How to Draw a Skull With a Rose

Video Transcript

"Joel Hickerson, grindog.com. Today we're going to learn how to draw a skull with a rose. First thing, you start with your shapes. Now, the skull... I've cheated a little bit and started the drawing off... but the skull with elongated at the back lobe. Now remember these are your construction lines. You're going to end up making a whole lot more of these than you need, and that's okay, because the more lines you draw, the more you're going to have to choose from when you come back to do your finished drawing. So, as your construction lines develop, you'll have more to work from. Alright, so I'm starting with the skull... just basic shape, basic elements... cheeks, nose cavity, eye cavities, cracks of course are always on a skull. Alright and then the rose, and this will be what makes your design a little more dynamic. A skull is what it is, but with a rose you can actually make it even more dynamic with a stem, with the way the stem comes out. A rose is basically an elliptical shape, as a starting place, and you come back with kind of a little corkscrew on the end and have some petals falling away from that. Okay... alright, now I probably have enough construction elements to start the finished piece. You come back with your marker... start with the outline of your skull. Remember the skull actually falls back quite a ways. If you want to give it more of a sinister look, you can bring the brows down a little bit... and your nose cavity... and mouth. This rose is actually being held between the teeth, so you could even give it a little bit of a separation there towards the bottom, where the stem comes out of the mouth. Alright, don't forget the thorns... your rose... little corkscrew at the end. Alright, what makes a rose a rose is these petals that fall away from the center. Okay... and then you can come back and you can add your black, your darker black shadows if that's the look you're going for for more of a tattoo sort of look, or if you're just doing a dynamic drawing, let's make your angles a little stronger. And that's how you draw a skull with a rose."