How to draw the head in three-quarter view

The three-quarter view is the angle most portraits use, and the one most people find hardest to draw from imagination. Everything in it is turning: the eyes, the mouth, the jaw and the ear all sit on a curved surface seen at an angle.

The usual result is a front-view face pasted onto a turned skull: both eyes the same size, and a far side as wide as the near side.

We measured each step below on the ten bald heads of our free 45 degree reference. Lengths are in eye widths: the width of one eye in the front view, from the inner corner to where the lids meet. With no front view, take a seventh of the eye line below. The numbers describe these drawings, not people's heads, so check them against yours.

Place the center line

Start with the cranium as a ball and draw the eye line across it, from the back of the skull to the far edge of the face. On these heads it's about six and a half to seven and a half eye widths long, about seven on a typical head. Split it into ten. The center line of the face crosses it at about nine tenths, placed from the profile with the turntable rule in three-quarter face proportions, so only a tenth is left for the far eye and cheek.

Below the eye line, take an upright line through the bridge of the nose. Placed the same way from the profile, the middle of the mouth and the front of the chin both sit within about a sixth of an eye width of it on six of the ten heads, and one of them does on three more. The rule lands close to the drawn nose tip and closer still to the drawn mouth corners; the chin has no drawn check. The nose tip, read on the drawings, sits a little over half to over four fifths of an eye width past the upright, toward the far side. The hard-plane head, drawn tipped chin-up, is the exception: its mouth and chin sit two fifths to half an eye width out, and the minimal head's mouth a quarter.

So the bend in the center line is mostly the nose.

The brow and the top of the ear

On the far side, the outline bumps out at the brow half to over four fifths of an eye width above the eye line, about seven tenths on most heads; here the eye line runs through the middle of the iris. On nine heads that bump sits within about a sixth of an eye width of the brow's height in profile, so it marks the brow line.

The usual rule puts the top of the ear level with the brow. In these ten drawings it sits lower on every head. On six of the seven heads drawn level, it sits two fifths to three fifths of the way down to the eye line. Only the heavy-brow head comes close to level, and its brow is the least certain. On the three heads drawn tipped chin-up, the top of the ear sits at about the eye line or below it.

The bottom of the lobe hangs a little below the base of the nose: about a tenth to one eye width below it on nine heads, about half on most, and level with it on the gaunt-planes head.

Make the far side short

Because the face is turning away, its far half is foreshortened. The far eye's opening shows only about a third to four fifths of a front eye width, tucked between the side of the nose and the far outline. The far half of the mouth is about an eighth to a little over a quarter of the near half. Eyes in three-quarter view and lips in three-quarter view measure each head.

The nose already reaches the far edge at 45 degrees. At its tip's height the tip is the outline, or within a tenth of an eye width of it, on seven heads. On the other three a band of a quarter to a third of an eye width shows, so draw no more than a third.

Give the side plane its width

The near side of the face now shows two planes: the front of the face and the side of the face, which turns back toward the ear. The corner between them runs from the outer end of the brow, down over the cheekbone, to the corner of the jaw.

The ear sits far back. Its front, the flap in front of the ear hole, is about a quarter to a third of the way along the eye line from the back of the skull. From there to the near eye's outer corner is about two and a third to three eye widths. That gap is the side plane, and it's wider than the space from that eye corner to the center line on every head.

Turn the jaw and chin with the head

We found the near jaw corner the way the jawline from the side does: extend the back edge of the jaw under the ear and the first stretch of the jaw line until they meet. On eight heads that point sits on a visible bend; on the gaunt-planes and full-lips heads the curve is soft and passes just inside it. At 45 degrees the corner sits in front of the ear, about a fifth to two thirds of an eye width ahead of its front, a third of the way along the eye line from the back of the skull. Its height is around halfway from the base of the nose to the bottom of the chin, from a little above halfway to three fifths down, well below the lobe.

In our construction it lands about a sixth to two fifths of an eye width higher than the same corner in profile, partly an effect of the method. So check its height on the three-quarter view rather than carrying it across from a side drawing.

The far corner doesn't show on any of the ten. The far outline runs from the cheek straight into the chin, and the jaw line leaves the chin back toward the near corner. On the square-jaw head that box-like lower face makes the turn easy to see; on the soft-planes head the same turn happens with almost no hard edges, so the construction lines carry it.

Order of work

These use the middle values of our ten drawings.

1. Draw the ball and rule the heights: the eye line about halfway down the head, the base of the nose about seven tenths down, the mouth about four fifths. Split the eye line into ten from the back of the skull to the far edge of the face.
2. Mark the front of the ear at 3 and the center line at 9.
3. Put the brow about seven tenths of an eye width above the eye line. On a level head, put the top of the ear about halfway between them; on a chin-up head, at the eye line. Hang the lobe just below the base of the nose.
4. Drop an upright from the bridge. Hang the middle of the mouth and the chin on it, and push the nose tip about three fifths of an eye width past it, out to the far edge.
5. Place the near jaw corner just in front of the ear, halfway down from the base of the nose to the chin, and run the jaw line to the chin, with no far corner.
6. Fit the far eye and the far half of the mouth into the space left: a little under three fifths of an eye width, and a far half of the mouth about a fifth of the near half.

What these numbers don't cover

Ten bald, adult heads drawn in one style, turned 45 degrees at eye level. The bridge, mouth and chin on the center line are placed from the profile, not read on the drawings. We didn't measure the forehead above the brow, other angles, or a head that also tips up or down; how to draw a tilted head covers that. The hard-plane, heavy-jaw and minimal heads are drawn tipped 5 or 6 degrees chin-up, so their numbers are as drawn.

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