How to draw a lost profile

A lost profile is the head turned past profile, away from you, so the eye and most of the face are hidden. On the head rotation reference it starts one step past the side view, at 112.5 degrees, and that is the view this guide draws. The brow, nose, lips and chin still make the front edge, but the face behind them has shrunk to a narrow strip, and the eye has gone behind the cheek.

It's hard because most of the drawing is what you leave out. Draw one eye too many and the head turns back toward you.

The hard-plane head at 112.5 degrees. The brow, nose, lips and chin still make the front edge; the curve of the cheek runs close behind them, and the eye is behind it.

How to draw a lost profile in four steps

Draw the cranium as a ball and give the back of the head more room than in profile, since the head has turned away from you.
Place the ear a little further forward than in profile. In profile it sits a little behind the middle of the head; at 112.5 degrees it sits about at the middle or just in front of it, because more of the back of the skull shows behind it.
Draw the profile edge as you would in profile: forehead, brow, nose, lips and chin.
Draw the curve of the cheek just behind that edge, from under the brow down toward the jaw. The strip between the two lines is all that's left of the face. Leave the eye out; the most a plate shows of it is a small notch of lashes under the brow.

Keep the jaw attached to the same skull. Its corner sits below and a little in front of the ear, and the underside of the jaw runs forward to the chin.

What changes from profile

In profile you see the eye, the side of the nose and the corner of the mouth inside the face line, with the ear a little behind the middle of the head. One step further, at 112.5 degrees, the face line is still there, but the cheek has moved up close behind it and the eye has gone. One step further again, at three-quarter back, the cheek makes most of the front edge and the ear sits near the front of the head.

The soft-planes head at 112.5 degrees. A faint cheek line runs behind the nose and mouth; nothing of the eye shows.

The step from profile is small, and the change inside the face is large. Draw a full eye on a head meant to be at 112.5 degrees and it reads as a profile, or as a head turned slightly toward you. If your lost profile looks wrong, check the eye first.

Three ways it goes wrong

An eye. It's tempting to keep the eye you drew in profile. On the plates the cheek covers it, and at most a few lashes show as a notch under the brow.

The face too wide. If the cheek line sits far behind the profile edge, the strip of face grows and the head turns back toward profile, so keep the two lines close.

The ear left where it was. If the ear stays at its profile position, the back of the head stays small and the face takes over again. Move the ear forward and let the back of the skull grow behind it.

The heavy-brow head at 112.5 degrees. The heavy brow still makes the top of the front edge, above a cheek that hides the eye.

Practice it

Draw one head three times in a row: in profile, at 112.5 degrees and at three-quarter back. Use the same ball for all three, move only the ear and the front edge, and give each drawing about five minutes. Then draw the mirror view, turned the other way, which is 247.5 degrees on the reference.

The reference page for this angle shows all ten heads at 112.5 degrees in tone and nine of them in pencil. Head rotation volume 2 has the soft-planes and heavy-brow heads above at all sixteen angles.

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