Eyes, Nose, Mouth and Ears

With the head constructed, it's time for the features. The key idea of this lesson: every feature is a 3D form sitting on a curved surface, not a symbol. Understand the form and you can draw it from any angle and under any light.

The eye

• The eye is a sphere sitting in a socket of the skull. The eyelids wrap around it like a hood.
• The upper lid is thicker, more curved and casts a shadow on the eyeball. The lower lid is subtler.
• The iris is a circle (an ellipse when the eye turns), partly covered by the upper lid. A fully visible iris looks surprised.
• The highlight sits on the cornea, on the side of the light, and usually overlaps the pupil and iris.
• The white of the eye is not white: it's shaded like any sphere, darker at the corners and under the upper lid.
• Eyelashes are better suggested as a dark thickening of the lid line than drawn one by one.

The nose

• Think of the nose as a wedge or a block with a ball at the end, attached to the face at the brow.
• Draw it with planes: the bridge (top), the sides, and the underside with the nostrils. Light usually separates them clearly.
• Don't outline the whole nose. Often you only need the shadow under the tip, the nostrils and one side plane.

The mouth

• The lips sit on a curved surface: the teeth and jaw form a cylinder. In a three-quarter view, the far side of the mouth is shorter.
• The upper lip usually faces downward, so it's darker; the lower lip faces upward and catches light.
• The most important line is the line between the lips: darkest at the corners and the center.
• Use soft edges on the outer contour of the lips; avoid outlining them heavily.

The ear

• From the side, the ear is like a C shape or a question mark, tilted back, between the brow line and the bottom of the nose.
• It has a rim (helix), an inner Y-shaped ridge and a bowl leading into the ear canal. Simplify into a few curved shapes and one dark accent.