How do I draw a face in three-quarter view?

Three-quarter is the view portraits are actually drawn in, because it shows the structure of the head in a way a flat front view does not. It is also where beginners' drawings collapse, because the features have to be placed on a curved surface rather than a flat one, and the temptation is to draw a front-view face and then move the nose sideways.

Step by step

1. Draw the ball of the cranium and flatten the visible side plane.The skull is a ball with a flat slabbed off each side where the temple is. In three-quarter you see one of those flats clearly, and it is what gives the head its width and its solidity.
2. Curve the centre line round the ball.The line that runs down the middle of the face — between the brows, down the nose, through the philtrum and the middle of the lips — is a line drawn on a curved surface, so it bows. The more the head is turned, the further round it goes and the more it curves.
3. Curve the eye line and brow line the same way.They wrap round the ball horizontally, and if the head is also tipped they curve up or down accordingly. All the feature lines are latitude and longitude on the same sphere — that is the whole idea.
4. Hang the jaw from the ball, angled to match.Find the corner of the jaw below and slightly behind the ear, then run the jawline forward to the chin, which sits on the centre line. The far side of the jaw is largely hidden behind the near cheek.
5. Compress the far side of the face.Everything on the far side of the centre line is narrower on the page — the far eye, the far half of the mouth, the far nostril, the far cheek. Failing to compress is the single most common error and it makes the head look flattened out.
6. Change the shape of the far eye, not just its width.It is not the near eye squashed. It is seen at an angle, so the visible white on its far side reduces, the inner corner may be hidden by the nose, and the eyelid reads as a thicker, more curved band.
7. Draw the nose as a wedge with a visible side plane.In three-quarter the nose has a top plane, a front plane and one clearly visible side plane, and the far nostril is partly or wholly obscured by the bridge. This is where the head gains most of its apparent depth.
8. Place the ear behind the jaw hinge and check its size.As the head turns away, the near ear moves towards the outline and the far one disappears. The ear still spans brow to nose base — the turn does not change that.
9. Check the silhouette of the far cheek against the eye.In a strong three-quarter, the outer edge of the face passes close to or even cuts across the far eye. That relationship is a reliable test of whether you have compressed enough.

Tips

• Build the head from simple boxes first if the curvature confuses you — a box tells you immediately which planes you can see and how much of each.
• A profile is easier than a three-quarter, and a front view is easier still. Practising the same head at four angles in one sitting teaches more than four separate portraits.
• Photograph your own head at a three-quarter angle and rule the centre line onto the photo with a pen. Seeing where it actually curves is worth an hour of instruction.
• The far eyebrow usually disappears over the brow ridge before the far eye does. Watch for that in reference — it is a small detail that sells the roundness.

Common mistakes

• Keeping the centre line straight — A straight centre line describes a flat surface. The moment it curves the head becomes a solid, and no amount of shading will do that job instead.
• Drawing both eyes the same width — It flattens the head instantly, and it reads as a strabismus rather than as a turned head.
• Placing the ear on the outline of the head — The ear sits on the side plane of the skull, well behind the jaw hinge. On the silhouette it reads as stuck on.

If it doesn't work

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