How To Draw Cartoon Heads
The following is an extract from a chapter from my upcoming book ‘How to Draw Cartoons’.
The chapter introduces the basics of how to draw human head shapes.
The head should always be the place to start when drawing a cartoon character.
When I first started drawing cartoons, I would always draw faces of characters from television (though not very well). It is helpful to think of heads as being Plasticine models.
Once the basic shape has been ‘molded’, you can start adding in all of the facial features to bring your cartoon character to life.
Here are some basic head shapes:
You will notice that these heads are created from very basic shapes such as circles, squares and triangles, which are then adapted to form the head.
When drawing circles, the help of a compass will probably come in handy at first, until you can draw an almost perfect circle un-aided.
Using Crossed Lines:
Below you will see how using the shapes and crossed lines can help dictate the angle of your characters head.
Tip:
When using the crossed lines, it’s generally best to remember that the vertical line will most likely be where the nose goes.
It could be handy to use the horizontal line for the alignment of the eyes too. Try to keep this in mind when drawing the lines.
Masculine vs Feminine
Below you will see more masculine face shapes versus more feminine shapes.
Generally, feminine faces are slightly rounder and narrower.
Masculine faces appear robust. This isn’t a rule, just a generalization.
Something else to note is that the masculinity of a head-shape can also be dictated by the size of the neck.
Masculine Head Shapes
Feminine Head Shapes
