How to draw the head in near profile

The near profile sits between the three-quarter view and the side view, at about 67.5 degrees. It's awkward to draw from memory because it belongs to neither. The face hasn't flattened into a profile, but most of it has turned away, so the drawing has to show the edge of the face and a little of its front at once.

The order, in short:

1. Block in the cranium and the side plane of the head.
2. Draw the outline of the face from brow to chin.
3. Keep a narrow strip of the front of the face.
4. Place the near eye on that strip and the far eye as a sliver.
5. Put the ear behind the middle of the head.
6. Run the jaw line back to the ear.

Build the skull first

Near profile fails the same way a profile does: the face gets drawn first and the skull behind it comes out too small. On the plates in the 67.5 degree reference the cranium takes up well over half of the head's shape. Draw that ball first, with room behind it, and mark the large flat plane on the side of the head where the ear will go. The profile guide has the depth rule in more detail.

Let the outline carry the face

The far side of the face no longer has its own contour. The outline there is made by whatever sticks out furthest: the brow, the nose, the lips and the chin. Draw that edge with each form stepping forward and back.

The far eye is almost gone. On most of the plates it's a thin wedge sitting on the outline between the brow and the nose; on the square-jaw head it has disappeared entirely. Draw more of it than that and the head swings back toward three-quarter.

Keep a strip of the front of the face

What separates this view from a profile is the narrow strip of the front of the face still visible between the outline and the near eye. The near eye sits on that strip, close to the outline. It's foreshortened, shorter than in the three-quarter view, with the iris shifted toward the front of the face, but it isn't the wedge it becomes in profile.

The mouth shows mostly its near half. The far corner is hidden behind the curve of the lips, so draw the mouth from the outline back to the near corner. The eye and mouth guides follow both features through the whole turn.

Put the ear behind the middle

The near ear sits behind the middle of the head, with a large area of skull still behind it. Its top is near the brow line and its lobe near the base of the nose. The side of the face, from the cheekbone back to the ear, is now the biggest plane in the drawing, much larger than at 45 degrees.

Draw the jaw nearly at full length

At 45 degrees the near jaw line is still foreshortened. By 67.5 it has almost its full side-view length, running from the chin back and up to just under the ear, and the far jaw corner has gone behind the chin. Draw it as one long line before shaping the corner. The underside of the jaw shows as a narrow plane between that line and the neck.

Compare head types at this angle

Because the outline carries so much of the face, near profile is a good angle for telling heads apart. On the high-cheekbones head the cheekbone stays on the outline below the eye, while the jaw has already turned away. On the heavy-brow head the brow ridge hides more of the far eye than on the others. The deep-folds head shows its folds along the near cheek, laid over the same planes as every other head.

Place it between two angles

At 45 degrees the far eye still shows beside the nose; at 90 degrees the front strip of the face is gone. If you can see the whole far eye, you've drawn a three-quarter view. With no front strip left, the drawing has become a profile. To drill the turn through all sixteen angles, try the 20-minute rotation drill.

The square-jaw head on this page is Study Pack 07.

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