Drawing the Human head Part 1:
An Adult Male

Firstly, I want to say, this is not the only way to go about drawing a human head.
It's simply the way I go about it. I fully encourage you to use this tutorial as
a way to help develop whatever way works best for you.

This tutorial is not a technical instructional on the use of Photoshop tools. This is a
drawing tutorial and so is geared to instruct regardless of whether you are drawing with
pencil, pen or even on the computer. (I drew this in Photoshop 7.0 with a Wacom)

I want anyone reading this to know one more thing. Relax. I know a lot of instructors and
drawing books will remark upon how "this HAS to be there" and "that has to be positioned
just so" but humans are not made that way really. The ears on a human head are not
placed as exactly as drawing criteria will tell you. Look at a friend, look at yourself
in the mirror. Human ears may be "ideally" placed on the head with the top of the ear
coming level with the corner of the eye. But in nature, that rarely happens. And I will
take nature over perfection any day. So if you hear that the ears, or any other feature,
have a set perfect proportion...do remember that there are no perfect humans. (Brad Pitt
does NOT count) If all our features where in perfect proportion, in the exact same position,
we would all look like clones of each other. So don't be afraid of changing proportions
to build character.

In closing, the tutorial isn't comprehensive. Please feel free to email me with
any questions you have.









I start with a sketch of the pose. This establishes the direction the man is facing and helps build the proportions as I want them for this character. This is a handsome, young man.

When thinking in terms of a comic cel on a page...I am keeping in mind what I find beautiful about the features, while keeping with who he is (as a character) and what this scene is meant to be.

Having a good skull shape and the position of features (laid out on the cross lines on the plane of the face) will make for a lot less problems later when detail is being fleshed out.

Okay, now the sketch I did in red and the clean-up and development I am doing in blue, so that you can see the progress of the drawing more easily.

I have placed a marker for the hairline, which helps me determine if the facial features are in balance verticaly. And I have used the cross lines in the face to start bringing up the features. The wider a spaced eye, the more lovely the face. So on an attractive man, I keep the eyes at least one "eye width" apart. It's at this point that hints of facial expression start becoming known. This obviously isn't an angry fellow. But if he was meant to be, this would be the point where that started to show.


Ah! Now we see him! The lines are fleshing him out. His jaw was too shallow. The slope of his shoulder was too angular. Now the features are developing so that his expression is clear and his emotion is coming forth.

the lips are now shaped, the nose is being defined. The ear shape and position is being solidified. This is the stage where I build the basics of the "look". He is who he is meant to be, at this very point. The lines are still primitive, but his personality is captured. I gave him his adam's apple too. LOL!

This is the point where I strengthen line and assert what I am keeping and what I am not. If I were working in pencil, this would be the point where I heavily pencil in what I am keeping right before I start cleaning up the unwanted pencil lines. In this case, I am building him stronger before ditching the red base sketch layer. It's at this point that I also consider where I want the shadows to be. Is the light source ambient? Is it stark? I won't consider too much of that until coloring time...but some idea of it is neccesary for hatchwork shading with ink.

He is lovely now...just waiting for hair and other finishing features.

At this point, the red sketch layer is ditched and the full line work strengthened. If I were working in pencil, his skull would be much lighter lined so that it would be easy to erase and the rest of him would be cleaned up nicely.

His eyes have strong, dynamic line quality, and the pupils have been added. And it's a small detail, but important....our guy here has teeth! You can often see teeth when lips part. So It's important for that added bit of realism to show at least a little of the teeth when drawing a face speaking.

He is a bit more serious than I had intended. But I am leaving him be until I see him with hair.

Okay, now we are back to sketching again. I am working in red again to show the additions clearly.

The markers for his hairline become very valuable now, as the staging area for framing the hair around his face. The skull shape too influences the hair very much. Hair is on top the the skull and the skull is hard and rounded. I know this is a no-brainer, but I see a lot of art where the hair seems to hint that the skull underneath is odd shaped, or not there at all.

So paying attention to skull shape early on makes hair easier.


Ah! There he is.... The lines are made stronger, more sure. The skull shape and hairline markers are removed.

He is almost done! This poor fellow is just a tiny bit windblown.

This is the point where I could stop, and move onto crosshatch shading and other minor adjustments. But I thought I would dress him too. This tutorial isn't really about clothing your character...but what the heck. LOL!

I am not fond of polo shirts, but this fellow insisted. (tennis anyone?)


He's pretty much done now. If I were working in pencil, I would be inking him at this stage. There is only one part left, really....

...Some good old fashioned cross hatching, and other forms of line delivery to create depth and shading. This is really the part that brings the character alive, but it can easily go awry with a heavy handed appraoch too. So be careful, but don't be afraid to be dramatic.

Since I work in either screen tones (or color, these days) I don't personally go any further than this with line shading. But don't let that stop you.

I hope this was helpful. Thanks for stopping by!



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