How to draw a bald head: the outline from the front and the side

On a bald head nothing covers the skull, so every error in its shape shows. The usual ones are a cranium too small for the face, a back of the head with no turn into the neck, and sides that bulge like a balloon. This guide gives five checks you can make with a pencil held against your drawing: three in profile, two from the front.

The figures come from two heads in the free head rotation reference, both drawn bald: the gaunt-planes head, a lean, older face, and the minimal head, a younger, smoother one. Each number below is a fraction of head height, from the top of the skull to the bottom of the chin, measured on the drawings at exactly 0 and 90 degrees. They describe these two drawings, not every skull, so read them as a range to expect and measure your own reference the same way.

In profile: three checks

1. Depth against height. Measure from the back of the skull to the tip of the nose, then from the top of the skull to the bottom of the chin. On both heads the depth is only a little more than the height, so the profile fits in a square. A long or short nose moves this a little; measured to the brow instead, the depth falls just short of the height, by about 5 to 7 percent. If your drawing fits in a tall rectangle, the back of the skull is usually what's missing.
2. The furthest point back, and the crown. The back of the skull is furthest back a little under halfway down the head and within a tenth of head height of the brow line. The top of the skull is highest over a long, shallow stretch that sits roughly over the ear on both heads, not over the forehead.
3. The turn into the neck. Below the furthest point the outline turns in, and the back of the neck is deepest, furthest forward, about a twelfth of head height in front of that point on the gaunt-planes head and about an eighth on the minimal head. Below that the neck line runs down and slightly back. Draw the curve under the skull first and start the neck from its deepest point.

The two heads show how much the third check can vary. On the gaunt-planes head the neck is thick, so the back of the head reads nearly straight, but it still steps in by about a twelfth of head height before the neck starts. Measured the same way on all ten drawn heads of the reference, that is the smallest step; the largest is about a fifth of head height, on the soft-planes head, and six of the ten fall between about an eighth and a sixth. A back with no step at all, running from the crown straight down the neck, is the error.

From the front: two checks

1. The dome is a quarter. From the front, the top of the head curves over for about a quarter of head height: on both heads the width is almost at its widest a quarter of the way down. Below that the sides of the skull stay close to upright, only slightly convex, down to the tops of the ears. The skull is widest just above the ears.
2. Width against height. At its widest, the skull is about two thirds of head height on the gaunt-planes head and about seven tenths on the minimal head. Measure the width just above the ears, not across them, since the ears stick out from the skull.

Those sides are the side planes of the cranium, facing out and away from a light above. Both plates mark the turn from the top to each side with a light line and hatch the side below it. These are plane-style drawings, so the turn is drawn as an edge; on a softer drawing, a change of tone does the same job.

Common mistakes

• A small cranium on a full face. The profile is close to a square, and the missing depth is usually behind the ear.
• No step into the neck. Even a thick neck starts a little in front of the back of the skull.
• Width measured across the ears. Measure the skull above them.

A short exercise

Open the minimal head at 90 degrees and draw only the outline, from the brow over the top and down the back to the neck. Before any curve, mark four points: the top of the skull, the bottom of the chin, the tip of the nose and the furthest point back. Check that they fit in a square and that the furthest point back is a little under halfway down. Then mark the deepest point of the neck and draw the curve that joins it to the skull. Do the same on the gaunt-planes head and compare the two curves under the skull.

From the front, draw both heads side by side at the same height. Mark the bottom of the dome a quarter of the way down, keep the sides nearly upright, and check each width just above the ears. On a head you draw from imagination, place the same four profile points on the Loomis ball before the outline.

The ball and the side planes come from how to draw a head with the Loomis method, and the skull under this outline is built in how to draw a skull at different angles. Between front and profile, how to draw the head in three-quarter view turns the same outline. How to draw a hairline covers a head with hair, and how to draw the neck goes on from the back of the skull. The gaunt-planes and minimal heads are Study Pack 02 and 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.