Beware the Phantom Nerds

EXCELLENT QUESTION one that fucks me up too even tho i’ve been drawing for a million years. I don’t think i’ve mastered lighting on the face yet, so i don’t really have a lot of tips to offer but here’s what i got: 

I guess first and foremost you have to familiarize yourself with the planes that make up the face. I only laid out the main ones here. Once you figure out where the hard edges of the face occur, it’s quite easy to lay out the most basic shadows. 

Sometimes i don’t constrain to realistic planes (like around the nose and lips) but that’s mostly because it’s just my style. 

Because the cheek is flat (in relation to the front of the face) it catches a lot of light even in the most dramatic lighting. It’s one of my favorite places to light up HEH (even if it’s extremely subtle) 

I also have a few lovely guides to share ! Most of these are tutorials on how these artists accomplish their lighting techniques, but i thought they were extremely helpful. 

Simple Face lighting tutorial 

Constraints of facial features 

Color + lighting 

Dramatic/expressive lighting 

Also this Virtual Lighting Studio is extremely useful if you want to simulate a specific lighting on the face! (it lags a lot but honestly this is probably the best thing you can get)