Character Drawing from Scratch: Capture Faces and Figures

Meet your teacher, Laura Pérez. She tells you about her professional background and her career as an illustrator and comic artist before sharing some of her biggest influences.

Begin by getting to know some common materials and mediums used in drawing, including your teacher's favorites. With your pencil in hand, Laura teaches you about the basic internal structure of the head and the face using geometric shapes so you can accurately express the personality of anyone you draw.

Build on these concepts by drawing faces using reference photos and real-life observation, then repeat the process with the human figure. Explore different stylistic possibilities and see how to translate them into basic shapes before discovering how to depict a variety of gestures and postures to make your poses look more natural.

Finally, find out how to enhance your drawing process with the quick-sketch technique, a creative process that Laura herself uses in her own work. Learn how to capture fleeting emotions by drawing imperfect lines and shapes to create a rough sketch that you can refine into a more realistic illustration.

You now know how to transform basic shapes to draw your own expressive characters full of personality.