Welcome to Lesson 5 of our step-by-step professional portrait drawing series on DrawEverything.org. In our previous lessons, we explored the fundamental proportions of the adult human head and the geometry of facial features. Today, we will dive into a crucial topic that separates amateur artists from professionals: Age and Sex in the Drawing of the Human Head, and how the structural growth, development, and proportions of the skull and face evolve from early childhood to full maturity.
AGE, GROWTH, AND PROPORTIONS OF THE HUMAN HEAD
Let us begin by asking ourselves a fundamental question that every portrait artist must consider: Why does the newborn, compared to the adult, have a large head, a proportionally larger skull, large eyes that appear more widely spaced, and a relatively small nose, mouth, and chin?
The answer is simple and beautifully logical: in the newborn, the vital parts of the head—such as the brain, vision, hearing, and basic senses—must perform, from the very first years, the same functions, or nearly the same, as in the adult. They need to be ready from day one.
Take vision, for example. At two years old, the child sees—he must see—with as much clarity and as perfectly as you and I do. Therefore, logically, the eyes of a two-year-old child must be already fully developed in size. The same can be said for internal vital organs such as the brain and the hearing system. At this early age, however, the child does not need to chew food with the same muscular power, bone structure, and precision as we adults do. This perfectly explains the narrowness and smallness of his mouth and jaw. His nose is small because the nasal bones and respiratory cartilage are not yet developed.
Let us now examine the effects and variations that this wise physiological organization produces on the actual shape of the face when drawing a portrait.
AT TWO YEARS OLD… THE 5 CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES
Let us remain at this specific age, characteristic of early childhood, where morphological differences are most pronounced when comparing the head of a child to that of an adult. When mapping out your drawing, look for these five crucial elements:
1. — THE CHILD’S HEAD IS LARGE
Proportionally larger than that of the adult when comparing the two heads and their respective bodies. In effect, if you place a twenty-five-year-old man standing right next to a two-year-old child, you will observe a fascinating contrast: you will see that the actual size of the adult’s head is nearly double that of the child’s; whereas the proportional size—relative to their two bodies—of the child’s head is nearly double the size of the adult’s. A man's head is about 1/8 of his total height, while a child's head takes up about 1/4 or 1/5 of his entire body structure.
2. — THE CHILD HAS A BULKY SKULL
The skull is highly voluminous and completely disproportionate when compared to the smaller dimensions of his face. We have already explained the physiological reason for this feature: at this age, the child has a brain that must command the vital senses—sight, hearing, and touch. Only his complex intellectual development and bone elongation are not yet complete, which leaves the main facial features crowded in the lower area.
3. — THE CHILD’S EYES ARE LARGE
This is obvious to any observer. But let us pause right here to deeply study some characteristic aspects that amateur artists miss. Look at the exact shape and dimensions of a child’s eyes: they are not as narrow or as elongated as ours. When fully open, the child's eyelids suggest a circle… even to the point of having rounded corners, which almost completely prevents us from seeing the small pinkish grain that is part of the lacrimal system (the inner corner of the eye).
Consider this rule carefully: IN THE CHILD, THE FACTOR “LARGE EYES” IS DETERMINED BY THE SIZE OF THE IRIS AND THE PUPIL… in short, by the eyeball itself. This is normal, because what is truly developed in the child is the organ of sight, which resides here—in the physical eyeball, in the iris and the pupil—and not in the opening of the eyelids… which are not yet fully developed and are therefore less elongated, creating that wide-eyed circular look.
For the same biological reasons, we also note a vital spatial relation:
THE CHILD’S EYES APPEAR PROPORTIONALLY MORE WIDELY SPACED THAN THE ADULT’S EYES
Do you remember that classic universal distance which states that "between the two eyes, the space is that of a third eye"? Well! In the child, this distance is physically longer—there is actually “more than one eye” between the two eyes. Do not forget this; it is a fundamental, absolute basic rule for correctly drawing a child’s head.
4. — THE NOSE IS SMALL AND UPTURNED
Small lungs and reduced respiratory passages logically result in a small nose with tiny, delicate nostrils. Why is it consistently upturned? Because the structural bones of the nose are not yet developed, projected, or hardened as they are in the adult, causing the nasal bridge to remain low and creating a beautiful concave curve.
5. — THE JAWS ARE NOT DEVELOPED
The lower jaw, in particular—which structurally determines the size of the beard area and the chin—is nothing more than a “small, weak bone” compared to the heavy, powerful jaw structure of the adult. The child also has small temporary teeth, which further reduces the vertical distance between the lower edge of the nose and the upper limit of the chin. For the exact same reason, the child’s cheeks are voluminous, fleshy, and the overall shape of his jaw is perfectly round, completely lacking any sharp angular bone lines.
LET US THINK BEFORE WE DRAW: WHERE DO THE EYES SIT?
Having thoroughly examined the previous morphological characteristics, ask yourself now a vital question: in a child's head like the one we have just described, where the skull is massive and the face is very small, at what specific level can the eyes be located?
Do they sit right at the middle of its total height, as we previously saw for the standard adult’s head guidelines? Do they sit higher than the center? Or do they sit lower down the grid?
The answer is easy if you analyze the proportions we just discussed… and its practical importance is truly great when one is going to sketch a child’s head accurately without breaking the anatomical illusion.
Share your answers and structural theories in the comments section below! Get your sketching materials ready, and make sure to subscribe to DrawEverything.org to be the first to receive Lesson 6, where we will geometrically draw the exact eye placement grid and advanced youth facial alignment structures!