ACMonis

Babies are adorable and deserve to be your inspiration for the day. So here are some tips and rules on how to draw the cutest baby in your sketchbook.

1) Draw a Circle and 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 be shaped according to the angle of the baby’s face.

2) Locate The Nose and Draw the Outline

The nose is typically 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.

The nose is small without a defined nose bride.

3) Locate the Eyes and Outline the Shape of Them

The eyes or one eye are usually aligned with the ends of the nose. From there, outline the general shape of the eyes and sketch out any eyelids or laugh lines.

Babies have large eyes.

Draw lines to help you proportion the eyes. The red line shows that the left pupil lines up with the end of the nose. The blue line shows the tear duct lines up with top of the nose. The yellow line shows how the eyes slope at an angle, so you have to draw the left eye higher than the right.

4) Locate the Mouth and Draw the Outline

If the baby is smiling, the mouth is aligned near the middle of each pupil. If the baby is not smiling or is slightly smiling, the mouth should be located near or aligned with the tear ducts of the eyes.

Babies have pouty/chunky lips that are shiny because of how much they drool.

5) Outline the Shape of the Face

Use the circle you drew for the rough outline of the face to help you outline the face shape. Draw all the curves and lines of the baby’s face.

Babies have chunky, round faces, especially around the cheeks and chin.

6) Erase All Your Facial lines of the Rough Sketch

As you are drawing, you may have drawn lines within your drawing to help you locate where the facial features should be. Now, you can erase all those lines to reveal the outline of the baby’s face.

⬆ Before Erasing ⬆ ⬆ After Erasing ⬆

7) Shade in the Face

If you are using your phone to look at your reference photo, I recommend taking a screenshot of your image and editing your picture to have that “noir” filter. This filter in the camera app will make your reference photo black and white, which will help you determine where the shadows are.

8) Blend Your Drawing

Blend your drawing 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.

9) Locate the Eyebrows and Shade Them in

For the eyebrows,  estimate their right location and their shape. The eyebrows are usually thin and not yet defined, so you can simply shade in the brows. But if the eyebrows have some visible hair strands, take your pencil and draw in those hairs.

10) Draw the Ears

Depending on the angle of your baby, the best way to draw the location of the ears is to look at your reference photo and find where the top and bottom of the ear align with.

The ears are just small on babies, there’s no significant difference.

The top of the ear aligns with the corner of the right eye, and the bottom of the ear aligns with the corner of the mouth.

11) Draw the Hair

Straight hair on babies is simple to draw. Use your pencil to create wisps of hair on the baby. Lightly brush your pencil to create the hair. This technique also works for curly hair, but make sure to define some of the curls for some hair definition.

Babies have thin hair, wispy hair.

12) Draw the Body of the Baby (optional)

Babies also have chunky bodies with rolls and distinct rolls.