How to Draw Faces: Learn to Draw People from Complete Scratch

Pretty neat. The author takes you through a painstakingly thorough (and that's a GOOD thing!) process of drawing a portrait of a young woman. (The same portrait that is on the cover of the book.) Along the way, you'll pick up a lot of techniques that will help your future drawings and you'll most likely feel a lot of confidence after completing the drawing project by the end of the book. She "holds your hand" (that's a GOOD thing!) through the creation of the whole portrait.I am giving the book five stars because she really pours her heart into giving you all the information you need to complete the drawing.However, I was somehow under the impression (based on the title) that this book would help artists draw portraits of anyone "from complete scratch." Instead, she gives instructions, measurements, a "template," if you will, on how to draw this one particular woman's face from scratch. And by "from scratch" she means, not tracing and not copying a photo. Instead of copying a photo, you are copying *her* drawing! For some reason I thought that maybe she'd give instructions on how to draw *any* face "from scratch" (meaning draw a face from your imagination, in various poses, lighting, etc) "from scratch" (not using a photo—or someone else's drawing—to copy) but this is not the case.A lot of artists aspire to be able to draw faces entirely from their imagination (and many artists do attain this skill).This is not a criticism of this particular book, however, because it's a really great concept that she's offering--step-by-step with painstaking (which is GOOD!) detail on how to do your own drawing of the woman which is on the cover of the book. If you're still learning how to draw portraits, this book will undoubtedly help you.

It is clear and has very fine detail and great advice!

Provides detailed instructions on how to draw and shade faces. Measuring is absolutely critical to get the proportions correct.

Excellent instruction for drawing portraits. Author provides detail on all facial features. Sure, it only is instruction on face on portraits, but technics and instruction can easily be applied to other facial angles. Highly recommend.

I am an artist but never tried sketching or painting people. This book takes you step by step through the things you need to know. I sketch every day now.

Not what I was hoping for, I thought it would have more substance, instead I find it lacking on instruction.

Wonderful book with real good lessons and tips.

It was a gift and it’s still talked about after all this time.