Three-quarter face proportions for drawing, measured on ten heads

In the front view you can split the face into eye widths, and in profile you can drop a line from the brow. At 45 degrees everything is turning, so there's nothing flat to measure against. We measured its proportions on the ten bald heads of our free 45 degree reference, drawn at the same scale as the front and profile plates.

Heights are given as a share of the head's height, from the top of the skull to the bottom of the chin. Widths are given in eye widths, the width of one eye in the front view, from the inner corner to where the lids meet at the outer corner. The numbers describe these drawings, not people's heads.

The heights carry across

Turning the head about an upright line doesn't move anything up or down, and the plates keep to that. On all ten heads, the top of the skull, the eye line, the base of the nose, the mouth and the bottom of the chin stay almost on the same rows as on the front plate. The base of the nose and the mouth hardly move at all. The eye, read at the middle of the iris, drops very slightly on most heads; we haven't isolated why.

So if you've drawn the front, rule the five lines across and the heights of the three-quarter view are done. Face proportions gives them from the front.

As drawn, the eye line sits around halfway down, the base of the nose about two thirds to three quarters down and the mouth three quarters to about five sixths. The eye lines a little above halfway belong to the hard-plane, gaunt-planes and heavy-jaw heads, with the minimal head close to them. The hard-plane, heavy-jaw and minimal heads are drawn tipped 5 or 6 degrees chin-up, so their shares are as drawn; side profile proportions levels them in profile.

The eye line in tenths

Follow the eye line from the back of the skull to the far edge of the face. Measured from the back of the skull as a share of that line, the front of the ear (the flap in front of the ear hole) sits a quarter to a third of the way along, the near eye's outer corner about two thirds along, and the center line about nine tenths along. Split the line into ten: the ear starts at about 3, the near eye ends a little past six and a half, and the center line falls at 9.

In front eye widths, the line is about six and a half to seven and a half eyes long, about seven on a typical head. Here the near eye's corner is where its lids meet, placed from the front view. Along it, on a typical head:

• Back of the skull to the front of the ear: about two eye widths.
• Front of the ear to the near eye's outer corner: about two and three quarters. This is the side plane of the face. The widest, about three, are the gaunt-planes head, whose ear point is the least certain, and the hard-plane head.
• Near eye's outer corner to the center line: about one and three quarters: the near eye and the space beside the nose.
• Center line to the far edge of the face: about two thirds of an eye width. The far eye and the far cheek fit in that.

As drawn, the ear sits well behind the middle. In profile the front of the ear is near the middle of the head's depth; at 45 degrees it's in the back third of the eye line.

The center line runs just inside the far edge of the nose

At the eye line the center of the face falls just inside the drawn far edge of the nose bridge, against the far eye. On every plate the far eye is tucked into the small space between that edge and the far contour.

That space is short. The opening of the far eye that shows is a little over a third to a little over four fifths of a front eye width, a little under three fifths on a typical head; eyes in three-quarter view gives each head. Below the eye, the nose reaches the far contour or comes within about a quarter of an eye width of it, so the far cheek almost disappears; the nose in three-quarter view has the gaps. At the mouth, the far half is about a fifth of the near half; lips in three-quarter view measures it.

The head is wider than from the front

From the back of the skull to the far edge of the face, along the eye line, the head is about four fifths of its height across. From the front the skull is about seven tenths of the height at its widest, a little higher up, and in profile it's about nine tenths deep from the back to the brow. At 45 degrees you see some of both, so the width lands between them: about a tenth of the height wider than the front.

Build it from the front and the side

These plates are drawn as a turntable: one head turning about an upright line through the middle of the skull. Put the front and profile drawings side by side at one scale and mark that line on both. For any point, measure how far it sits from the line in the front view (A, plus on the side the face turns toward) and in the profile (B, plus toward the face). At 45 degrees, ignoring perspective, it sits seven tenths of A + B from the line, on the face side when that's positive; that's the sine of 45 degrees, rounded.

On these plates the drawn corners of the mouth land within about a tenth of an eye width of where that puts them. It's slow for a whole head, but it checks a doubtful point.

Order of work

1. Rule the heights across from a front drawing, or mark them: the eye line about halfway, the base of the nose about seven tenths down, the mouth about four fifths.
2. Draw the skull about four fifths of the head's height across at the eye line.
3. Split the eye line into ten. Put the front of the ear at 3, the near eye's outer corner a little past six and a half and the center line at 9.
4. Draw the near eye from its outer corner toward the center line, four fifths of its front width up to the full width, never wider.
5. Fit the far eye into the last tenth, between the side of the nose and the far contour: a little under three fifths of an eye width shows.
6. Run the center line down just inside the far edge of the nose, through the middle of the mouth and the chin, and keep the far half of the mouth about a fifth of the near half.

Mistakes the plates rule out

• An ear in the middle of the head. At 45 degrees it starts a quarter to a third of the way across from the back.
• A short side plane. From the ear to the near eye is about two and a third to three eye widths, wider than from that eye's corner to the center line on every head.
• Features that drift up or down as the head turns. Every row here stays level with the front view, and the same face from different angles carries them to profile.
• A wide far side. The center line sits nine tenths of the way across, so only a tenth is left for the far eye and cheek.

What these numbers don't cover

Ten bald, adult heads drawn in one style, turned 45 degrees at eye level. With no hair there's no hairline. The widths are read on the eye line only. We didn't measure the brow, the nose tip or the jaw at 45 degrees, or other angles; how to draw the head in three-quarter view shows how the center line curves over the forehead and chin. A head that also tips up or down changes all of this; how to draw a tilted head covers that.

Related guides

Ears in three-quarter view measures the ear.

A short exercise

Draw the soft-planes head from the front and rule five lines across from it. Between them, draw the skull turned 45 degrees, mark its eye line in tenths, then add the features and compare with the plate.

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