How to Draw a 3D Skeleton Face

Since the time of the old master painters like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, artists have been drawing skeleton faces. Skulls have fascinated artists for centuries because they are a symbol for death. Pirates knew this too, so they made skeleton face flags to fly over their pirate ships. Today, Halloween seems to be the time when the most skulls appear. If you want to create a fantastic 3D skeleton face drawing that will spook your friends, try this old master "reverse" drawing technique. It's fun to do. Instead of making a traditional drawing where you draw with black to create shadows on white paper, you draw with white to create the highlights on black paper.

Things You'll Need

• Black pastel drawing paper, 16 by 20-inches
• Drawing board, 20 by 24-inches
• White pastel stick
• White conte pencil
• Black conte pencil
• Black pastel stick
• Kneaded eraser

Instructions

1. 

   One light from the side also creates a 3D effect

   Choose a photograph of skull as a reference photo for your drawing. You can use one of the photos in this article or find skeleton face photos online. Or, if you have a plastic reproduction skull, set it up on a desk or table on a black cloth for a backdrop and light it with one light source.

2. 

   Skull drawings with no gray tones don't look 3D

   Lightly sketch in the large shapes of the skull with the white conte pencil. This light line sketch will be the blueprint for your drawing. Note the proportions of the skull as you draw. Look at how large the cranium area is, how deep and how large the eye sockets are and how delicate the upper and lower jaws are with the jagged rows of teeth.

3. 

   No dramatic lighting on a skeleton face makes it look flat

   Lightly draw in the the large white masses of the skull using the side of the white pastel stick. Remember that you are drawing in reverse, so the black paper represents the shadow areas. Where you see black shadow areas in the skull, leave those areas alone. Press down lightly on the white pastel stick at first, and as you get a feel for the stick, start pressing down harder on it to get a brighter white in the drawing.

4. 

   Adding props with the skull creates mystery

   Break the white pastel stick in half, and begin adding finer details, drawing with a light touch at first, and then adding more white and more fine detail as your drawing progresses. Use the half stick to draw in the fissure lines on the skull, pressing on one side of the stick as your draw, letting up on the pressure as you begin to enter a shadow area. If there is reflected light in the shadow area, add that with the small stick as well.

5. 

   Including color in your 3D skeleton face drawing makes it spooky

   Add fine detail to the teeth, jaw bone, nose and other areas that catch the light using the white conte pencil. If you have made mistakes or want to sharpen an area of white, use the black conte pencil or black pastel stick to go back and add black. To finish the drawing, take your white pastel stick and add the brightest white spots to the drawing. For example, if the skull is lit from above, the brightest spot will be on the top of the skull, with smaller bright white areas on the top of the cheekbones or nose. Use the kneaded eraser to erase any of the remaining white conte pencil lines you made in Step 2 for your initial blueprint sketch.

Tips & Warnings

• Reflected light is light that is caused by the light source hitting part of the skull and being reflected back up onto the skull, usually in a shadow area.

• Conte pencils have hard leads, so the lines will be light. Do not press down too hard while you are drawing because you do not want to create indentations in the paper.

• To draw a spooky 3D skeleton face in color, substitute the white with a color such as purple, and follow the same steps for drawing.

• If you want to put a 3D skeleton face on fabric, buy a black T-shirt or sweater and follow the same steps using white fabric paint. Start your fabric painting with diluted white paint and finish with bright white paint.

• Do not use fixative spray on your pastel drawings. Commercial fixative sprays dull down the brightness of the drawing, and they are dangerous to use because of the sprayed chemicals. To protect your drawing, cover it with a tissue while in storage, or frame under glass or plastic.

References

• Dragoart: How to Draw a Realistic Skull
• How to Draw and Paint: How to Draw Faces