Now that we know the basic proportions of the head, how do we apply these concepts to drawing from life? The trick is to take it a step at a time, and to trust your eyes. Keep proportion and perspective in mind, and remember that what you 'know' about the face may be very different from what you see, depending on the angle. Two of the most common faults are placing the eye too high on the face, and making the skull too short.

Here is a step-by-step guide to drawing the head using a simple linear approach.

Observing the subject, begin with a rough ball indicating the main part of the skull. Draw the line from forehead to chin, form the plane of the face, and add the jawline and main features. Note that the line indicating the nose shows the base of the nose, not the tip. This will help with modeling the nose later.

Place the ear, construct the nose (in a frontal view using two lines along the length), draw the jawline and indicate the brows, forehead and cheeks (depending on the pose). Position the eyes carefully.

Erase construction lines. Improve the linework, checking the model constantly, adding detail and correcting shape. Add hair. Note that the drawing of the neck and shoulders must also be accurate. This drawing has been darkened to demonstrate the observed lines. If you wish to shade your drawing, keep the linework light.

Tips:

• Practice drawing the head from many different angles. Observe how the facial muscles change as an expression changes.
• Try taking your own reference photos.
• Adults are easier to draw than children, as their features are more sharply defined.
• Try doing some studies of a skull if you can, (try the local museum,art school or school science department) as this will help you understand the planes of the face.