A simplified face is relatively easy to draw yet can still pack a punch when it comes to expressing an emotion.

Align the eyes with the ears to give a natural look to your character.

Small eyes look great with simplified faces as large black dots for eyes can give the impression of a vacant expression – but try and see what works for you.

Cartoony faces are fun to do as we don’t need to worry about them looking overly realistic and if you want to create a character with a big cheesey grin to make it super-clear he’s happy or give a character a quirky mouth to show he’s a little bit cheeky it’s fine to do.

You could also look at anime style faces or even some of the traditional comic book styles.

This style of face is easy to customize and tweak. Very different looks can be got depending on the placing of the eyes or the size of the irises.

Align the Pupils With The Pupils on the Template

If this is the first time you have drawn your own facial features, I suggest aligning the eyes with the eyes on the template by drawing the pupils on top of the pupils in the template

When you have done this hide the template layer.

Draw ONE Eye

In this tutorial I am going to show you how you can copy a finished eye, so you don’t need to worry about trying to get two eyes that look the same.

Of course, if you are happy drawing both eyes from scratch just ignore the next steps!

To draw this eye, I drew the circle for the pupil and iris. I then drew an oval for the eye. Because I wanted to create a smiling face, I adjusted the bottom line of the eye so it curved to create the illusion of smiley cheeks pushing up the eye.

Although I’ve added the catchlights in the illustration, I would normally add these as last thing in case I tweak the eye position.

Draw the Mouth

Draw a simple mouth. With big open smiles you can add a tongue as I have done here to add some interest.

While you ‘could’ draw individual teeth, it can make the image look crowded. If I am drawing a face as a closeup, for example to illustrate a resource about cleaning teeth, I may draw individual teeth. However otherwise I will probably draw ‘toon teeth’ which is a single white row.

Tip: You could try drawing the mouth on a separate layer and try moving it around or changing the size on the finished image to see what it looks like in different positions / sizes.

Duplicate the Eye

Use the select tool (in Procreate it’s the wiggly icon at the top left of the screen) and draw around the element you want to duplicate – in this case the eye.

Make sure the ‘Freehand’ option is selected at the bottom of the page.

Select ‘Copy & Paste’ and this will create a duplicate of the highlighted area on a new layer.

Open the Layer Panel to See the Duplicated Eye

Select the arrow tool at the top left which will allow you to drag the copied eye to the correct place. Make sure you have the correct layer selected.

Move the Eye to the Correct Place

Move the eye into position. You can adjust how the eye looks using the adjustments at the bottom of the screen.

For example, if you use ‘freeform’ you could make the eye a little narrower than the original.

This is extremely useful if a face is at an angle.

Use The Warp Tool

You can follow the same process to warp elements, for example the eyebrow.

Use the select tool to highlight the eyebrow, then choose the arrow tool and tap the Warp setting at the bottom of the panel.

You will now see you can move parts of the shape, in this case perhaps raise one edge of the eyebrow in true Roger Moore style.

Draw Cheeks

If you want to add cheeks to your character you could try using the airbrush tool. This give a soft gradient effect.

Tip: Add cheeks in a layer UNDER the eye, therefore the eye won’t get colored by the cheek if the cheek overlaps the eye.