How to draw realistic face front view

Draw realistic face tutorial front view. This post is a portrait study I did using Wacom tablet to practice portrait drawing for digital art. 

In this one, I am trying to use just default round hard and soft in Photoshop, not using any fancy or custom brushes just to see if I can carry it to the end. Most of you ask, what kind of brush do I use. I used a lot of brushes, but that’s not the point. Most of the tutorials here that I made, I am trying to bring the principle to the audiences.
Foundation in art practice is the most important things one could learn. Because once you understand the principle like lines (correct drawing), shapes, and values (gradient, tones) along with understanding soft and hard edges. Most importantly how light effect your subject, you can carry all the knowledge across the medium. Digital or tradition is does not really matter, they are just tool we use to transfer our vision onto paper, canvas, computer to ultimately communicate with audiences
If you understand the principle of how all the terms I am talking about above react and utilize them efficiently then you can at your best ability transform your thought onto any medium you wish.
Portrait study is a great way to practice, it never gets old. Artist can always get better as he or she practice more with observation and determine to gain knowledge or insight to achieve the best possible outcome of the piece. Drawing people is one of the most difficult thing for any artist. Especially when you want it to look certain way and have different lighting, mood or even expression from the subject.

Anyway, here is another female portrait study front view.
This one I only use default round brush soft and hard in Photoshop: =)

This is a tutorial on how to draw realistic faces from the front view. This post details a portrait study that I did using a Wacom [tablet] [e.g. Intuos 5 Medium] (better to replace “tablet” with an exact model) to practice digital portrait drawing. In this tutorial, I am trying to strictly use the default round hard and soft brushes in Photoshop. I wanted to see if I could create a professional piece without using any fancy or custom brushes. Many of you have been curious about what exact brushes I use. Although I use many different brushes, I want to emphasize that the brush type is not the main concern! Most of these tutorials bring focus to the importance of the principle of art. A strong, practical foundation is the most important thing you can learn. Once you fully understand basic principles such as the correct method of drawing lines, shapes, gradients and tones, soft and hard edges, and, most importantly, how light affects your subject, you can carry all that knowledge across any medium. The terms digital and traditional do not matter; they are just tools we use to transfer our vision onto paper, canvas,
and computers to communicate with our audiences.

If you understand the principle of how all the terms mentioned above interact, and you can use them efficiently, then you can function at the best of your abilities and transform your thoughts onto any medium you wish.

Portrait studies are a great way to practice; it never gets old. An artist can continuously improve as he or she practices their observation skills and are determined to gain knowledge or insight to achieve the best possible outcome for their pieces. Drawing people is one of the most difficult things for any artist, especially when you want your subject to look a specific way and have
different lighting, mood or expressions. Now that you understand the importance of a good foundation, let’s begin!

Here is a female front view portrait.
For this portrait, I only used the default round brush, soft and hard, in Photoshop: =)

learn realistic portrait drawing

Below is a step-by-step portrait drawing and rendering tutorial:

1) I started off with an egg shape but with a slightly angular bottom because I wanted her to have a strong jaw line. I laid out the flat skin color as a base (de-saturated pinkish or egg shell color; you can use any skin tone you prefer). Afterward, I marked spots for where I would put her eyes. I painted in the eye sockets because they are the part of the face that usually casts the strongest shadows, other than under the nose and under the upper lip.

NOTE* There is a big jump from Step 1 to Step 2. If you are wondering how to structure the facial features, go to my previous tutorial how to draw face. Once you’ve learned these very basic things the puzzle is solved!

2) In this stage, I added some very soft shadows all over her face, then some shadows all the way from under her cheek bone to her chin line to indicate a three dimensional object and establish the direction of the light source (the light is hitting from the front). I then went in to draw the outline of her eyes, eyebrows, nose tip, and lips. Although these lines are not here to stay, they are there to give me some sort of guideline so that I can accurately apply my paint.

drawing portrait tutorial front view

3) Paint as if you are sculpting. The reason I placed soft shadows in the previous stage is so that I can pull out the light and give the portrait the illusion of a 3D object. I painted the lighter value of color over the area that the light source would hit. At this stage, don’t get caught up in details, just layout the simple shape and flat color. I put lighter values all along the bridge of her nose to the tip, her cheeks, the area above her upper lips, and her chin (these are the areas that will get hit directly by the light source I previously established). Notice that I also added some strong shadows on both sides of her nose bridge and darkened the eye socket a bit to accentuate the form that was given by the light source.

4) Now I worked on her nose tip (this should usually be highlighted and have the strongest shadows). When working on the nose, try not to think of the drawing but think of the light and shadows. I usually don’t draw nostrils. I just shadow it out or darken
it because most of the time you don’t really get to see them if you squint (you will have much better results if you practice more from live subjects than from photo references). However, for demonstration purposes, I will do them just for the hell of it. Notice I painted in only two values under the nose. Usually, I can get away with just one.

how to draw realistic face

5) Then I looked for places where I could put darker shadows on her face to make her features more prominent such as dark lines in between her lips and more dark paint around her eye sockets and her eyebrows.

6) Now it’s time to tighten things up by finding places to put my darkest values onto the image: under her chin, under her eyebrows (sockets), and some on the side to create sharp edges for the painting. I also brought some light out in her eyes.

7) Tweak and refine the features here and there, no major value or hue changes, to tighten up or clean up a little more..

draw realistic face tutorial

8) Now I lighted up her face a bit more by putting more light values to her nose tip, above her lips and a bit on her chin.

9) As the face is coming along and finally starting to look like a face, it’s time to bring out some detail and put some highlights on her. At this stage, I painted highlights in her irises, the tip of her nose and the edge of her upper lip. These areas get hit by the strongest light.

10) Refinement, clean up and finish up…in this case I darkened her eye lashes (adding shadows underneath), added some highlights on her lower lips, and touched up her nose.

11) Added some hair to her face and highlighted it to give it dimension.

learn portrait drawing

This one I painted using just the Default Round hard and soft brushes.