A few months ago, I taught you how to sketch a fashion figure, and this time I’ll be going into detail on how to draw a fashion face.

Unlike with fashion figures, which require exaggerated proportions, the rules for drawing the fashion face are pretty similar to the rules for drawing a realistic one. However, the fashion face is one of the key areas where designers can incorporate their own style.

Below, I’ll show you the step-by-step process of how to draw a more realistic face in a frontal view, then give you some ideas for alternative versions:

Table of Contents

Front Face:

Step #1

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Draw the head by sketching a large circle on top with a smaller circle below. Connect the two with rounded diagonal lines to form the sides of the face. Make sure to draw a line down the center in order to ensure that the face is balanced.

Step #2

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Draw a horizontal line in the middle of the face. This is the line where the eyes will be illustrated. Mark the size of the eyes on both sides of the vertical center line. Make sure to leave a space in between the two eyes which is the same size as an eye.

Additionally, mark the nose, which is about 2/3 of the way down from the eye line to the chin.

Lastly, indicate the lips by drawing the corners which will be halfway between the nose mark and the chin. The corners of the lips can be determined by drawing a diagonal line from the far corners of the eyes to the chin as seen below.

Step #3

For the following steps, I have drawn the face to be more realistic on the right and slightly more exaggerated as another approach on the left.

Click to enlarge.

For the eyes, draw an almond shape, which tapers off into the tear duct at the ends closer to the center of the face. Draw three-quarters of a circle in the center of the almond shape for the iris, leaving about 1/3 of the almond empty below the circle. Next, draw a line for the eyelid above the almond which follows the top line of the eye.