How to Draw and Shade a Girl's Face using Graphite Pencils - My Process Tutorial

Hello everyone! I'm Nina and welcome to my channel where I post weekly tutorials, art experiments and art vlogs for you to enjoy and improve your skills. And in this video I will draw and shade a girl's face using graphite pencils. Remember that your likes and subscriptions really help my channel and me, so don't hesitate to do that. And let's finally start the tutorial! As I said, I will be using graphite pencils, so here they are. I'll take 2H, 2B, HB and B, also a black pencil for the darkest areas. Don't give up if you don't have a lot of graphite pencils, it's totally okay, you'll still learn how to draw a female face even if you have only one pencil. But I must admit that having different ranges of pencils will improve the quality of your work. I will also need an eraser. I like to use kneadable erasers because you can shape it the way you want. The one that is shaped like a pencil is very comfy too, but the normal one will also do. And the most important thing is a blending tool. I always use a flat makeup brush for blending. But you can take a q-tip, a soft tissue or even a piece of cloth for blending. Or create your own blending stump like this one, just watch my tutorial and you'll have a professional supply. It's super easy. The link will be in the description among all the other helpful links. There are many many ways to draw people, but I prefer starting with the basic shapes. So first I'm drawing a circle that represents the skull using a 2H pencil. Then I'm marking the center of the face which I will be calling a brow line. And I'm chopping off the sides of the circle because you know our head is not entirely round. Then I'm drawing the hairline and the nose line. Then I'm measuring the distance between the nose and the brows, moving it down and marking the chin. This method of drawing human heads is called the Loomis method and if you want to be able to draw a head from any angle, check my tutorial on how to do that, you already know where to find the link. So now when I have the basics, I can start drawing different face parts. This is where I'm constantly looking at my reference picture. The reference face might be a little different from the Loomis guidelines, so study your reference picture really really well and adjust your drawing. Some of us have bigger chins or smaller foreheads and it's just totally normal, it's just fine. When I draw different facial parts, I always keep in mind some golden rules. For example, the distance between the eyes equals the length of this eye, or the nose box is usually between the tear duct, something like this, because those rules are actually important, like this anatomy rules. So do keep them in mind, because they will help you to make a sketch that doesn't seem off. The eyebrows are a little bit longer than the actual eye and situated on the eyebrow line. Again, use your reference. The nose is basically a little circle on the nose line with two small nostrils. As I've already said, the nose box is located between the tear ducts. The mouth is normally located on the lower part of the circle and it's usually as long as the distance between the irises. But don't worry, when we are blending the mouth, we will talk more about it. Right now, just know that it's somewhere between the chin and the nose, but closer to the nose. I'm also marking out the general shape of the hair using my reference picture. As you can see, the hair is actually a little above our skull, so it's not located on the top of the circle, it's actually a little bit above. Here I'm adding more details to the eyes and eyebrows, but before I say anything else, here's a short message from myself. Guys, I have tutorials on how to draw every single facial part, so if you feel like you're having problems with drawing, for example, lashes, eyes, nose, mouth, hair, whatever, just visit my channel, find the right tutorial and you will be fine. At this stage, you might want to erase the guidelines. My sketch looks a little rough, but clear enough for me. I see no reason to try to define every single detail right now, because it will be smeared or drawn over while blending. When the sketch is done, I'm suggesting to take it and get to the mirror, because it will help you to see the flaws. When people draw digitally, they flip the canvas from time to time, but when you draw traditionally, you can just use your mirror. It's a tip from me. So, guys, it's time to shade, and I have created a shading map of this drawing for you, so it would have been a little easier for you to understand what I'm doing. You can also find the shading map on my Instagram or just make a screenshot right now, but it will always be here on the screen from now on. So, you can basically see the darkest areas of the face I'm drawing right now, they're marked as blue, and the highlighted areas, they're marked as white. And I think that's a great help, actually, because you'll just, you know, visualize how it's going to look like. I always start shading with the left eye, because otherwise I might smear the graphite with my palm. So first, I'm filling in the iris using an HB pencil and the black pencil for the darkest places, such as a pupil, lashes and iris rim. Oh, and don't forget to keep the reflection white. Actually, you might be surprised to know how much life the eye reflection can bring into your eye drawing. If you didn't leave a space for it, don't worry, you can use a white gel roll later, or you can even, I don't know, take some white paint. Missy and I would really like you to visit our Instagram, because we post a lot of things there as well, also tutorials, behind the scenes and everything. So check out our Instagram and we hope you will be following us. I'm trying to avoid any rough strokes, so I blend a lot. For such small areas as eyes, it's nice to use a blending stump. For the bigger areas, it's better to use something bigger, a brush for example. A pro tip, make steady strokes with no space between them to help yourself to blend later. That will really facilitate the process of blending in the future. The lashes can cast shadows, so I'm also shading the white portion of the eye. Drawing the lashes is my favorite part, because they really bring the eye to life. It just looks so much better with beautiful lashes. So first I'm drawing single lashes to show the direction and then I'm filling in the space between. By the way, notice that I'm not just drawing straight sticks, the lashes actually go down first and then up and they're pointy at the end. The eyebrows are pretty simple, I think. In the beginning of the eyebrow the hairs grew up, in the middle they grow a little to the side and in the end they grow to the side. I think it's pretty simple to draw eyebrows and I'm pretty sure you will agree with me. If not, I have a tutorial. I hope you guys don't mind that I decided to speed up the process of drawing the second eye, because you know, it's basically the same. First I was trying to fill in the iris using an agp pencil and a pupil with a black pencil. Then I gave the iris a tiny bit of structure, I shaded the lids. And by the way, my girl is wearing makeup, so I might have shaded the lips a tiny bit too dark, but it's because she's wearing eyeshadows. Then I drew some lashes and eyebrows, so that's it. This is basically the algorithm of drawing the eyes by Nina Blancstroop. You know, sometimes I'm struggling with making the second eye look exactly like the first eye I drew, but it's also because, you know, I'm filming and I can't see the drawing as clear as I would have if I didn't have a camera in front of it. But you know, we must remember that our eyes are not supposed to be the same. Our left half of the face is actually different from the right half of the face, so if you can see that one of your eyes is a little bit off, just remember this fact. When the eyes are done, I usually move to the nose. I actually love shading noses because, you know, it's fast. And by the way, if you want to know how to draw a realistic nose from two sides, check out my tutorial just reminding you one more time. So first, I'm shading around the tip of the nose and along the bridge using a 2H pencil. And then, of course, blending. I believe that blending truly gives the skin this extra smooth texture, and I really like it when shading faces. So I do like blending, I actually love it. And if you agree that it gives you this smoothness that you're looking for, then I think you should get yourself a nice blending tool. So I'm literally giving the nose some thin layers of graphite, blending, a lot of graphite, blending, and that's it. I'm not kidding you, it's really simple to shade a nose. I'm repeating this step a couple of times to get the right tones, and the nose is basically done. You can pull out some highlights on the tip to make it pop, and even sometimes on the bridge if you feel like it. If you look at the shading map, you will notice that the areas that are along the bridge are actually the darkest, and the tip of the nose and a tiny bit on the bridge are the highlighted areas. So really use the shading map to understand and visualize how it needs to look, and let's go on. Now let's shade the mouth. I usually start by drawing this line between the lips to define them, and then I'm filling in the lips using HB and B pencils. After shading, I'm making the mouth corners a little bit darker, so it wouldn't seem that the mouth is flat. A mouth is usually as big or long, I don't know, as the distance between the irises, and it's a little closer to the nose than to the chin, so it's actually an anatomical mistake if you draw it right between the nose and the tip of the chin, but actually we're all different, so I'm pretty sure there are people who have their mouth exactly there, but if you want to draw it anatomically correct, then it's closer to the nose. Feel free to pause the video if it's a little too fast for you. I'm adding some lips texture just by drawing a few lines like in the middle and just all over, take into account that they're a little curved, and I'm pulling out some highlights using an eraser to show once again that the mouth isn't flat. It's time for skin shading now. I must say that skin shading can be really tedious, but if you have a blending tool, it will be fast. Some people have an opinion that smudging and blending isn't cool, but let me remind you that being efficient nowadays is everything, so don't listen to anyone, listen to me. Go get yourself a nice blending tool for skin, it can be a brush like mine, it can be a cotton ball, a q-tip, a tissue, a piece of that cloth for cleaning, just anything. So first I'm making some steady strokes and then blending. Here you should actively use my shading map to see which facial areas should be darker and which ones should be highlighted. I'm gonna speed up this process here because we don't want to sit here for two hours, right? By the way, be careful not to make the face you're drawing too dark, of course, if it wasn't your intentions originally. But sometimes I do make the faces a little bit too dark and when that happens, the kneadable eraser really saves my life and my work because it just, you know, I don't know how it works exactly, but it just like gets all the graphite from the paper and it just becomes a lot lighter. So it's like a little trick, so if you do like me sometimes, you can just get yourself a kneadable eraser. As I said, my girl is wearing makeup, so I'm also shading this area around her eye just to show that there are some eyeshadows. On this stage, I'm also working my ways around the nose and the mouth. I'm drawing the cupid's bow and just shading the mouth corners and behind the nostrils. By the way, defining the cupid's bow can really bring your drawing to life because some people just forget doing that. And add some makeup if you feel like and if you like things like this. All those little details are making your drawing more alive, you know, just reminding you to take your time and pause when you need or even go back. Remember to shade the neck as well. It's usually darker right under the chin because of the casting shadows and when that is done, we can move to the hair. I'm saying it if I like doing the hair, you know, I actually don't. I'm gonna speed it up here because hair is a huge area to fill in, but remember that you can always pause and go back or even slow down the actual video on YouTube. I want you to keep the pencils as sharp as possible, like all the time, because that is what will make it look pretty much realistic. So I'm not drawing all over. I took one hair strand and I'm working with it. This big area can be very overwhelming to do, so seriously, don't start drawing all over. Start at one place and then slowly move to the other strand or just part of the hair. I usually blend hair as well, but it does take away some texture, so remember to add some strokes here and there. Once again, I'm looking at the reference all the time to see where I should make it darker and where I should leave it lighter. Oh, by the way, you should leave the lightest areas instead of erasing it later, because trust me, you won't erase it. Try to sketch some strands and follow the hair flow, because otherwise there's a chance you'll get confused and your result won't be great. If you guys know me, you know how much I hate drawing hair. I struggle every single time. I just think it's boring and long, so if you feel the same, know that you're not the only one here. You are not alone. I don't know what else I can say about the hair shading, just keep in mind that your pencils have to be extremely sharp all the time and follow the hair direction. Give it as much texture as you want and the hair is done. And in the end, I usually add some messy hairs here and there, because, you know, I think it just brings the drawing to life and just makes it look more realistic. Now take a look at your drawing and fix some little things here and there, because when you can't see the entire picture, you might want to add something or get rid of something. I could have left it like this, but I decided to add some freckles, just like on my reference picture, even though I didn't want to in the beginning, but I think it looks pretty cool. Basically, you can work on detailing as much as you wish, because, you know, the more details you put into your work, the more cool the result will be, at least it's my personal opinion. So yeah, just add some things here and there or don't, it's your choice, but I personally prefer a lot of small details, so maybe freckles is a really cool idea here. So this is how I usually draw and shade faces. I hope you enjoyed watching this video. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the section down below and I always try to answer as many comments as possible. And if you want to show me your drawing, use this hashtag on Instagram and I'll try to check it out too. See you in the next video, guys. Bye!