A friend of mine wanted wanted some tips on doing a self portrait, so I did a demo and broke it down for her -
0. Took her reference photo and broke it down into basic shapes of face and hair (red outline); also divided face in half vertically and at eyeline to get a sense of spacing for the facial features
1. Quick, dirty sketch of those same features. I straightened things out a bit since her head was at a slight tilt in the photo and I stylized the spacing just a smidge as well to make things look a little cuter (bringing everything down towards the bottom just a bit).
2. Lightly put in the shapes of her eyes, brows, nose, and mouth. Still keeping it sketchy because I want to make sure the spacing looks good before I refine everything.
3. Going back and forth between erasing and drawing new lines, I define the features and start to clean up the hair. The entire time, I pay close attention to the specifics of her features - what shape are her eyes and how they are affected by her smile pulling her cheeks up, her rounder nose with just a slight view of her nostrils, the dark spaces on the sides of her smile. There are some features I tone down to better suit my style and keep her looking cute, such as the wrinkles on the sides of her nose and mouth, the creases under her eyes, the size of her eyes and eyelashes (I made them significantly bigger), and the volume of her hair.
4. Finished cleanup and added all the finishing touches - highlights in the eyes to liven them up, freckles spreading out from the nose, flaring the eyelashes, chin dimple, and overhauling the hair to have fun masses and direction inside. I also added ears.
