As every artist knows, facial templates are based on the concept of the Divine Proportion, which is that everything in the universe is based on the proportion of 1 to 1.618. Here’s an illustration of the concept from an excellent website by Dr. Yosh Jefferson, Facial Beauty:
And, here’s another illustration from Dr. Brad Culberson:
Now of course, these doctors didn’t invent this concept, it’s been around for centuries, and even DaVinci illustrated it for the human body in Vitruvian Man:
So what does this have to do with forensic art? If you are just beginning learning how to draw a faces in your desire to be a forensic artist, then using a template can be a handy way to start. You can double-check yourself as you go along for symmetry, and if you are having trouble getting things even, a template will help. I used a template like this when I was in 5th or 6th grade, and it really helped me “see” where I was going off track in my drawing.
Just remember, a template is like training wheels. It’s a tool to learn how to draw, but you do not, under any circumstances, follow a template like this in your composite drawings! If you do, then not only will all your drawings look alike, they are all going to be too good-looking. Remember, templates are based on ideal proportion, and most people, especially the real bad guys you would be drawing, are anything but ideal.
I really like this drawing here, an outstanding example from ArtyFactory, which shows that most templates are based on the same concepts, some a little different than others, but they all started with the Divine Proportion.
So, I’m going to show you how to make a template based on the artistic canons of facial proportion in Photoshop. Of course, you can use a pencil and paper too. I’m sure DaVinci, innovative guy that he was, would have used Photoshop if it were around then. Here we go!
Make a new Photoshop document at 8.5 by 11 inches, set your marquee to a fixed size of 5 inches by 7 inches, pick a color you like (I like magenta), click, then go edit>>stroke with the foreground color to get this:
Bring the “zero” point to the upper left edge of the pink box to make it easier to measure. Draw a vertical line at the 2.5 in mark, and a horizontal line at the 3.5 mark. 
Then, starting at the top, make horizontal guidelines at the 1 inch, 3 inch, and 5 inch mark. Then, because the box is 5 inches wide, you can easily make 4 vertical lines across to divide the box into 5 equal spaces (that’s because in an ideal face, there are 5 eyes across). Really, from here on out, it’s a matter of measuring and drawing lines. Remember, the face is divided into thirds, so from the bottom of the chin to the bottom of the nose is 2 inches; bottom of nose to brow is two inches; brow to hairline is 2 inches; hairline to top of head is 1 inch.
The outer edge of the nose (ideally) lines up with the inner corner of the eye, and the corners of the mouth line up with the inner edge of the iris. The midline of the lips are divided in thirds from the bottom of the nose to the chin. Just keep measuring, using the guidelines of facial proportion, and you come up with something like this:
Or, just delete the text and extra dotted lines for this:
Again, this template is for learning how to draw faces! It is NOT something to use in a composite session with a witness. No professional forensic artist that I know follows a template. If you show up with one of these, the witness might wonder if you know what you’re doing, and why are you plunking down features in a certain spot when they told you the suspect had beady, wide-spaced eyes, short stubby nose, and wide lips?
As a learning tool, it’s fine. As a forensic artist tool, no way.
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2 comments 
Blog
November 21, 2011
Posted by Lisa Bailey
Nov 22, 2011
Is it possible that there is a typographical error in the paragraph beginning with “Then, starting at the bottom, make horizontal guidelines….” Did you, perhaps, intend there to be 2 inches from bottom of chin to bottom of nose, 2 inches from bottom of nose to top of brow, and 2 inches from top of brow to hairline (at top of face, above forehead,) leaving 1 inch from there to top of head?
I hope you won’t mind my sharing a subtle, but, I think, important distinction regarding uses of templates, from the point of view of fine art and portraiture as opposed to commercial art and illustration. Introducing a template as a way to comprehend facial structure to an artist looking to improve portraiture skills can help impart an understanding of facial anatomy, but I think it must be stressed that in order for the artist to make the next jump in understanding to replicating the proportions of INDIVIDUAL FACES that it is important to shift his use of a template to use only the CONCEPT of a template, NOT a template as ARMATURE onto which a face is built. The artist must take the template OUT FROM UNDER a drawing. When commercial art or illustration requires expeditiously DRAWING THE IDEA of a human being, relying upon knowledge and use of likely measurements is a convenient artifice. When a REAL, PARTICULAR FACE must be approximated the artist, admittedly, needs mental tools to help see what makes that face unique; a mental template is such a tool. But, the developing artist is well advised to begin quickly to work directly from nature, relegating these tools to use as devices TO HELP HIM SEE, NOT TO HELP HIM DRAW. Soon the artist should begin to think of a template, not as a structure ONTO which a DRAWING is constructed and which imposes itself on the placement of the landmarks of the facial drawing asking it to conform to the template, but as a transparency, mentally OVERLAID on the ACTUAL VIEWED FACE, (or drawn depiction of a memory of a face) THROUGH WHICH or UNDER WHICH the actual FACE MIGHT BE VIEWED. When looking to see the proportions of a particular face, it is helpful to know one MIGHT EXPECT a face from hairline to bottom of chin to be divided into equal thirds at the top of brow, bottom of nose, and bottom of chin, but that the point is to use that expectation only as a POINT OF DEPARTURE for comparing the DIFFERENCES between those distances in the particular face being depicted. The MENTAL template gives a frame of reference for making observations of subtle variations from the one thirds. It can make a great deal of difference in being able to see that a nose is not really so long as might have first been drawn, or that the bottom portion of a face is diminutive compared to the middle and top, or that a hairline is quite low on a short forehead even though the vertical distances from brows to bottom of nose and nose to bottom of chin might be almost equal. But, as I think you’re explaining, the template is merely a POINT OF DEPARTURE, not a universal skull on which all faces are hung. I think EXPECTING TO ALTER the landmarks from those of the template may help prevent it from being too leading. If that is not looked for, the viewer or artist may cease attempting to get the actual proportions when, because of the addition of shading and detail too soon, a sketch directly on a template drawn on paper begins to look human, 3 dimensional, or artful, eliciting a false sense of satisfaction before the vitally important, uniquely characteristic proportions are depicted.
Nov 22, 2011
Thanks RD, I clarified what I mean to say about drawing the guidelines. Your comment is spot on :^) A template can be a starting point for learning to draw, but not as a starting point for a composite. If all a “composite artist” is capable of doing is replicating features onto a predetermined place on a template, then they are no better than a computer assemblage software that doesn’t allow for subtle changes that the witness wants. And I love your last sentence: ” …a sketch directly on a template drawn on paper begins to look human, 3 dimensional, or artful, eliciting a false sense of satisfaction before the vitally important, uniquely characteristic proportions are depicted.”
Exactly! They may get a “pretty” drawing, but it’s nothing like what the witness wanted.