ACMonis

Draw some of your favorite old people, whether they are your grandparents, your old, sweet neighbor, or some random grandma you ran into in the grocery store!

1) Draw a Circle and a Cross For The Face Proportions

The circle provides a rough outline of the face. The cross will help you lay out the other face feature like the eyes, nose, and mouth. The circle and cross don’t have to be perfect, but the cross has to align according to the angle of the old person’s face.

2) Locate The Nose and Draw the Outline

The nose is typically at the center of where your cross intersects. We draw the cross for this reason. We want to see the center lines of the face, horizontally and vertically.

Old people have noses that tend to look more big or wide. Some old people have humped-looking noses.

3) Locate the Eyes and Outline the Shape of Them

Estimate the eyes’ horizontal location and ensure they align correctly. Draw lines to help you position the eyes. Sometimes the ends of the eyes are aligned with the nose, or the ends of the nose line up with the pupils.

Then, outline the general shape of the eyes and sketch out any eyelids or laugh lines. Old people usually have sunken, cloudy eyes within protruding sockets.

4) Draw the Eyebrows

Old people’s eyebrows are either nonexistent, really bushy, or really thin. My old man over here has no eyebrows.

5) Locate the Mouth and Draw the Outline

Draw a line to estimate where the mouth will be and outline it. Old people have thin lips that also seem nonexistent.

6) Use Your Circle as a Guild to Help You Draw the Outline of the Face

When drawing the face shape of your old pal, use the circle as a guild and don’t pay too much attention to it. Use the circle to guild you.

Old people have sagging facial skin in addition to their sagging jowls. Others have protruding cheekbones as they age.

7) Draw the Ears

Old people have long ears. Draw some lines to help you position the ears.

8) Shade in Your Whole Drawing

Shade in your whole drawing to help you draw the details later on. Shade lightly where the light hits the face, and shade darkly where the light doesn’t hit the front. It doesn’t have to be perfect because we will blend it in.

Keep on shading in layers to draw the shadows and the bright areas of the face.

9) Blend Your Drawing

Blend your shadings with a Q-tip, a tissue, or your finger. I use a Q-tip because it’s the most efficient tool and doesn’t get my hand dirty. Blend in circles like how people blend using make-up.

10) Draw in the Details

Eye Details: Old people tend to have cloudy eyes with tear troughs and crow’s feet. My old man here has wrinkles running vertically where the eyebrows were.

Nose Details: Some people have noses that are flatter as they age. Old people have  nasolabial folds(smile/laugh lines) extending from the ends of the nose to the mouth ends. 

Mouth Details: The old also have Marionette Lines often running from the ends of the mouth to the chin.

Forehead Details: Old people have forehead lines and receding hairlines. If they do have hair, it’s thin and barely there.

Neck Details: Old people also have sagging necks with necklines running horizontally. Some also have a hollow space in their neck where their Adam’s apple used to be. 

11) Draw the Hair

Some old people have hair some don’t. The hair is often wispy and very thin.

12) Draw the Clothing

If you want to draw something more than just the face of your old person, draw their clothing or accessories.

There are many pros and cons that come with aging and being old. But an underrated pro that people forget is that artists want to draw old people!!