Creative Corner

I wanna draw humans so badly but I'm awful at it. They always turn out uncanny or lopsided, and I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong. #1 Issue is always the faces, they always turn out uncanny, and I can't draw a good face without tracing, which sucks. Usually I'll practice by tracing some faces, trying to figure out how to proportion, and where lines go. But as soon as I draw next to the reference rather than tracing it, it drops straight into uncanny valley, and I give up. I'm so frustrated I just wanna draw humans T-T [b]TL;DR[/b] I suck at drawing human faces, frequently give up on practicing due to frustration, and would really appreciate advice. Here's basically what I've been doing: So this time I began by tracing some anime faces. I did the whole circle and proportion lines to try and get an idea of how to draw it. These usually turn out fine. But of course, tracing is just practicing, and not technically my own art. [img]https://imgur.com/evA7Rmu.png[/img] After this, I attempted drawing a face without reference. An OC of mine named Vard. I used the similar guidelines of circle and proportion lines. It turned out alright IMO. (the tiny guy next to him is how I normally draw him) [img]https://imgur.com/exWZed6.png[/img] From here my face drawing takes a dramatic nosedive: Then I tried a more realistic reference. Same method of circle and lines. But it looks bad. [img]https://imgur.com/heJXNKK.png[/img] How [img]https://imgur.com/42kr7R6.png[/img] Every other attempt without a reference was just downhill from there. [img]https://imgur.com/hAXfgAp.png[/img] I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong, or if I'm just not putting enough effort into this. I never liked drawing human faces, but I really would like to be able to. Any advice would be appreciated!

I love how expressive your drawing of Vard is! I think you have a great sense of how to use the facial features in expressions.

As for facial form and proportions its partially just a matter of practising over and over again, but my #1 tip would be to draw from references from lots of different angles of the face. I notice that a lot of your example faces are a front-on view, but drawing from other angles such as a 3/4 view and a side profile can really help you to get a sense of how the head and facial features exist in 3D space. You could also try doing some practise drawings with shading, as this will also help to familiarise you with the planes of the face.

@Rustea
That shading tip sounds like a really good practice method! I've never even considered that, but I'll definitely try that next. Thank you for the advice!

i second Rustea's advice about shading! searching for "face planes" can get you started with references. [img]https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/425317817852624896/1063209198164377680/image.png[/img] try those, try drawing faces from life, or find some art styles you like and try to copy them. (Andrew Loomis is a pretty standard starting point for learning about face and body proportions, and his books are at a lot of libraries if you're looking for in-depth instructions!) my other hot tip for drawing faces: flip ya canvas. it looks like you're drawing digitally, and most programs have some kind of flipping or mirroring function, but if you're not then just holding your paper up to the light has the same effect. it's super helpful for helping your brain parse what's good and what's off, especially after you've been looking at your drawing for a long time. EDIT: can't believe i forgot but Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is an EXCELLENT source for learning facial proportions/bridging the gap between anime style and realism

@murpthemuppet
I completely forgot about canvas flipping... oops.
Also thanks for the Loomis tip, both of these are very helpful!