Children—Frontal View

This subject was rendered with very simple shapes and lines. Remember that your artistic style should reflect the nature of your subject. To achieve the youthful look of a subject like this one, use clean, polished lines and minimal shading.

Use an HB pencil for the preliminary sketch in step A. Remember to use the proportions you learned for a child’s face. Continue to develop the features as shown in steps B and C. Notice the wide-eyed expression and pouty lower lip.

As children age, their proportions become more like an adult’s.

The long eyelashes enhance the youthful, innocent appearance.

Once you’re satisfied with the pencil drawing, trace over your lines with a felt-tip marker. This will give you a clean line drawing like the example below.

The upper part of each iris is shaded to indicate the shadow cast by the top eyelid.

This young girl is not positioned at a full frontal view; therefore, the vertical division line must be placed slightly off center. This will help you to correctly place the features.

Use your HB pencil to sketch the basic shape and guidelines in step A. Then block in the features in step B. The position of each feature will depend on the age of the child—so observe your subject closely.

In step C, begin to refine the shapes. Draw the bows in the hair at this stage so they don’t appear to be pasted on later. Remember to adjust the proportions as needed for the angle of the head. When you are happy with the block-in drawing, create form by shading according to the light source. Here the light is shining from the right (the subject’s left).

Many beginners make the mistake of trying to draw each tooth, creating the illusion that the subject has false teeth. To make the teeth look natural, draw them as one large shape.

Add more shading on left side of the face.
The light source is coming from the right, so keep your strokes sparse on this side to create the illusion of light shining on the hair.