What views are on the sheets?

The skull from the front, in profile and three-quarter, and from below and above.

What is the difference between the three styles?

Graphite has soft shading in the hollows, pen and ink uses crosshatching that follows the bone, and clean contour is outlines only with no shading.

Are these photographs?

No. Each sheet is a flat drawing of bone on a plain white page.

Can I ask for a different skull?

Yes. Type a direction such as child skull or with muscles, and it is a request for that, not a promised result.

toile

/skull-reference-sheets · illustration

Skull reference sheets: the human skull from the front, side and tilted

Skull reference sheets — a human skull from the front, the eye sockets, nasal cavity, cheekbones and teeth drawn with clean shading, a realistic graphite pencil study, firm contour lines with soft tonal shading in the hollows and under the forms

Change this one

More like this

the whole catalog →

Landscape drawings9 samples · illustration

Leaf drawings9 samples · illustration

Leg drawing references9 samples · illustration

Lettering quotes9 samples · illustration

every sample — three subjects, three styles ↓

Reading 1Front

Reading 2Side and three-quarter

Reading 3Tilted

Portrait artists learn the head from the bone. These sheets show the skull from the front, with the eye sockets, cheekbones and teeth; in profile and three-quarter, with the jaw hinge and cranium curve; and from below and above, foreshortened. Each view comes in graphite, pen and ink, and clean contour. Type a different skull, such as an open jaw, and the same views carry it.

a head study for a portrait
a reference for the structure of the face
a sketchbook page on the skull
a classroom handout on the bones of the head

Frequently asked questions

What views are on the sheets?: The skull from the front, in profile and three-quarter, and from below and above.
What is the difference between the three styles?: Graphite has soft shading in the hollows, pen and ink uses crosshatching that follows the bone, and clean contour is outlines only with no shading.
Are these photographs?: No. Each sheet is a flat drawing of bone on a plain white page.
Can I ask for a different skull?: Yes. Type a direction such as child skull or with muscles, and it is a request for that, not a promised result.

About toile

This page is a showcase and a starting point: nine samples already rendered, three readings of the pack crossed with three styles, each shown at the size and ratio it was made for. Take any of them further on the wall with a few words, or ask for all nine again under your own direction; a sign-in keeps what you make, and it is free while Toile is new. The recipe behind each sample — the subject, the style, the palette, the framing — travels with the image rather than staying private to the render: it is in the alt text of every sample and in the page's own structured data, so a search engine reads the same handles a person would.