How to draw a skull from the front, step by step

Four things in a skull's face are easy to get wrong from the front: the shape of the eye sockets, the bone between them, the nose opening and how far the teeth reach. On the skull measured here, the sockets are rounded squares with only half a socket of bone between them, the nose opening is a tall pear, and the teeth fill only the middle of the jaw. This guide measures the face of the skull from the skull turnaround. Its outline, the cheekbones and the jaw corners are measured in how to draw a skull at different angles, along with the same skull in profile and from behind.

Everything is measured against the skull itself: its height from the top to the chin, its widest width, and its own parts, so you can check one against another while you draw.

The eye sockets

Each eye socket is a rounded square, about a fifth wider than it is tall. It's a little under a third of the skull's widest width, and about a sixth of its height. The two sockets together, outer edge to outer edge, take up about three quarters of the skull's widest width. Their middles sit on the line halfway down the skull.

The bone between them is about half a socket wide, measured to where the bone turns into each socket. The drawing gives each socket's nose side two lines, and this is the inner one; to the outer line, the gap comes out nearer two thirds of a socket. On our drawn faces the inner corners of the eyes sit about one and a third eye widths apart, but an eye is narrower than its socket (see how to draw eye sockets), so on the bare skull the sockets come closer together than the eyes do.

The nose opening

The nose opening is shaped like a pear: narrow at the top, widest about three quarters of the way down, with a rounded bottom. It's nearly as tall as an eye socket, and a little wider than the bone between the sockets: a little over half a socket.

Its top starts about seven tenths of the way down the sockets, so it overlaps them in height. Its bottom is about two thirds of the way down the whole skull. A thin wall of bone runs down its middle and splits it in two.

The teeth

The row of teeth is a little under half the skull's widest width. It ends about under the middle of each eye socket, well inside the jaw. The top of the upper teeth is about three quarters of the way down the skull, and the line where the teeth meet is a little over four fifths of the way down.

The two front teeth are the widest, together about three quarters as wide as the nose opening, and each is taller than it is wide. From there the teeth get narrower toward each side, because the row curves back away from you. The last teeth at the sides show about a quarter of a front tooth's width. On this skull, six upper teeth show on each side of the middle, and the lower teeth show a little over half as tall as the upper front teeth.

Below the teeth

From the bottom of the lower teeth to the chin is about as tall as the nose opening. A skull drawn with too little jaw under its teeth looks like it's missing its chin, so check this length once the teeth are in, and lower the chin if it comes up short.

How to draw a skull from the front, step by step

1. Draw the outline. Make it about two thirds as wide as it is tall, widest a third of the way down. Narrow it under the cheekbones toward the jaw, with the jaw's corners about nine tenths of the way down.
2. Draw a center line and a line halfway down.
3. Draw the eye sockets on the halfway line: two rounded squares, about a fifth wider than tall, each a little under a third of the skull's width, with half a socket of bone between them. Together they span about three quarters of the width.
4. Draw the nose opening as a pear on the center line. Start its top about seven tenths of the way down the sockets, make it nearly as tall as a socket, and widen it near its bottom.
5. Place the teeth. Drop a line from the middle of each socket. The row of teeth runs between those lines, from about three quarters of the way down the skull to a little past four fifths for the upper row.
6. Draw the two front teeth widest, then narrower and narrower teeth toward each side, and the lower row under them, a little over half as tall as the upper front teeth.
7. Check that a nose opening's height of jaw is left under the lower teeth, down to the chin; if there is less, lower the chin. Then draw what is left: the cheekbones, the line down each temple to the cheekbone, the jaws around the teeth with the two small holes below them, the brow and the light lines across the skull.

Common mistakes

• Round eye sockets. They're rounded squares, about a fifth wider than tall.
• Sockets a whole socket apart. The bone between them is about half a socket wide.
• A small triangle for the nose. The opening is a pear, nearly as tall as a socket.
• Teeth that run to the corners of the jaw. The row ends about under the middle of each socket.
• Teeth all the same width. They narrow toward the sides as the row curves away.
• Too little chin. The jaw under the teeth is about as tall as the nose opening.

What this does and does not cover

This is one skull, set level with its jaw closed and drawn without perspective, so take the numbers as a description of this skull, not an average. The drawing gives the nose-side edge of each socket two lines. The widths here use the inner one, which matches where the bone turns into the socket on the shaded model the drawing was made from; measured to the outer line, the sockets come out a little narrower and the bone between them nearer two thirds of a socket. The ends of the row of teeth and the chin match on the shaded model too, but the lower teeth were read on the drawing only. The widths of the side teeth are what the front view shows; the teeth themselves are wider, turned away from you. An open jaw moves everything below the line where the teeth meet.

A short exercise

Draw the skull from the front three times, about five minutes each. The first time, draw only the outline, the two lines and the sockets, and check that the bone between them is half a socket wide. The second time, add the nose opening and the teeth, checking the teeth against lines dropped from the middle of each socket. The third time, draw it without the lines and check it against the measured marks afterward.

The skull in this guide is from the skull turnaround, drawn at sixteen angles, 22.5 degrees apart. The same skull at other angles and from behind is in how to draw a skull at different angles, measured side on in how to draw a skull from the side, and turned 45 degrees in how to draw a skull in 3/4 view. To build a face over the same landmarks, start with how to draw the head from the front, and for the whole head at every angle, how to draw the head at any angle.