How to Draw Forehead

Step 1 - Whenever I start working on a face the first thing I do is identify where the lightest areas will be. When you find these areas you can lightly outline about where they will be . Highlights are usually found on the forehead, cheeks, tip of the nose, bottom lip, and chin. I know where my highlights are on the forehead. I know that the rest of the forehead has to be darker than these highlights. So I start by laying down some H graphite around the highlights. I just scribble it down VERY lightly and then blend it out with a tissue. If you are not darker than your highlights, you need to lay down more. After we do this, we have to blend the tone you just laid down into the highlights to form a light gradient. I do this with a q-tip. Remember what I said earlier about tones flowing into eachother? You have just defined the form of the light area of the forehead. Now onto the dark. 

Tip - Highlights give you a good opportunity to suggest skin texture if you want. Skin texture can be achieved by either using the circulism technique (very lightly) or by dabbing a kneaded rubber eraser on surrounding shaded areas. Just make sure you don't make your texture darker than the lightest surrounding tones because it won't look natural. 

Step 2 - The further away from the highlights you get, the darker you get. I am basically making a gradient that starts light around the highlights and gets darker along the hairline. The shading around the hairline is important. Have you ever seen a drawing that looks like the hair is pasted on? I have seen plenty and that's the reason it looks this way, not enough shading around the hairline. There will always be darker shading around the hairline from the hair casting subtle shadows onto the skin.

Tip - Take breaks when you are drawing. Sometimes when you stare at something too long your mind starts playing tricks on you. Work on your drawing for a few hours, take a break, and come back to it later, with fresh eyes