How to draw a brow ridge: front, three-quarter and profile

The brow ridge is the shelf of bone above the eyes. Its top faces forward and up, and its underside turns down and back into the eye sockets. With the light from above, that underside is in shadow. On the plates below, how far that shadow reaches and how dark it gets does more to make a brow look heavy than the outline does.

The figures come from two heads in the free head rotation reference. The heavy-brow head is an older face with a lined forehead and a strong brow. The soft-planes head is a younger face where most turns are gradual. Both heads are bald and lit from above and a little to one side.

What to place

The brow line, wrapping around the head about a third of the way down from the hairline to the chin.
The ridge, the band of bone along that line, from above the inner corner of each eye out to the side of the forehead. The eyebrows sit on it, but the bone is the form to draw; the hair goes on top later.
The underside, the plane under the ridge that turns back into the socket, above the upper lid.
The root of the nose, the dip between the brows where the ridge meets the bridge of the nose.

In order: the brow line, then the eye line just under it, then the ridge along the brow line, then the eyes. The eyes sit back under the ridge, so the ridge sets how deep they look.

From the front

The heavy-brow head from the front. There is no light gap between the brow and the eye, and two short creases run down between the brows.

From the front you can't see how far the ridge stands out, so its weight has to come from value. On the heavy-brow head the hatching under the ridge carries on down over the upper lid to the lid line, and the eye looks out from under it. Between the brows, two short vertical creases run down into the root of the nose.

The soft-planes head from the front. A narrow lit strip separates the brow from the upper lid.

On the soft-planes head the brow sits at about the same height, but a narrow lit strip runs between the brow and the crease of the upper lid, and the space between the brows is clear. Most of the difference between the two faces is where the shadow under the ridge stops.

At three-quarter

The heavy-brow head at 45 degrees. The far outline steps back from the brow into the bridge of the nose, with the far eye inside it.

At three-quarter the brow shows in the far outline. The outline comes down the forehead to the brow, then steps back into the bridge of the nose before the nose comes forward again. The far eye sits inside the outline, under the brow and against the side of the nose. That step is small on both the heavy-brow and the soft-planes head, so the outline alone won't make a brow look heavy.

On the near side the ridge turns from the front of the forehead to the side of the head. Draw its underside as one plane running from the root of the nose out toward the temple, and shade it as a band above the eye. On the heavy-brow head that band reaches the near upper lid.

In profile

The heavy-brow head in profile. The brow stands only a little ahead of the bridge of the nose; the dark plane under it stops at the edge of the lid.

In profile the brow is the first step out from the forehead, and the outline dips at the root of the nose before the nose comes forward. On the plates of the heavy-brow, soft-planes and minimal heads that step is small. The heavy-brow head stands only a little ahead of its bridge, and the minimal head steps back at least as far. The front of the eye sits well behind the brow on all three.

What changes is the value of the underside. On the heavy-brow head it is a dark, dense plane above the eye, darker than on the other two heads, and it stops at the edge of the upper lid; the lid itself stays light. Keep the outline close to the construction and put the weight into that plane.

Common mistakes

A big bump in the profile outline. On these plates even the heavy-browed head stands out only a little past the bridge of the nose. A large bump turns the head into a caricature.
The eyebrow drawn as the brow. The eyebrow is hair on the ridge. Draw the ridge and its underside first, then lay the eyebrow on top.
A black socket. The underside of the ridge is a surface turning away from the light. Keep it a middle tone, darkest just under the edge of the ridge.
Eyes set level with the brow. The eye sits back under the ridge at every angle, so the upper lid starts behind it.

A short exercise

Draw the soft-planes head from the front in line only, and copy it twice. On the first copy, shade the underside of the brow as a band about as wide as the upper lid and leave a light strip above the lids. On the second, carry that band a step darker and down over the upper lids to the lid line, and add the two creases between the brows, keeping the outlines identical. Then try it the other way: draw the heavy-brow head at 0 degrees with a light strip left above the lids, and see how much of its weight goes.

The ridge is one of the landmarks in parts of the head for drawing. The eye under it is drawn in how to draw eyes at different angles, and the planes the shadow sits on are in the planes of the head and how light falls on them. The heavy-brow head is sold alone as Study Pack 10; the soft-planes head is Study Pack 06, and both are in Volume 2.

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