A practical view on how to draw Halloween scary faces

Over the years, I realized that you could not pick up a marker, swirl it around, and come up with an image that you like right off the back. You draw eyes and think they should be bigger or scary looking, but it is too late once drawn on the balloon, and you are stuck with it until you do another figure.

Watching caricature artists, they do basic outlines just for reference points. They may start with a simple line in the nose to figure out where the eyes and mouth should be placed. This is a great idea because it gives me a reference point on where to draw the face. “But, how do you do the rest of it?” I will ask. “This isn’t my first face I have drawn,” is their reply. Dah!

I eliminate the silly mistakes by pre-drawing the face on a piece of paper. Here is my scratch paper that I have been using for several balloons figures.

I put on paper first what I want to draw and get an idea of what it should look like. Do I need to add more facial lines around the eyes, what colors, size, and if it should have teeth? This only takes a minute or two, but I committed it to memory once I have done this. I make the face part of the figure, ensuring that when I make this figure again, I twist it the same way and the facial characteristics to enhance the balloon.

I will be putting a little scare into my balloon figures this Halloween with my marker. You can too!  So grab a marker and a piece of paper and work out your ideas. Then commit to it, and you will find the drawing artist in you.