How to draw the head from below

Most head reference is drawn from eye level, so a face seen from below catches people out. The features are the same, but they line up differently, and a surface you rarely draw, the underside of the jaw, suddenly takes up a large part of the picture. The best way to learn it is to compare the same head at the same turn, once from level and once from below.

The plates here are from our head from below reference: two study heads seen from 20 degrees below, set beside their level views.

From the front, the ears drop against the features

On the level plate, the ear runs from a little above the eye line to a little below the base of the nose. From 20 degrees below, the face tips up and the ear stays on the side of the skull, so it appears lower against the features. On the plate above, the top of the ear is level with the nostrils and its bottom sits below the mouth.

How to draw a face looking up measures it: the lobe ends halfway from the mouth to the chin.

This is the quickest check on a low front view. If the ears in your drawing still line up with the eyes and the nose, the face will look level however you foreshorten it. In profile the ear moves the other way, as the profile sections below show.

The construction lines arch

The eye line and the line under the nose are no longer straight across. Seen from below, they arch: the middle of each line rises and the ends bend down toward the ears, which is the same change that lowered the ears in the front view. Draw them as arches and keep them parallel to each other.

The underside of the jaw becomes a plane

From level, the underside of the jaw hides behind the chin. From below, it turns toward you and becomes a broad shape between the jawline and the neck. It usually faces away from overhead light, so it reads as one shadow plane. On the front view of the minimal head it is the largest dark shape in the drawing.

Draw its edge first: a line from jaw corner to jaw corner, curving under the chin. Then shade the whole shape as one tone without breaking it up with detail.

The nostrils open and the lips change

The underside of the nose faces you too, so the nostrils open into two clear shapes and the nose looks shorter. The upper lip shows less of its front, and the mouth follows the same arch as the other lines, so its corners sit a little lower than its middle. Our nose guide and mouth guide each end with a section on seeing the feature from below.

The front of the neck faces you

Looking up, you see the front of the throat running from the collar into the shadow under the jaw. On the plates it is two long lines rising into the underside of the jaw, with the shadow plane sitting on top of them like a lid.

In profile and three-quarter

The underside of the jaw stays a shadow plane as the head turns, but in profile the ear rises, because it sits out to the side, toward you.

Compare it with the level profile on the heavy-jaw head's page: the ear has risen against the face, the lower edge of the jaw runs more steeply, and the shaded underside of the jaw reads larger.

In three-quarter view, the underside of the jaw is a band that runs from the near jaw corner around to the chin, widest on the near side.

Measured in profile from below

Two study heads, the heavy-jaw head and the minimal head, have a profile drawn at eye level and from 20 degrees below. The ruler is the depth of the skull, from the back of the skull to the front of the brow ridge. A view from below turns around that line, so it keeps its length.

In these drawings the profile line doesn't move. The top of the skull, the brow, the tip and base of the nose and the bottom of the chin all sit within 2 percent of a skull depth of where they were at eye level. What rises is whatever sits out to the side of the face, toward you:

• The top of the ear rises about a seventh of a skull depth on both heads.
• The bottom of the lobe rises about an eighth of a skull depth.
• The outer corner of the eye rises a little under a tenth of a skull depth on the heavy-jaw head and a little less on the minimal head.

The farther a point sits from the middle of the face, the farther it rises: the ear most, the eye corner about half to two thirds as far.

Against the features:

• The top of the ear is level with the eye corner at eye level on the heavy-jaw head, a little above it on the minimal head. From below it's just above it on the heavy-jaw head and a little under a tenth of a skull depth above on the minimal head.
• The lobe ends a tenth of a skull depth below the base of the nose at eye level on the heavy-jaw head, just below it on the minimal head. From below it ends at the base of the nose on the heavy-jaw head and about an eighth of a skull depth above it on the minimal head.

Because the eye corner rises and the base of the nose doesn't, the gap between them grows by about two fifths: from a fifth to a little over a quarter of a skull depth on the heavy-jaw head, and from just over a fifth to just under a third on the minimal head. So in profile from below the eye sits farther above the base of the nose, while from the front the nose looks shorter, as how to draw a face looking up measures.

The lower edge of the jaw, corner to chin, runs about 20 degrees below level on both heads at eye level. From below it runs at 31 degrees on the heavy-jaw head; the minimal head barely changes, 20 to 23.

A real head would look about 6 percent shorter in profile; these drawings keep full height, so use the numbers to check a drawing, not to measure people. We didn't measure the lips, which each pair draws differently; the three-quarter view from below measures the turned pair.

A quick exercise

1. Draw a level head from the front.
2. Next to it, draw the same head from about 20 degrees below, keeping the cranium the same size.
3. Draw the eye line and the nose line as arches.
4. Front view: lower the ears so their tops sit near the nose and their bottoms below the mouth; in profile, raise them.
5. Draw the underside of the jaw as one shape and shade it.
6. Run the front of the neck up into that shape.

Then check your pair against the plates. The minimal head and the heavy-jaw head are each shown from 20 degrees below in the head from below reference, and at level in Study Pack 04 and Study Pack 03.

For the opposite tilt, see how to draw the head from above.

For a view from much further below, see how to draw the head from a steep angle.

For a head that leans toward a shoulder as well, see how to draw a tilted head.

This guide is one step in how to draw the head at any angle, which puts all the head guides in order.