How to draw the head from the back

The back of the head is hard to draw because nothing on it measures for you. There are no eyes, nose or mouth to space out, only a skull, two ears and a neck, and those three are what this guide places.

We measured each step below on the ten bald heads of our free back view reference, against the same heads from the front. With no face to measure from, lengths here are in skull widths: the width of the skull at its widest, above the ears. The measurements are close; the top of the skull differs a little more between the two views on three heads. The numbers describe these drawings, not people's heads, so check them against your own reference.

Start from the front outline

The back view is the front view turned halfway round, so the skull's outline is the front's outline flipped. These plates were drawn as a turntable, so that's by design; we checked it holds on the drawings. The widest skull width from the back matches the front within 1% on all ten heads, and the top of the ear and the bottom of the lobe stay close to their rows in the front view.

So if you have a front drawing of the same head, copy the skull's width and the ear heights across. Don't copy the lower outline: the jaw that shapes it from the front is hidden from behind (below). With no front to copy, draw the skull ball and use the steps below.

Keep the sides of the skull upright

From the crown the outline curves down and out, then runs almost straight. On all ten heads the width stays within 2% of the widest from about a third to half a skull width below the crown, about two fifths on a typical head, down to just above the ears. Don't taper the skull to a point at the ears: it holds its full width down to them.

The whole head, crown to chin, is about one and a third to one and a half skull widths tall, about one and two fifths on a typical head. From behind the chin is hidden, so with no front view that row is itself an estimate, but the neck is narrowest about level with it (below).

Hang the ears from the skull's sides

The top of the ear sits about two thirds of a skull width below the crown. The bottom of the lobe sits about one skull width below the crown, up to a tenth more. If you have the front view, those are its rows: on eight heads the top of the ear is a little above the eye line, and on the hard-plane and heavy-jaw heads, two of the three drawn tipped chin-up, it's below it. The lobe sits level with the base of the nose or lower, as ears from the front measures.

Each ear stands out from the side of the skull by about a sixteenth to an eighth of a skull width, about a twelfth on a typical head, and by almost the same amount as in the front view. Measured across both ears, the head is about a tenth to a little over a quarter wider than the skull alone, about a sixth wider on a typical head. The gaunt-planes and hard-plane heads have the widest-set ears, the deep-folds head the closest.

Draw the side of the skull straight down behind each ear first, then hang the ear outside that line. On these plates the ear shows its outer rim and the back of its cup rather than the inside.

Bring the neck out from under the ears

The neck doesn't start from the jaw. From behind, its sides come out from under the lobes, a little inside the line of the skull: about 4 to 13 percent of a skull width in on each side, about a tenth on a typical head. On the hard-plane and gaunt-planes heads the side of the skull runs almost straight into the neck; on the deep-folds, soft-planes, full-lips and heavy-brow heads the step in is the largest.

Just under the lobes the neck is a little under three quarters to a little over nine tenths of a skull width across, about four fifths on a typical head. It narrows as it goes down, to about three fifths to four fifths of a skull width, about seven tenths on a typical head, near the chin row, from a little above it to just below it, then widens into the shoulders. The heavy-jaw head barely narrows at all.

That's wider than we expected: before measuring we guessed half to two thirds of the skull width. How to draw the neck measures a little over half and about two thirds of the cranium ball on two study busts from the front, just under the jaw; those are different models measured a different way, so don't compare the numbers directly.

No jaw corner shows outside the neck on nine of the ten. For about a fifth of a skull width below the lobe the outline is the neck's side, with nothing showing outside it; the heavy-jaw head has a tiny bump. So leave the jaw out, or let the neck line pass in front of where it would be.

Order of work

These use the middle values of our ten drawings.

1. Draw the skull ball and mark its widest width. Rule the chin row about one and two fifths skull widths below the crown.
2. Run the sides of the skull straight down from about two fifths of a skull width below the crown to the top of the ear.
3. Mark the top of the ear about two thirds of a skull width below the crown, and the bottom of the lobe about one skull width below the crown.
4. Hang each ear outside the skull's side, standing out about a twelfth of a skull width.
5. Bring the neck out from under the lobes, about a tenth of a skull width inside the skull's sides, so it's about four fifths of a skull width across there.
6. Narrow the neck to about seven tenths of a skull width near the chin row, then widen it into the shoulders.

If you have a front drawing of the same head, take the skull width and the ear rows from it instead.

Check the neighboring views

The view on either side of this one is the three-quarter back, 135 degrees, where one ear comes forward and the brow, cheekbone and chin show on the far edge. Keep the skull the same size as you turn it. Ears at every angle follows the ear through the whole turn.

What these numbers don't cover

Ten bald, adult heads drawn in one style, seen straight from behind at eye level, with no hair. The plates are drawn as a turntable, so part of the match with the front comes from how they were made; we checked it on the drawings. Hair adds width over the skull and ears on most real heads, and a head turned a few degrees off straight-on will break the match with the front. The neck lines are read as drawn, several strokes each, not as muscles, and only down to a fixed row above the shoulders. Some plates carry a curved construction line across the neck that we didn't measure. Three of the fronts we compared against are drawn tipped chin-up, so their eye line and nose base 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.