Common Proportion Errors in a Head Study
Common proportion slips in a head drawn from life, and the few comparisons that catch them before you add detail.
A head goes wrong in a few familiar places. The eyes drift too high. The skull becomes a flat oval with a face stuck on the front. The ear shrinks, or the mouth smiles wider than the jaw can hold. These are not mysteries of talent. They are comparisons you skipped because a face is something you think you know. The checks below are starting points. A real person will depart from them, which is why you measure after you block.
Eyes are lower than you think
From the crown of the head to the chin, the eyes often sit near the halfway line, not in the upper third. Hair conceals the crown, so people start the head at the hairline and push the features up. Include the cranium. It is a large mass behind and above the face. If the drawing is all face, the person will look like a mask.
Mark the halfway line before you place the eyes. Measuring Proportions with a Pencil will either confirm the halfway point or show you where this sitter differs. Differing is normal. Ignoring the check is how every head becomes the same head.
Width, features and the ear
A common working check is that the space between the eyes is similar to the width of an eye, and that the whole head is several of those widths across. Treat that as a question, not a law. Ask it, then look. A face can be wider or narrower. The error is assuming without asking.
The ear usually lives between the level of the brow and the level of the base of the nose, farther back than a front view suggests. In a three-quarter view it is partly turned away. Do not omit it because it is difficult. A head without that marker looks paper-thin. Contour Drawing: A Slow Line That Teaches Looking is a good way to find the ear's edge without inventing a cartoon curl.
The jaw and the smile
The mouth is narrower than the distance between the outer corners of the eyes, in many people, until they smile. A smile drawn from the idea of a smile widens the mouth and forgets that the cheeks lift and the eyes change. Draw the shape you see. If the teeth are a bright note, they are still inside the jaw, not a separate object in front of the face.
The jaw has thickness. Under the chin there is a plane that catches shadow. If you draw the profile of the chin as a single line with nothing behind it, the head will not turn in space. Gesture Drawing at the Kitchen Table keeps the skull as a moving mass. A long portrait sitting should not lose that mass in the details of a lash.
One correction at a time
When the likeness is off, do not redraw every feature. Check halfway, then the width of the head against its height, then the placement of the ear. Fix the worst of those. Likeness usually returns when the big box is right, even if the mouth is still approximate.
These are observations from life, not a medical diagram and not a standard you should impose on a sitter. People are asymmetrical. Record the asymmetry you see. A perfectly mirrored face looks more false than a slightly uneven one that was looked at.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use a canon of proportions? Use it as a set of questions to test against the person in front of you. The moment the canon overrules the sitter, you are drawing a diagram.
Why do my heads look like they are tipping back? The eyes may be too high, or the forehead too short, because the hair was excluded from the skull. Add the cranium and lower the eye line. Check before you restyle the hair.
Can I learn this from photographs? Photographs help if you know the lens can enlarge a nose that was close to the camera. Life, or a mirror, is the check. If you study a photo, say so on the page.