How to draw an angular face: where the tone turns a corner

An angular face has corners where a smoother face has curves: where the tone on the side of the face meets the lit front, along the jaw, and at the brow in profile. Here is where they sit on two measured heads.

The figures come from two bald heads in the free head rotation reference: the hard-plane head, an older, heavier face drawn with distinct changes of direction, and the minimal head, a younger face with few sharp internal edges. Distances are compared as shares of each face's width at the jaw (and, in profile, of the head's height), read from the 1024 px plates. Traced outlines read to within 1 percent of that width; tone edges to within about 3 percent, the width of one sample box. Tones are averaged over small boxes placed clear of the outline strokes, 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

Both heads are drawn at about the same size here: the chins bottom out within about 1 percent of the face's width of each other.

1. Stop the side-plane tone at an edge. Read across the cheek between the cheekbone and the mouth. On the hard-plane head the hatched band is about a full step darker than the lit front, and in every row it returns to the lit paper within 3 to 6 percent of the face's width, on both cheeks. On the left that edge is a near-straight line from the cheekbone down past the mouth, drifting about 8 percent of the face's width toward the nose. On the minimal head the band is lighter, about half a step darker than the front, and the rise takes anywhere from about 3 to 17 percent of the face's width depending on the row, so the side of that face reads as a curve.
2. Draw the jaw in straight runs. On the viewer's left, measure how steeply the jaw line slopes below level as it travels toward the chin. Past the corner, the hard-plane jaw holds about 48 degrees for a stretch, bends through 39 and 31, holds about 27 degrees for a second stretch, then levels into the chin: two straight runs. The minimal jaw eases from about 54 degrees to about 35 a little at a time, though it too ends in a short run near 27 degrees. On the right side of both heads the runs are much harder to see, so take this as a way to draw a firm jaw, not a law of angular faces.
3. Flatten the bottom of the chin. Because the hard-plane front is seen slightly from below, its chin has two lines: the chin outline, and below it the lower edge of a band of shaded underside. The outline stays level for about a fifth of the face's width, while the minimal chin is a shallow arc less than 2 percent deep. Keep the difference small in your drawing: a nearly flat line, not a box.

At three-quarter view

At this angle the edge itself is firm on both heads: on each, the front of the shaded patch returns to the lit paper within 3 to 6 percent of the face's width. What differs is where the tone goes below the cheekbone.

On the hard-plane head the band on the near cheek is strongest for about two thirds of its length under the cheekbone, then carries on more faintly, barely darker than the paper, for the last third until it meets the shading under the jaw. Its front edge slants about 17 degrees forward of upright on the way down. On the minimal head the patch is about half as tall as that band and ends about level with the base of the nose. Below it, the cheek beside the mouth is the same as the lit paper, so a light gap separates the cheek tone from the jaw tone.

So draw the angular cheek as one plane that reaches the jaw, with a single slanting edge, and the smoother cheek as a short patch under the cheekbone with light below it.

In profile

In profile, follow the front of the forehead down toward the brow. On the minimal head the outline slopes about 27 degrees off upright, all the way to the brow: an even curve. On the hard-plane head it slopes 27 to 31 degrees, then about 42 degrees for a short stretch, then swings back toward upright. That last part is the front of the brow ridge, standing nearly upright for about 7 percent of the head's height above the brow's lower edge. The bend between the sloping forehead and that upright face is the corner, about an eighth of the head's height above the eye.

Drawing it

1. Place the planes first. Block in the front, the sides and the underside of the jaw, as in the planes of the head; both faces start from this construction.
2. Draw the edge between front and side as a line, from the outer corner of the brow over the cheekbone to the jaw.
3. Fill the side plane with one even value, about one step below the lit front, and stop the hatching at the line. Even tone up to a firm edge reads as flat; tone that changes all the way across reads as rounded.
4. Straighten the outline in runs. Break the jaw into two straight lines with a small bend between them, and keep the chin bottom nearly flat.
5. Check the brow in profile. Bend the sloping forehead into a short, upright brow ridge.

For a smoother face, do the opposite: fade the side tone over a wider band, curve the jaw, and run the forehead evenly into the brow. How to draw a round face measures that curve.

What else is going on

This is one pair of drawings, and the hard-plane head differs from the minimal head in more than its edges. It is older and heavier, with a deeper brow, a broader nose and a jaw about 9 percent wider, and its front plate is seen slightly from below. Some of what reads as angular here may come from age and weight, so treat the steps above as drawing choices you can test, not as measured rules. A deeper brow is covered in how to draw a brow ridge.

In paint, the same idea is how fast one value turns into the next.

A short exercise

Trace the minimal head at 0 degrees lightly. Draw the front-to-side edge on each cheek, hatch evenly up to it, redraw the left jaw as two straight runs and flatten the chin. Compare it with the hard-plane head at 0 degrees, then repeat at 45 degrees.

The jaw's corner and back edge are placed in how to draw a jawline, the cheekbone in how to draw cheekbones, and a lean face in how to draw a thin face. For where light and shadow fall as the light moves, see how to shade a head one light at a time. The hard-plane head is Study Pack 01 and the minimal head is Study Pack 04, both 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.