Note from Oscar: I’ve never been good at drawing people. I prefer to draw abstract art because I can’t draw anything real. My friend, Charlie Fieldman, is crazy good at drawing people. I desperately wanted to know how to draw an accurate person. So, here’s some great advice from Charlie.

By Charlie Fieldman

Hi, I’m Charlie Fieldman. I’m 12 years old and I love to draw. It is so fun to see your drawing slowly coming together. And I personally love to draw people. So, here are my top five tips for drawing better/ more realistic people.

1. Notice the colors of the skin

In most pictures there are lots of greens and purples in the face or body. Just because a pencil says “skin,” doesn’t mean you have to use it.

2. Try to find familiar shapes

There are lots of geometrical shapes and simple objects in the face. This will make it easier to draw the outline.

3. Shadows and highlights

Imagine there was a light on one side of the person but not the other. This means that you do not have to draw the whole face on the same colors. You would use darker colors on the dark side and so on.

4. Notice textures

Say you look at the lips, there are a lot of curved lines, so that means you would draw them using curved lines. Or the skin. That is mostly smooth. So you would draw in a lighter, smoother motion.

5. Find a good picture

If you look online and see a really cool picture but it’s too blurry, don’t draw it. It won’t look as realistic as you want it to in the end.