How To Draw A Realistic Female Face

This tutorial explains how to draw and proportion a female face with detailed explanations and illustrated examples for each step that can be applied to whatever medium you choose to draw in.

If you are going to draw with pencil and paper be sure to make light strokes for the initial steps of the tutorial so that you can then easily erase the guide lines.

Defining Features of a Female Face

Though facial features can vary greatly from person to person females tend to have smoother less pronounced facial features, rounder faces and smaller chins when compared to a male face.

Face Proportions

In the above example you can see the general position of various facial features. Please note that this is only a guideline as facial features and their positioning can vary from face to face.

With that said this guide can still help you avoid making major mistakes when proportioning a face.

How to Draw a Face

Draw the entire shape of the head first.
Create a rough sketch of all of the facial features and do your best to insure they are correctly placed before drawing the smaller details.
Keep different parts of you drawing in roughly the same state of completion.

Step 1 – Drawing the Female Head

To help you make sure that both sides of the head will be of equal width and that the facial features in later steps will be evenly spaced start your drawing by first making a vertical line through the middle of your drawing area. Next draw a circle for the top part of the head and from that project two lines that first go to the jaw area and then curve inwards and go down again at a sharper angle to finally form the curve of the chin.

As this is a female face for the sake of this tutorial we will make the chin fairly small and narrow.

Step 2 – Refine the Shape of the Head

For this step you can slightly adjust the shape of the top of the head as it will usually not be a perfect half circle. You can also add a hint of the cheek bones.

After you are done with those you can go ahead and erase the circle guideline but leave the middle line.

Step 3 – Proportioning the Face

To create guidelines for the first set of facial features divide the face into four parts using horizontal lines. You will want to draw the lines from the hairline area of the head (located slightly below the top of the head) down towards the chin in a way where you will have three evenly spaced section of the face plus the smaller hairline portion for a total of four.

Step 4 – Placing the Eyebrows

Sketch the eyebrows directly below the second line from the top of the head (the one after the hairline line).

Step 5 – Placing the Nose

Draw the nose starting near the inner tips of the eyebrows. For the initial sketch simplify the nose into flat planes for the front, sides and bottom.

The nose will narrow towards the bridge and widen from there towards the bottom of the face.

Please note that the nose is one facial feature that can differ greatly from person to person. An average nose like the one in this tutorial will generally go slightly past the middle portions of the three even divisions. Longer noses can go farther down.

Step 6 – Placing the Ears

Draw the outline of the ears inside the middle portion of the three evenly spaced divisions touching the second and third line from the top.

For more on drawing ears also see:

How to Draw an Ear From the Front Step by Step
How to Draw an Ear Step by Step – Side View

Step 7 – Placing the Eyes

Draw another horizontal line directly through the middle of the head (you can remove the other horizontal lines at this point) and on it draw the shape of the eyes (just the outline). Place the eyes far enough apart that you can fit another eye in between them. The space on the sides of the eyes should be slightly less than the width of one eye.

Step 8 – Placing the Mouth

Position the mouth by first drawing a horizontal line between the bottom of the nose and the bottom of the chin. This line will represent the bottom of the bottom lip. Going up from there draw a horizontal line for the mouth and another one above that for the top of the top lip. The bottom lip tends to be bigger than the top so proportion your drawing accordingly.

For more on drawing lips see:

How to Draw Different Types of Lips
How to Draw a Smile Step by Step

Step 9 – Drawing the Facial Features

Drawing Female Eyes

Inside the shape of the eyes sketched out in previous steps draw the circles of the irises with the top part slightly covered by the eyelids and the bottom just touching the bottom eyelid.

Please note that bigger wider open eyes can make for a more younger and feminine look.

For more on drawing eyes see:

How to Draw Eye Expressions Step by Step
How to Draw Eyes Step by Step

Drawing a Female Nose

A line drawing of a female nose can be a little tricky as the more you define it's shape the less feminine the nose may appear.

Based on the earlier proportions sketch draw some lines to indicate the nostrils and sides of the nose. Afterwards draw a hint of the tip and the bridge.

For more on drawing noses you can see:

3 Step Nose Side View Drawing Tutorial

Drawing Female Lips

Draw the top lip like a flattened "M" shape.

The bottom lip tends to actually be two evenly split curves that join at the bottom of the mouth to form one bigger curve.

For more one drawing lips you can see:

How to Draw Lips From 3 Different Views

Female Ears Drawing

As the ears will be covered by the hair we will not go into drawing their inner shape in this tutorial.

For drawing ears you can see:

How to Draw an Ear Step by Step – Side View

Eyebrows

As we are simply doing an outline drawing of the eyebrows in this tutorial drawing them should be fairly simple. For a more feminine look simply try and make the eyebrows relatively thin.

Step 10 – Drawing the Outline of the Hair

How you draw the hair will differ based on the hairstyle. For this particular example the hair will basically be split into two major shapes going from the parting line. As there is more hair flipped to the left side of the drawing that shape will be bigger than the shape on the right.

Step 11 – Drawing the Hair Details

To add detail to hair draw in some lines flowing from the parting line down along the shape of the hair. Add in some other lines that still follow the general direction of the hair in various places along the overall shape of the hair. Try and vary these in their length and distance from one another.

After you finish the hair the tutorial is pretty much but if you want to add some eyelashes you can follow the step below.

For more on drawing female hair see:

How to Draw Hair Step by Step Tutorial

Step 12 – Drawing the Eyelashes

Draw the individual hairs of the eyelashes with slightly different distance between each of them but at the same time try and make the overall distribution fairly even. Eyelashes tend to grow more towards the outer half of the eyes (away from the middle of the way). The hairs of the eyelashes sort of fan out as the follow the curved shape of the eyelids. The eyelashes themselves are also curved but this will be less obvious for the eyelashes that are pointing directly at the viewer.

Conclusion

It takes a lot of work to properly draw a face. Because of their less pronounced facial features female faces can be particularly difficult as there are fewer well defined lines to be able to show the shape of the face with. If you find yourself struggling don't get discouraged. If you practice on a regular basis and drawing in the correct way you can significantly improve your skill as an artist.

For drawing a male face see:

How to Draw a Male Face Step by Step Tutorial