How to draw a skull in 3/4 view, step by step

The three-quarter view is where most skull drawings go flat. Both eye sockets get the same width, the middle line of the face lands halfway across it, and the cheekbone sticks out of the side like a handle. This guide measures one skull from the skull turnaround, turned 45 degrees from the front, level, with the jaw closed. How the outline grows as the skull turns, and what the side of the cranium does, are in how to draw a skull at different angles; the same skull from the front and from the side gives the numbers this view is compared with.

Everything here is measured against the skull itself: mostly its height from the top to the chin, which is the same at every angle.

The near socket keeps its width

From the front, each eye socket is about a fifth of the skull's height wide. Turned 45 degrees, the near socket is still about that wide: between nine tenths and the full front width, depending on which rim line you count. So on this skull, keep the near socket at its front width and let the far one show the turn.

The far socket shrinks to a third

On the halfway line, the far socket is about a third as wide as the near one: a little over a quarter if you stop at the thin rim line drawn just inside the outline, a little under two fifths if you go to the outline. In the shaded render the hollow of the socket runs right out to the outline. Past the far socket there's no more face, only a small bump of the far cheekbone on the outline just below it.

Both sockets still sit on the halfway line. A level turn keeps points fixed on the bone at the same height; the socket rims are drawn edges and can shift a little. On this skull they barely do: the line at half the height still goes through the middle of both sockets.

The middle line of the face

Draw the middle line of the face through two points on it: the tip of the nasal bones and the gap between the upper front teeth. Carried up to eye height, it sits about nine tenths of the way across the skull, from the back of the cranium to the far outline. That matches the living heads in how to draw the head in three-quarter view.

Measured across the face alone, from the near socket's outer edge to the far outline, the middle line is about four fifths of the way over. The near half of the face looks about four times as wide as the far half. The teeth show it too: on the near side of the gap you can count seven upper teeth, back to the molars; on the far side, one front tooth and the edge of the next.

The tip of the nasal bones is a little below halfway, at the same height as in the side view.

The cheekbone bar crosses the side of the skull

The near cheekbone leaves the face under the near socket's outer corner and runs straight back as a bar, level, at the height of the bottom of the socket, as it does in profile. From the socket's outer edge to its end, it's about a quarter of the skull's height long, a little longer than the near socket is wide.

At 45 degrees the bar lies across the side of the skull, well inside the outline. The outline on that side is the cranium. Drawn poking out past it, the cheekbone turns into a handle.

The ear hole and the jaw

The bar ends just above and in front of the ear hole. The ear hole is about five eighths of the way down, the same height as in profile. The back edge of the jaw starts just in front of it and leans forward as it drops; where it runs straight, lower down, it is about a sixteenth of the skull's height in front of the ear hole's middle, the same gap as in profile.

How to draw a skull in 3/4 view, step by step

1. Draw the outline. The skull is as tall as from the front and, at 45 degrees, a little over a quarter wider (measured here). Draw the cranium as a ball with its near side flattened: the light circle is the flat side.
2. Draw the halfway line level across the face.
3. Draw the near socket on the halfway line, its outer edge a little past the middle of the skull's width at that height. Make it as wide as from the front, about a fifth of the skull's height, and about a sixth tall, its middle on the halfway line.
4. Place the middle line of the face about four fifths of the way from the near socket's outer edge to the far outline. The light curve carries it over the cranium.
5. Fit the far socket between the middle line and the far outline, about a third as wide as the near one, its hollow reaching the outline.
6. Run the cheekbone bar straight back from under the near socket's outer corner, level with the socket's bottom, for about a quarter of the skull's height. Its top line turns up the side of the cranium behind the socket.
7. Place the ear hole just below and a little behind the end of the bar, about five eighths of the way down. Drop the back edge of the jaw from just in front of it; lower down, where it runs straight, it is a sixteenth of the height in front.
8. Draw the nose and teeth on the middle line. The nasal bones end a little below halfway. Put the gap between the upper front teeth on the line, with most of the teeth on the near side. Then draw what is left: the jaws, the bar's lower edge, the cheekbone's front and the light lines across the skull.

Common mistakes

• Both sockets shrunk the same. The near socket keeps its front width; only the far one shrinks.
• The face split down its middle. The middle line sits about four fifths of the way across the face, not halfway.
• Face past the far socket. The far socket reaches the outline, with only a thin rim line inside it.
• A cheekbone sticking out of the side. The bar crosses the side of the skull, inside the outline.
• The same number of teeth on both sides. Seven show on the near side, one and a bit on the far side.

What this does and does not cover

These measurements describe a line drawing redrawn from a render of one 3D skull, set level with its jaw closed and seen without perspective, so take them as one example, not an average. The far socket's width depends on which drawn line you take as its outer rim, and the front width on which rim line you take there. The middle line is drawn through the nasal tip and the teeth; the middle of the brow was not measured. The ear hole was placed by eye. A skull tilted up or down, or seen up close, changes these.

A short exercise

Draw the skull at 45 degrees three times, about five minutes each. First, only the outline, the halfway line, the two sockets and the middle line: check that the near socket is as wide as from the front. Then add the cheekbone bar, the ear hole and the jaw. Then draw it whole and check it against the measured marks.

The skull in this guide is from the skull turnaround, drawn at sixteen angles, 22.5 degrees apart. For the eyes over these sockets, see how to draw eyes in three-quarter view, for the cheekbone under the skin, how to draw cheekbones, and for the whole head at every angle, how to draw the head at any angle.