How to Draw Necks

Drawing necks requires study from life and from photographs.

When drawing portraits, many art students obsess over the details of the face. The face contains the features that make a sitter recognizable and offers a window into a person's mood through expressive elements such as the face and mouth. The neck, though, provides one of the most important aspects of a portrait. It indicates the age of the sitter with smooth, supple flesh or a leathery, wrinkled surface. It also offers support for the head, so pay careful attention to the size and strength of your neck drawing.

Instructions

1. Draw a vertical line extending downward from the center of the chin. Keep this line light since it only acts as a guide.

2. Under the right jaw, draw a long, curving line. This line should look like a loose, elongated backwards "C" shape. Repeat under the left jaw, using a regular "C" shape. This forms the outline of the neck. Make sure that the lines of the neck lie equidistant from the center vertical line.

3. Mark the vertical center of each line forming the neck.

4. Draw a long, arching horizontal line that intersects the center points of both neck lines. This horizontal line forms the shoulders. Erase the shoulder line that falls inside of the neck and the vertical line.

5. Connect the shoulders to the lines of the neck using a fluid line that inclines upward from the shoulder to the neck on each side.

6. In the center of the neck, softly shade a semicircular shape to represent the Adam's apple. Make this shape smaller if you are drawing a woman's neck.

7. Turn your tip pencil on its side and use light, soft shadow to accentuate the curves of the two original neck lines. This defines the muscles of the neck.

8. Apply pressure to your pencil to create darker shadows under the jawline.

Tips & Warnings

• Make the neck larger for adult male subjects and smaller for female sitters.

References

• How to Draw It: How to Draw the Neck