-by-step, through drawing a simple, forwards-facing portrait and explain basic facial proportions. *This is, in my opinion, an essential place for beginners to start.

In my blog post, How to Draw Faces at a 3/4's Angle-My 4 Step Process, I get into starting to understand the head shape as a three-dimensional form, why it's useful to understand the underlying structure of the face (the human skull), and take you through drawing a portrait at an angle. 

Though I primarily sell my paintings, I'm a huge sketching fan. I consider drawing to be the basis for all kinds of art and really believe in keeping a sketchbook habit. Even quicker sketches created consistently will help keep your observation sharp and continue progressing your artistic skills. 

Not to mention, sketching is also incredibly practical as we don't really need much besides drawing paper, a few different pencil grades and an eraser. There's no need to take out your painting supplies and go through your whole set-up if you're short on time.

If you enjoyed this video and found it helpful, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I share a brand new video every week with art tips, drawing and painting tutorials and mindset/productivity tips for artists. *Subscribe HERE*



​If you're not new to my blog posts or videos, you're probably already aware that I'm a huge fan of keeping it simple when it comes to art supplies. I'm a big fan of artists who are able to create amazing work using basic, and even limited, tools.

There's no need for anything fancy in order to make immense progress in your drawing skills.

The supplies below are what I usually have on hand when I'm drawing or sketching. *I'm not a big fan of kneaded erasers and have replaced them entirely with my Mono Zero eraser that I acquire via Amazon. I use blending stumps only when I'm creating more realistic drawings such as the one in this video. 


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I hope you enjoyed this post and learned something new, or got inspired to go and create a sketch for yourself. 

I wish you tons of progress and enjoyment in your artistic journey!  :)

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