Learn How to Paint Faces With Your Digital Tools!

Once you have the skull and the face muscles, it's time to learn how to paint faces with your digital art software. If you need to, use the same picture file from the previous lessons.

Primarily, this is an exercise to teach you how to import files from previous drawings or photographs and incorporating it to create new pieces of artwork.

As for tools of this lesson, you will be switching different size brushes. For instance, with the face muscles, you need to use a small digital brush to get in the muscle details.

However, when you start to paint the face, you will be switching to a larger brush to cover the areas of your skull and face muscles.

Anyway, start up a new layer and let's learn how to paint faces!

1. Draw faces on the first layer

As you learn how to paint faces, always keep an open mind to the skull and the face muscles underneath.

You will find that, in order to paint the face correct, you will need to switch to different brushes and changing the opacity very often.

We will begin to start off easy by applying a dark layer of skin tone. All you need to do is choose a large brush with the pressure sensitivity set under 25%. From there, begin painting the outline of the face with regards to the skull structure.

The most important thing is to look at where the facial features are located in relationship to the skull.

2. Draw faces with light and shadows

From here on, you will be switching brushes and colors on a regular basis. Like I said, it would be the best to move to a lighter color each time as you are going to paint the light source.

However, from time to time, you will need to switch back to a darker color and start to repaint the shadows.

This is normal as you won't be able to understand everything in one try! Basically, to create depth, the shadows are located around the eye areas, beside and underneath the nose, underneath the chin, and around the jaw area.

This example is just showing how to create depth using shadows and light. Notice I have no regards for a light source. That is not needed for now as we are just making a 2d shape into a 3d painting.

3. Draw faces with more details

For the last part of learning how to paint faces, you need to create even more details to highlight all the facial features.

Obviously, to accomplish the last part, you will need to reduce the size of your brush to paint the little details.

The most common ones you will look at are the pupils, the eyelashes, the eyebrows, and the reflection of light on the lips.

Basically, anything that sticks out will be hit by light. That means you will paint a lighter tone of that color to create a 3d feel to your face.

On top of using the digital brush, learn to use the dodge and burn tools to further enhance the shadows and the light.

Make sure each stroke flows with the feature. For example, you don't paint vertical lines outlining the eyes. You paint long and curved horizontal lines.

Don't worry about going into too many details. All want you to work on is just a general understanding of light and shadows for learning how to paint faces.

When you are finished, give yourself a pat on the back because you have just learned your own painting process!

4. Potential of layering techniques

The techniques gained from this lesson are many. First of all, you are learning how to use your digital brushes through altering the size and the type of brushes needed to get the right texture.

Secondly, you are switching between layers. This means you are creating problem solving process from seeing the foundation (such as an outline sketch) and how it relates to the final finished product.

Thirdly, you are learning methods of stacking on textures through the layers and how one texture may affect one another. Here is a potential finished product:

While it may be hard to see how I managed to create this painting at this stage, the process is in place to give you an idea of what is possible.

The great thing about working digitally is that you can always undo and correct any changes till you get it right.

Over the course of your learning, you will be able to paint something very similar to this (or even better) because I always emphasize the problem solving process and the importance of building a strong artistic foundation.

I hope you enjoyed this simple introduction on how to paint faces. For now, keep practicing while staying tuned for more learning opportunities!

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