Tips of the Month: Side Profiles
Introduction
Welcome to my tutorial: Tips for Drawing Side Profiles.
In this tutorial, I will set out a foundation you can use to guide your drawing process.
In addition, I will explain the distinctions between male, female, and youth facial features and how to distinguish them in your characterization.
Examples of a Side Profile
Distinct Features:
When drawing your character’s side profile, it’s important to remember key attributes, such as their age, gender, and masculine or feminine qualities.
Refer to the images below:
Male characters:
Men’s faces are usually longer with a stronger brow and thicker neck than women’s. Don’t forget the adam’s apple!
If you want a more masculine looking character, make the chin longer and sharper, give a strong jaw and thicken the neck, as shown in example A.
With older men, make their faces more angular – a defined nose and chin, small eyes, and thin lips, as shown in example B.
Young and feminine males can appear androgynous. Bring this out with subtle feminine traits such as a thinner neck, slimmer nose, and softer brow, as seen in example C.
Female Characters:
Women’s features are softer, with a smoother jawline and slim neck in comparison to their male counterparts. Add a slim, button nose for more femininity.
Example A shows a teen female with wide, determined eyes, thick hair pulled back in a hair tie, and a button nose.
Example B shows an elderly female. Her features show the effects of gravity with sagging jowls, neck, and under eye skin. Their hair has less volume. The eyes are smaller and more sunken with time. The brow and eye cavity fades. The nose continues to grow with age, so don’t be afraid to make that feature pronounced.
Example C shows an infant girl. Infants and chibis will have little to no chin length. Their proportions will be fair and small.
Youth:
Young children – The forehead is large in proportion to the rest of their face. Their eyes are wide and eager to explore new things. Their jawline is short and androgynous, as seen in example A.
Chibi/infant features are quite fair. The head is large while the nose and mouth are tiny. The neck is thin as the muscles are still growing to support the weight, as seen in example B.
Youth – pre-teen and adolescence are stages of development. It’s normal to have unbalanced features such as large ears and small nose, or vice versa, as seen in example C.
Let’s Get Started!
Establish a Foundation
Each of my characters begin with a simple step-by-step process. These guidelines will ultimately help streamline your process, saving you time and effort in the beginning.
Step 1. Draw a Circle
Step 2: Add a target or “bullseye” in the middle
Step 3: Draw a vertical line on the left side
Step 4: Connect the left vertical line to the middle horizontal line
Note: if you are drawing a male character, make the line longer. For youths and chibis, keep the line shorter. For females, keep the length moderate.
Step 5: Draw a half heart
This will be the ear. Keep the heart either below or barely above the middle horizontal line.
Step 6: Draw a dot on the left side
Step 7: Make a Triangle on the left side
Step 8: draw a zig-zag
Step 9: Turn your layer into a sketch
Creating the Face
Now that you have your guidelines, it is time to etch the face from the sketch! From the side panel, turn your sketch’s expression color to blue and lower the opacity. Then add another layer on top.
Start with the brow
Add the nose and lips
Connect the Jaw and draw the eye
Draw the neck and add simple details to the eye, brow, and nose
Add details to the ear and wherever you see fit
Congratulations! You have completed the step-by-step side profile!
Lasting Thoughts
If you want to give your characters more nuance, study difference facial shapes, such as a convex mouth vs concave mouth. There’s a wide variety of facial structures to study and delve into and I encourage trying your hand at as many as you’d like to sharpen your expertise!
For additional drawing steps, refer to my video tutorial on YouTube, @Silvermoonwell
As always, thank you so much and good luck to your journey!
