Woman Portrait Drawing Tutorial

How to Draw a Woman's Portrait?

Drawing a woman's portrait from imagination isn't something you can improvise. To get a satisfying result, you first need to acquire the basic techniques of portraiture. Otherwise, the face is likely to be out of proportion and look more like an alien than a human!

Here's how to make a woman portrait drawing!

The Preliminary Drawing of a Woman's Portrait

Drawing a Woman's Portrait: The Basic Shapes

To draw a woman's portrait, always start by sketching the structure of her face.

Draw a Circle

No need for a compass here! Draw your circle freehand without worry. Even if it's a bit irregular, it won't be visible once the portrait is finished.

Draw a Horizontal Line

Now draw a straight line right through the center of your circle. The two parts of the circle should be roughly symmetrical.

Draw a Vertical Line

Now cut the circle vertically with a new straight line. Extend this line below the circle so that the length of this extension is equal to half the height of the circle.

Form the Chin

To finish the face structure, connect the circle to the bottom of the vertical line to form the jaw and chin of your woman's portrait.

Drawing a Woman's Portrait: The Face Elements

Now that you have the basic structure of your female portrait, you can place the different elements of the face.

• Start by redefining the jaw and chin with softer, rounder lines. Use straight or curved lines, especially at the cheeks, depending on the shape you want to give the lower jaw. (The more hollow the cheeks, the more austere the face.)
• Be careful, the eyes are placed below the main horizontal line! The upper part of your circle is reserved for the hairline, not the eyes, which would otherwise be placed on the forehead.
• Place the nose so that it ends at the lower edge of the circle (draw it with a simple v), and the mouth just below.

Tip: to avoid drawing eyes that are too wide or too small, you can divide your face again with vertical lines. Divide each side of the circle into four equal parts, and place the eyes between the first and third lines.

Once you've placed the eyes, mouth, and nose on your drawing, you can erase most of your guide lines.

Take time to work on the head shape. As a woman's portrait, your drawing should have softer, less angular lines than for male portraits. Also, the thinner the chin, the more feminine it looks.

Woman's Portrait: Drawing the Face Details

Eye Details

The shape you give the eye will have a major impact on the overall look of the face. For a woman, the eye contour curves higher on the outer part.

Place the iris against the upper line of the eye and position the pupil in its center. The iris has a complex texture and is made up of several colors. In a woman's portrait drawing, you can express this complexity with a quick series of fine lines between the pupil and the edge of the iris. To bring the gaze to life, don't forget to add a highlight to the iris, with a white spot, several dots, or a white window.

Don't forget to draw the upper eyelid and the lower eye circles. To avoid aging the face, these lines should be thin and subtle.

Finally, draw the eyelashes of your female character. These are generally fuller than in a man.

Note: a face isn't symmetrical! So your two eyes shouldn't be perfectly identical.

Eyebrows

To draw the eyebrows, start by outlining their shape. This "zone" can then be filled in with hairs. To form these, use a series of quick strokes, starting from the inside of the eyebrow.

Note that women's eyebrows are generally thinner than men's, and their curve can also be more pronounced.

The Mouth

A woman's mouth can't just be a straight line!

• Mark the outer corners of the mouth with small creases.
• For a woman, the lips are thicker and more curved than men's. Draw each side of the upper lip as symmetrically as possible, then divide it with a sharp V in the center.
• Draw the lower lip slightly thicker than the upper lip, and flatten the line slightly in the center.

Note: you can easily add texture to the lips using the same technique as for the iris, with several light strokes.

Once the mouth is drawn, you can draw the chin crease just below the lower lip. This little trick gives volume to the mouth and defines the chin well.

The Nose

Drawing a nose from the front is more complex than from the side. To get around this difficulty when starting out, just draw the tip of the nose with a simple slightly upward curved horizontal line. Then add the nostrils, starting near the tip and curving slightly up toward the eyes, like two parentheses.

The Ears

Note that the shape of the ears covers the area between the eye and the tip of the nose.

On a woman's portrait drawing with a face shown from the front, the ears aren't round. They look almost flat and close to the head. Two slightly rounded rectangles make perfect ears.

No need to fuss over this part of the drawing, since your female character's hair will probably cover this area.

Woman's Portrait Drawing: Expressions

Now it's time to give your woman portrait drawing an expression. This is mainly done by the orientation of the mouth and eyebrows.

• For a happy female face, the corners of the mouth go up slightly, while the eyebrows are relatively neutral.
• In case of surprise, the mouth forms an O and the eyebrows are raised.
• For a sad expression, the corners of the mouth point down and the eyebrows are furrowed.
• In case of anger, the eyebrows are angled down.
• Etc.

Note: the upper eyelid crease can also greatly impact your female portrait's gaze, and thus the facial expressions.

Drawing the Hair of a Woman's Portrait

Roughly sketch the top of the skull and form the outer contours of the hair.

The hair part is traditionally placed in line with the vertical guide line used in the first part of this tutorial. But it can be slightly offset depending on the effect you want.

Then draw the hair outline starting from the top of the skull. The hairline then falls toward the ears, on both sides of the head. Once the outlines are quickly sketched, you can start adding details by drawing the movement of the hair strands.

Adding Shadows to the Woman's Portrait Drawing

Shadows and lights add a lot of realism to a portrait.

First, choose the angle of the main light source in your drawing. The strongest shadows are placed opposite this light source.

Place your shadow areas:

• under the eyebrows;
• at the base of the neck;
• at the hairline;
• above the upper lip;
• under the eyes;
• etc.

Simple hatching is enough at first to mark these shadows.

Also add light areas to your female portrait, placed:

• on the bridge of the nose;
• on the cheekbones;
• on the forehead;
• at the tip of the chin;
• etc.

Conclusion

The drawing of a woman's portrait from imagination takes some practice to master perfectly.

But with enough practice, you'll even be able to draw female portraits in various poses: three-quarter view, profile, from below, etc.

If you still can't get the result you want and want to give a drawn portrait to someone you care about, don't hesitate to post an ad on the Cartoonely platform. A talented professional will put their skills to work for your project.