Facial Proportions of Babies

7/29/2019 Facial Proportions of Babies

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Brenda Hoddinott

P-03 INTERMEDIATE: PEOPLE

In this project, you set up simple horizontal and vertical guidelines for drawing accurate facialproportions of babies.

Skills presented include: identifying the facial development from newborn to toddler;

understanding and respecting the diversity of babies’ heads and faces; drawing horizontal and

vertical facial guidelines; and placing an infant’s ears and features within vertical and horizontalfacial guidelines.

The proportions of a baby’s head are much different than those of an older child or an adult.

Many beginners tend to draw a baby’s face too big in proportion to his or her head, resulting in a

“mini” adult rather than an accurately drawn baby. In this project, you discover where to placefacial features and ears on an infant approximately one-year-old.

This lesson is divided into the following four parts:

EXAMINING BABIES’ FACES: understanding the inherent diversity of a mosaic of

babies’ faces.HORIZONTAL GUIDELINES: drawing horizontal guidelines for the placement of earsand facial features.

VERTICAL GUIDELINES: drawing vertical guidelines for placing facial features.

PLACING FEATURES: sketching a baby’s ears and facial features correctly within the

guidelines.

Suggested drawing supplies include: good quality white drawing paper, a ruler, various graphite

pencils, and kneaded and vinyl erasers.

Recommended for artists with good drawing skills from age 12 to adult, as well ashome schooling, academic and recreational fine art educators

9 PAGES – 17 I LLUSTRATI ONS

Published by Hoddinott Fine Art Publishers, Halifax, NS, Canada (Revised 2006)



Copyright to all articles, images, text, projects, lessons and exercises within this drawing class belong to Brenda Hoddinott and maynot be reproduced or used for any commercial purposes whatsoever without the written permission of Brenda Hoddinott.

E-mail [email protected] Web sites http://www.finearteducation.com and http://www.drawspace.com

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EXAMI NI NG BABI ES’ FACES

Before you attempt to draw individual features on a baby’s face, it helps to know how to plan a

place for everything, sort of like a blueprint. Some variations of rules for remembering humanfacial proportions are simple and others are quite complex. I prefer simple guidelines that are

easy to remember. The heads and faces of babies come in many shapes and sizes. However, thesame basic guidelines for proportions, apply to each of them. Proportion is the relationship insize of one component of a drawing to another or others.

In this project you focus on an infant approximately one-year-old. During the first two years of

life, the human face grows very quickly and undergoes drastic changes. In this illustration, you

see portraits of my daughter, Heidi at three different ages, from newborn to age two.

As a very young infant (the first drawing), her eyebrows are very light, she has very little hair,and her face is tiny. At age one (the second drawing) the lower section of her face has developed

to allow room for a few teeth. By two, her jaw has developed to accommodate more teeth, her

eyebrows are darker, and her hair is thicker.

ILLUSTRATION 03-01

Each baby is physically unique due to inherent variations in skin and eye colors, quantity and

texture of hair such as thick, thin, straight or curly, and sizes and shapes of heads, faces, and

features. Even identical twins often have subtle differences.

Have a peek at the following six cartoon drawings of babies (on the next page), and note the

many different sizes and shapes of their heads. Take note of the following:

The eyes, nose, mouth and ears are all in the lower half of a baby’s head.

A baby’s face is quite tiny when compared to the overall size of his or her head.

The lower sections of babies’ faces come in many different shapes.

Babies’ heads, eyes, noses, mouths and ears, come in many shapes, and sizes from very

large to tiny.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.finearteducation.com/

http://www.drawspace.com/








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ILLUSTRATION 03-02

Babies’ heads generally appear tobe proportionately wider and

shorter than those of adults.

The rules of proportion in this

lesson apply to pretty much allinfant head shapes.

HORI ZONTAL GUI DELI NES

Look closely at the faces of the two babies (below). The heads are different shapes, but the same

horizontal proportions apply to each. I have added four horizontal lines (AB, CD, EF, and GH)

so you can see what goes where:

Line AB: The tops of the ears and the tops of the upper eyelids touch this line.

Line CD: This line marks the locations of the bottoms of the ears and the nose.

Line EF: Along this line is the lower lip.

Line GH: This line identifies the bottom of the lower jaw, not the bottom of the soft

tissue under the chin. Many infants have what is commonly called a “double chin”.

ILLUSTRATION 03-03

Think of the

horizontal facial

proportions of a babyin terms of three

halves.

Basically you divide

the whole length of the head in half, then

divide the lower half in half, and finally

divide the lower half of the lower half in

half!

Sound confusing? Don’t worry, in this part I take you through this process step by step! Set upyour drawing paper, let the dog in, sharpen your pencil and find your ruler!











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ILLUSTRATION 03-04

Before you begin, you may want to draw astraight line down the center of your page (a line of symmetry) to help keep your head shape symmetrical,

and to use as a guide for measuring for the placementof horizontal guidelines.

1) Draw a circular shape similar to an egg with the

top half wider than the bottom.

Use good quality white drawing paper in case you need

to erase. An HB pencil worked well for me, but you canuse whatever pencil you prefer.

ILLUSTRATION 03-05

2) Measure the total vertical distancebetween the top of the head and the

bottom of the chin.

3) Divide this total measurement in

half and mark it with a small dot.

4) Draw a horizontal line (AB) through

this dot, dividing the head into two

halves.

Line AB is halfway between the top of

the head and the bottom of the chin.

ILLUSTRATION 03-06

If you slept through mathclasses, feel free to use a calculator forfiguring out the distances.

5) Draw line GH, parallel to line AB, close

to the bottom of the chin.

Line GH identifies the approximate location

of the bottom edge of the lower jaw rather

than the bottom edge of the chin itself.

The edge of a baby’s chin isn’t a reliable pointfor measurement because most babies have

chubby chins or even double chins.











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ILLUSTRATION 03-07

6) Measure the vertical distance between

line AB and line GH.

7) Divide this measurement in half and

mark it with a small dot.

8) Draw a horizontal line through thisdot, parallel to lines AB and GH,

dividing the lower half of the head

into halves.

9) Mark this new line CD.

ILLUSTRATION 03-08

10) Measure the vertical distance

between line CD and line GH.

11) Divide this measurement in half

and mark it with a small dot.

12) Draw a horizontal line through

this dot, parallel to lines CD and

GH.

13) Mark this new line EF.

VERTI CAL GUI DELI NES

Because a baby’s head is approximately “five eyes” wide at its widest point, I divide the face

into five equal sections for placing the vertical guidelines. In this part, you draw verticalguidelines for the placements of a baby’s facial features.

Examine the faces of the two babies in the two drawings on the next page. The width of the

space between the eyes is equal to the width of an eye. Both the nose and mouth are

approximately the same width as an eye (or the space between the eyes).

The faces are quite different, but the following vertical proportions apply to each.

KL: The outer corner of the eye on the left touches or overlaps this line.

MN: This line shows the location of the inside corner of the eye, the edge of the nose,

and the corner of the mouth (on the left).











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ILLUSTRATION 03-09

OP: Theinside edge of

the left eye,

the left edge

of the nose,and the

corner of the

left side of the mouth

touches or

overlaps thisline.

QR: This line

marks theouter edge of

the left eye.

ILLUSTRATION 03-10

14) Draw a vertical line on each side of

the head at its widest points.

Mark the line on the left IJ, and the one

on the right ST. These two lines are

perpendicular to the horizontal lines.

ILLUSTRATION 03-11

15) Measure the horizontal distance

between lines IJ and ST.

16) Divide this distance by five, and

mark the four points.

17) Add lines, KL, MN, OP, and QR

at each of the four points.











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ILLUSTRATION 03-12

PLACI NG FEATURES

Your blueprint is complete and it’s time to add a faceto your drawing. You may prefer to draw different

features, as you follow along with the steps.18) Add the ears with the tops touching

horizontal line AB and the bottoms

touching horizontal line CD.

19) Add a curved line (indicating the lower

jaw) touching line GH and in between

vertical lines MN and OP.

ILLUSTRATION 03-13

20) Modify the outline of the perimeter of the

head (between lines AB and CD) leaving

an opening for the tops of the ears.

21) Extend the outlines of the tops of the ears

slightly towards the center of the face.

ILLUSTRATION 03-14

22) Draw the eyes slightly below AB.

The eye on the left is between vertical

lines KL and MN. The one on the right is

between OP and QR.

The widest section of the head is “five-eyes wide”.

The width of an eye is equal to one of the

five horizontal spaces.













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BRENDA HODDINOTT - BIOGRAPHY

As a self-educated teacher, visual artist,

portraitist, forensic artist, and illustrator,

Brenda Hoddinott utilizes diverse artmedia including graphite, technical pen,

colored pencil, chalk pastel, charcoal,conté crayon, and oil paints.

My philosophy on teaching art is to focus

primarily on the enjoyment aspects while

gently introducing the technical and

academic. Hence, in creating a passion for

the subject matter, the quest for

knowledge also becomes enjoyable.

>Brenda Hoddinott<

Born in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Brendagrew up in the small town of Corner

Brook. She developed strong technicalcompetencies with a personal commitment

to self directed learning, and the aid of

assorted “Learn to Draw” books.

During Brenda’s twenty-five year career as a self-educated civilian forensic artist, numerouscriminal investigation departments have employed Brenda’s skills, including Royal Canadian

Mounted Police and municipal police departments. In 1992, Brenda was honored with a

commendation from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and in 1994, she was awarded a

Certificate of Membership from “Forensic Artists International”.

Her home-based art career included graphic design, and teaching recreational drawing and

painting classes. As supervisor of her community’s recreational art department, Brenda hired and

trained teachers, and designed curriculum for several children’s art programs. In 1998, Brenda

chose to end her eighteen-year career as an art educator in order to devote more time to writing,drawing, painting, and developing her websites.

Drawspace http://www.drawspace.com incorporates her unique style and innovative approach to

curriculum development. This site offers downloadable and printable drawing classes for

students of all abilities from the age of eight through adult. Students of all ages, levels andabilities have praised the simple step-by-step instructional approach. This site is respected as a

resource for fine art educators, home schooling programs, and educational facilities throughout

the world.

LEARN-TO-DRAW BOOKS BY BRENDA HODDINOTT

Drawing for Dummies: Wiley Publishing, Inc., New, York, NY, this 336 page book is available

on various websites and in major bookstores internationally.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Drawing People: Winner of the Alpha-Penguin Book of the

Year Award 2004, Alpha - Pearson Education – Macmillan, Indianapolis, IN, this 360 page book is

available on various websites and in major bookstores internationally.











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Facial Proportions of Babies