How to draw a round face: one curve from the ear to the chin

A round face is less about a circle than about where the outline bends. On a round face the sides and the jaw keep changing direction a little at a time all the way to the chin. On a lean face they run straight, turn a short corner and run straight again. Here is how that looks, measured on two heads.

The figures come from two bald heads in the free head rotation reference: the soft-planes head, a younger face where most turns happen gradually, and the gaunt-planes head, an older, lean face. They differ in age as well as shape, so treat what follows as drawing choices seen on one pair, not rules every round face follows. Distances are compared as shares of each face's eye-to-chin distance, since the gaunt head's lower face is drawn longer. They are read from the 1024 px plates, with traced outlines good to within 1 percent of that distance. Tones are averaged over small boxes, so a hatched area reads as the mix of its lines and the paper between them. Differences are given in steps of a nine-step pencil value scale.

From the front

The width isn't what separates them here. At the height of the mouth the gaunt face is the wider of the two, by about 6 percent, and its lower face is drawn longer. What differs is how the outline bends. All the readings below are on the viewer's left, where both outlines are clearest.

1. Slant the sides from the start. Follow the outline down past the ear lobe to the mouth. On the soft-planes head it slants inward about 15 degrees off upright, then about 20, 35 and 40 degrees below the mouth. On the gaunt head it slants inward about 5 degrees off upright down to the mouth, then about 15, then turns a corner into the jaw.
2. Draw the jaw as one curve. Measure how steeply the lower outline slopes below level as it travels toward the chin. The soft-planes jaw starts at about 50 degrees, then 42, 35 and 31, then about 25 for a stretch, then 22, 17, 11 and 6: the slope shrinks all the way, so the line keeps flattening. The gaunt jaw holds between 35 and 42 degrees, about 40, again and again, which is a straight line. Its right side does the same. The soft-planes right side is less clear: it holds near 27 degrees for about a quarter of the eye-to-chin distance before it steepens.
3. Let the chin be the bottom of the curve. Both chins have a nearly level stretch, about a quarter of the eye-to-chin distance on the soft-planes head and between a quarter and two fifths on the gaunt head, so the length is not the difference. On the gaunt head the bend from the straight jaw into the level chin takes about a tenth of that distance. On the soft-planes head the whole jaw is that bend.

Tone on a round face

Read inward from the edge of the face on the viewer's right. The two plates sit on slightly different paper, the soft-planes plate a touch greyer than the gaunt one, so compare each tone with its own paper.

On the soft-planes head the side tone is a strip against the outline. At ear height it is 4 to 7 percent of the eye-to-chin distance wide and about one step darker than the paper. From the base of the nose down to the jaw it widens to about a seventh of that distance and reads half a step to a full step darker than the paper. In every row from the ear to the jaw the box next to the outline stays at least a third of a step darker than the paper, so the strip runs without a break into the shading under the jaw.

The gaunt head does something different, as measured in how to draw a thin face: a darker band, one to two steps below the paper, from the cheekbone to about the nose base, then a patch beside the outline that is barely darker than its paper, then dark again at the jaw. That light patch is what makes the lean cheek read as a dip.

So for a round face, keep the side tone narrow, keep it on the outline, and carry it down to the jaw without a light patch. This holds on the right side of the soft-planes plate; on its left, the lower cheek is lighter, close to the paper, so try it as a choice on the side you shade most.

In profile

In profile, follow the line under the chin back toward the neck. On the soft-planes head it stays nearly level for about a quarter of the way from the ear lobe to the chin, then drops away at about 10, 25, 25 and 35 degrees back into the front of the neck: a curve. On the gaunt head it rises a steady 5 to 10 degrees for about two fifths of that distance, a straight line, then drops at about 40 to 48 degrees straight away: a corner where the neck begins.

The jaw lines differ less than they look. Both are drawn light, and the soft-planes one breaks for about an eighth of the way from the ear lobe to the chin below the ear before it comes back as a faint double line toward the chin. So curve the underside into the neck and keep the jaw line soft; the curve does the work.

Drawing it

1. Build the usual construction first, as in drawing different face shapes from one construction.
2. Slant the sides below the ears a little from the start, instead of dropping them straight.
3. Draw the side and jaw as one line, bending more below the mouth and then flattening step by step into the chin, never repeating the same slant for long.
4. Round off the chin. Let the bottom of the curve be the chin, with no corners at either end.
5. Hatch a strip on the outline, narrow beside the ear and wider toward the jaw, running into the shading under the jaw.
6. Check the profile. Curve the line under the chin into the neck, and keep the jaw line soft.

What else is going on

This is one pair of drawings. The gaunt head is older, with deep folds and a lined forehead, and its lower face is drawn longer. Age and weight both change how round a face looks, and so does the drawing style, so test the steps on other heads before you rely on them.

A short exercise

Trace the gaunt-planes head at 0 degrees lightly. Redraw the sides and the jaw as one curve that keeps bending to the chin, round off the chin's corners, and fill in the light patch in the lower cheek on the right. Compare it with the soft-planes head at 0 degrees, then repeat in profile.

The jaw's corner and back edge are placed in how to draw a jawline, the line under the chin in how to draw a chin, a face with corners in how to draw an angular face, a longer lower face in how to draw a long face, and the same curve in a taller box in how to draw an oval face. The soft-planes head is Study Pack 06 in Volume 2, and the gaunt-planes head is Study Pack 02 in Volume 1.

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