How to draw a skull, observing the proportions?

The skull is a rather complex construction, but the beginning artist will not be prevented from knowing its construction. After all, this knowledge in the future will help to draw portraits in different angles, especially if these portraits are fictional, not painted. Therefore, this article will be devoted to how to draw a skull in stages. Of course, you will need a sheet of paper, a pencil and a soft eraser. It is very desirable that the "nature" is also present: so you can choose the optimal angle and consider the details. In addition, if you seriously decide to do drawing, then you will not be prevented from "stuffing" your hand on the skull, drawing it from different sides.

Before drawing a skull with a pencil, do not forget that it has volume. Smooth lines of construction fit, if you draw a skull directly. In the deployed three-quarter position, these lines will be displaced (according to the law of perspective) and will take curved forms. However, we proceed to the task of how to draw a skull. First you need to draw an axial horizontal line (axis of symmetry). At the initial stage, this axis will determine the height of the future image. Next, divide the axis into three parts using thin horizontal lines. Orienting on them, we sketch out the eye sockets, the nasal cavity, the region of the mouth.

The next step to drawing a skull will be an easy, as yet sketchy, sketch of its outlines relative to the parts of the "face". Try to make sure that these contours are neither too far from them, nor too close. Not that the skull will look deformed. Often check your drawing in kind, try to keep the proportions. It is not difficult to do this. For example, if it seems to you that you have painted too large eye sockets, you can compare them with the original. To do this, take your pencil strictly vertically and, screwing up one eye and stretching out your arm, aim it at the object. The figures show how this is done. In our case, the object is the eye socket. Fix the height of the pencil with your finger.

Continuing to hold a pencil with a fixed height of the eye socket, calculate how many times this height fits in the height of the entire skull. That is, imagine that the original also has an axis in the middle. Move the outstretched hand with the pencil in this way (the eye is still closed and you do not need to approach the nature), so that the fixing finger is at the chin level. Visually mark, at which point of the axis is the point of the pencil, then move the hand slightly upward, so that now there is a fixing finger on this point. Do the same manipulation until you reach the top of the head. Now that you have made the calculation on location, do the same on your drawing. On that extra piece that you will have after the measurement, and you should reduce the height of the eye sockets. This way, you can easily and accurately determine the ratio of the values of absolutely any objects.

Once you, following the proportions, have made a decent sketch, you can proceed to the next stage of how to draw a skull, namely - to a more detailed drawing of it. Here it is already possible to outline all the contours quite clearly, and simply erase auxiliary lines. After that, you can proceed to hatching. Do not forget that the skull is a three-dimensional subject. And, besides, light. So do not overdo it with the pressure on the pencil. The strokes must repeat the contours, emphasizing the volume. The darkest zones are the eye sockets and the nasal cavity. The deeper inside the skull, the darker the shadows. I hope that these recommendations on how to draw a skull will help you cope with the task.