How To Draw a Face | Drawing a Realistic Face Tutorial Video Lecture | Become an Artist: Colored Pencil Portrait Drawing Tutorial - Art & Craft

hey guys welcome back to another video
and in this one we're going to be going
through how to draw a face using colored
pencils in a really realistic sort of
way so I'm going to be drawing emilia
clark for this and this here is the
final drawing so we're just going to be
focusing today on how to draw the face
but i have got other tutorials coming
out and like how to draw all the hair
and a speed drawing of the whole thing
so if you don't want to miss out on them
make sure you hit that subscribe button
but anyway let's go on to this tutorial
so here is a closer look at the finished
drawing because there's a lot of
reflection in that intro video so here
is a better look and we're gonna start
off by drawing the eyes and the first
thing that I always like to do when I'm
drawing eyes is blocking the shadows so
no matter what reference photo you have
I like to block in the darkest areas of
the eye with first like a brown tone
colored pencil and also a black color
pencil for something like the pupils or
the eyelash line and stuff like that so
I'm using the Karen - luminance color
pencils for this and a list of all of
the materials will be in the description
but this kind of tips and these
techniques apply to any colored pencils
that you want to use but they do work
better with wax based pencils like
Prisma colors or the can - luminance
rather than something like polychromos
because they're oil-based and so they
don't blend as easily with this
technique so like I said I'm blocking in
all of the shadows so identify in your
reference photo what are the darkest
parts of your eye and it's normally
things like the pupil the part around
the iris the upper lashline and the
crease and also the eye brow as well and
then once I've got all that in I like to
work on the iris and that's the colored
part of the eye and I first want to see
is there any highlights in the iris so
with my one there was a bright highlight
in the middle of the pupil and just
below the pupil as well so I like to
clearly mark out those highlights and I
do that you're in the sketching stage
and it's really important that you start
with a really accurate
sketch and you can do this in many ways
you could directly trace or transfer it
using like monitor or a lightbox or you
could use a grid method which is a
really really popular method for getting
an accurate sketch and also you could
like freehand it it's up to you but you
need to spend the time to get an
accurate sketch and I do have a whole
series of real time tutorials about
different sort of sketching techniques
on my patreon if you want to check that
out but when I get in the iris I look at
the colors her eyes were a bit more like
bluey toned with a bit of brown there's
a lot of different tones in her eye iris
but even though her eyes have bits of
blue in I didn't use blue I lose gray
and that's a tip if you're trying to
draw blue eyes is to use grey instead
and so once I did that I went in with
the white of the ice and my main tip for
drawing the white of the eyes is to not
just do it white but to include a lot of
Gray's in there as well and this gives
your eyes a really nice
three-dimensional look to them because
the white of the eye has got a lot of
shadow cast on it especially because
you've got the upper eyelid going on top
of it there is a shadow cast there so
really look at your reference photo
import your reference photo into
something like paint and use the
eyedropper tool to see within that white
at the eye where are the darkest points
and so once I've got all that in using
the different Gray's and I also use the
white or a lighter gray then to blend it
out I then went in and I started working
on the skin and the tear duct and to do
this I used a lot of flesh tones so
warmer more orange toned flesh tones
which are the belt burn occurs in the
Karen - luminance set or the Bert
Siena's and what I like to do no matter
what I'm drawing is I like to start off
very light with my layers I like to keep
my pencil really sharp not press hard at
all and as I get towards my final layers
that is when I press a bit harder and
start to burnish and this is when you
get that really smooth look so you'll
see throughout this drawing the first
few layers it looks very grainy but then
it suddenly
hums nice and smooth and that's because
I've started to press harder on the
pencil that I want to burnish with and
it kind of helps blend all of those
colors together to create this really
smooth look and it works really well on
this type of paper as well so I used a
lot of different colors that's a really
big thing if you want to make it at
realistic is to not just use one color
per area you really need to mix your
colors and layer your colors as well so
for the skin I would use a lot of burnt
ocher so something like orange flesh
tones and then some more like pink
colors clear over the top or some red
tones and Browns as well so I look at
the reference photo and I try to pick
out the colors to use for each area of
skin and I just lay them up slowly
starting with the darker tones and then
as I get towards my final layers I blend
with some lighter flesh tones to kind of
soften it all out and blend it together
and then the next thing is to do the
eyebrow and when it comes to the eyebrow
you want to look at the direction that
the eyebrow hairs are going in if you
want it to look really realistic and
also you want to make it look like the
hair is growing out of the skin rather
than just kind of prompt onto the skin
with it not really blending in at all
and so I went in with a layer of the
sepia which is just a brown tone I laid
that on and I use pencil directions
going in the direction that the eyebrows
are going in and then I just kept
layering that I added a bit of black for
the darker areas and then I used some
stray hairs to sort of blend it into the
skin and I also used a little craft a
knife just to pull up lighter hairs and
I went over with a lighter color like a
white pencil just to pull up light hairs
as well and the last thing I like to do
once I've got in everything with the eye
so my final stage for the eye is I like
to do obviously the eyelashes and
eyelashes can be very tricky but the
three things that you have to keep in
mind when you're drawing eyelashes are
the length of them the direction they're
going in and how many are there so are
they thick are they long are they really
curved and just look at your reference
photo and try
to establish that's before you just go
in and draw them so those are my main
tips for drawing the eyes and now let's
move on to drawing the nose and the
first thing again like I said is I
always like to get in the darkest parts
of the feature first and I'm doing the
same thing with the nose I'm using that
same brown pencil with a bit of black
for the darkest parts to get in these
really shadowed areas and so within the
nose the shadowed areas are the nostrils
they are the darkest part the nose and
pretty much that under Neath part of the
nose and I used that Brown tone lightly
shaded it on the shadowed areas I use
less sort of pressure and use the side
of the pencil for the lighter areas and
once I got in all those shadows I
started to glaze over with the flesh
tones and when you're drawing the nose
you need to look at and establish the
structure so where are the shadows where
are the highlights with the nose it
tends to be that the highlights are in
the center of the nose going down the
bridge of the nose and then the shadows
are on the sides of the nose and
underneath but every nose is different
and they even though the anatomy is the
same it might have slightly different
lengths and widths of the nose
structures you know you need to look at
your reference photo and establish just
about where the shadows and the
highlights are and also what sort of
tone like skin tone has it got is it
cool toned is the skin warmer toned like
is there more pink in it that would mean
that it's more cooler toned or is it
more warm toned where it's got more like
orange or yellow tones in them and then
use that information to help judge what
color pencils you need to use for that
so I'm just building up those color
pencils I like to start with the base
layer of the lightest color here so a
nice flesh tone just a general base
layer and then I build on that with
those darker shadows and when I'm
building and layering I'm not applying
the pressure
I'm keeping the pencil really sharp
which means that if you have a sharp
pencil it can get into all of the white
grain of the paper really really easily
so you don't actually have
the press hard at all if you've got a
sharp pencil then to get that sort of
darker look instead of pressing harder
just rework over that area with not much
more pressure at all with no more
pressure but just rework it at different
angles so that you'll get in that pencil
into all of the white grain of the paper
and this will give you a darker look so
again I'm building up more shadows on
the underneath part of the nose you
might notice that certain areas aren't
dark enough in that case you need to go
and darken them even more I find that a
main mistake that beginners have is that
so afraid to go really dark with their
colored pencils because they don't want
to mess it up but if your reference
photo is dark then don't be afraid to go
in and get it as dark as it needs to be
because it isn't actually values that
make things unrealistic so even if
you've got all of your colors like
grease but on it's the depth it's the
contrast if you have your shadows in the
right place and the highlights even if
your like skin tones a bit off it will
look a lot more realistic then if you've
got your colors correct but didn't get
areas dark as they needed to be so I
liked you to blend again with that
lighter color to soften everything out
and then I pull up the highlights at the
end by applying a lot more pressure with
something like a white pencil so now on
to the mouth and with this one I had
teeth to draw there was a bit of the
mouth open so there's that really dark
area in the middle because you could see
inside the mouth and this is normally
really really dark so I wanted to get
that darkest area in first with the
black and now I'm working on adding a
base layer to the lips and so I used the
burnt sienna for the base layer and I
just filled in the top and bottom lip
nothing special I just filled it in and
then I went in with a dark version of
the burnt sienna and this is just like a
pinkish brown tone and I used that
shadowed toned just to identify where
are the shadows in the lips and the
mouth and blocking in those shadows
really makes it look full and gives it
that full look to the lips so that it
looks three-dimensional
and that is just my main tip over and
over again no matter what you're drawing
you need to identify where the shadows
and highlights are and if you get them
right then it's going to look so much
more realistic so once I've got in the
base layer and the shadows that is when
I like to just glaze colors to make it
more color accurate to the reference
photo so I added more like orange tones
in certain areas and like Pinker tones
just to make it as close to reference
photo color as possible but it would
have looked realistic even if I didn't
do this because I had the shadows of
dark si needs to be and the highlights
as light as they needed to be and
another thing to mention when drawing
lips to make them look realistic is to
also get in all of those little creases
and bumps that make it have texture and
so you need to look at the way those
creases curve and all of that sort of
stuff and if you get that right then it
will add another layer of realism to
your colored pencil work and again I
only started pushing down that pencil
when I got those final layers so then I
decided to do the skin around the mouth
and one thing that you'll notice about
drawing realistic mouths is that the
kind of transition between the mouth and
the lips and the skin is very very soft
so you want to slowly transition those
colors and leave those colors into each
other rather than your mouth having a
harsh edge and a hash sort of outline
and that's that's the same for any
feature that you're drawing you don't
want your features to have outlines
because in realism a face doesn't have
an outline around your eyes nose mouth
it's very soft and subtle transitions
and to do that you need to overlap the
colors so you'll overlap some of the
mouth color into a bit the skin and the
skin turns into a bit the edge of the
lips so there it's subtly transitions
into each other and blend those areas
together like you would if you blend in
skin or whatever and that would make it
look a lot more realistic and a lot more
sort of subtle unless the person is
wearing lipstick then it would be more
of a harsh edge and then once I've done
that
and I added all of the skin in a similar
way using similar colors to what I did
with the nose and the rest of the skin I
went in and I did the teeth and these
teeth had a lot of shadow on them so it
was just quite dark so I just used two
different gray tones a darker one and
then a lighter one just to block those
in and it didn't take me very long to do
the teeth at all just because there
wasn't much detail that we could see it
was just quite dark and in shadow but
teeth does have a lot of gray tones very
much like the whites of the eye so you
need to make sure that even if it seems
strange to put stuff like a dark gray on
the teeth if that's what it looks like
in the reference photo and if when you
use like your eyedropper tool that's the
color that is kind of saying that it is
then just use that color even if your
brain is trying to tell you that it
shouldn't be that color now we're moving
on to the rest of the skin and the
cheeks and so what I like to do here is
I like to first say where are the
shadows and obviously the darkest bits
are around the side and the contour
lines for the cheekbones and so I get
those areas in first I like to use what
Amber's been Siena's or brown tones for
the shadows they're really nice tones so
to do this and to get a really smooth I
just use the side of the pencil and I
just shade it like I would normally and
the key to getting smooth skin is that
you can't press hard at the start just
use the side of the pencil to shade even
if it looks messy and grainy when you
blend it out you'll be able to get rid
of all of that because you haven't
pressed hard on the pencil if you press
too hard on your pencil then you'll
leave stubborn pencil strokes that
you'll find very hard to blend out so
once I added all of the sort of shadow
I'll just speed through what I'm gonna
do on this side now I'll add that brown
shadow for the right hand side and this
side of the face was a lot darker but
once I add in that brown tone I'm going
over with a slightly lighter tone but
it's still quite dark and I'm just
shading out where the lightest shadows
are on the cheekbones and I'm glazing
that over the brown areas as
while so that they look consistent with
each other and they blend nicely into
each other and then I'm adding some of
the more generic base skin tones and I'm
trying more pressure and I've identified
that the highlight is just below the eye
so I'm just leaving an area where I
don't blend it out really heavily with
the colored pencil like the base layer
of the flesh tone I don't burnish the
highlighted area out I leave that so
that I can burnish that out with like a
white pencil so I can get that highlight
look and so I basically just didn't do
as many layers on the skin tones I just
filled it in with the color that it
needed to be so either like the bunt
attempt sin or the burnt sienna temps
and stuff like that and I then just used
a lighter whites or buff titanium so
like an ivory color to blend out the
highlights and just those Browns all
those darker burnt sienna is for the
shadows but I'm going to be doing a
whole video very soon just focusing on
drawing the skin so that you can really
explain the process for drawing the skin
because this is something that people
have a lot of trouble with and I have
got other videos on my channel dedicate
its drawing skin as well but I will be
doing a more updated one this week so if
you want to check that out make sure you
subscribe if you're new here but I'm
just gonna do that throughout all of the
skins so onto the forehead and the
forehead is something where you don't
really have to put much detail into it
you just need to focus on where are the
shadows and where are the highlights to
get that three-dimensional look and with
a forehead it tends to be very similar
that the shadows are at the sides and
kind of around the edges of the forehead
and then towards the center it's more
highlighted so I concentrate the shadows
on the edges of the face and then I add
a more general skin tone to the rest of
the forehead so blending out those
shadows and getting it as a base layer
on the rest of the forehead but I apply
a slightly lighter layer to the middle
so that I can burnish and blend that out
with the lighter color because what
is if you put too much colored pencil on
one area it will start to just like pull
up and it won't look smooth anymore
but that's basically it for this
tutorial so if you want to see the
real-time version of this which is like
the full 18 hours worth of videos then
that's available on my patreon which
I'll link in the description anyway guys
that's it for this tutorial I really
hope you enjoyed it and if you did why
not give it a thumbs up and subscribe
for future videos and if you want to see
even more right now than I've got a
playlist over there and check out but
I'll see you guys next time
bye everybody