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How to draw anthro heads

By Kelly | June 4, 2007

A quick example of how I approach heads:

It helps to think in terms of 3D objects. The main mass of the head is a sphere, with the attached muzzle and ear shapes varying depending on which species you’re trying to depict.

I’ll start with the rough sphere and some crosshairs on top to set the angle and position of features I’ll draw later.

Then, on top I’ll sketch out the form of the eyes and eye sockets, and the muzzle form below. Eyes are usually placed above the center crosshair. A good rule of thumb is that the eyes are spaced one eye-width apart.

After that I’ll add in other forms like cheek-fluff and hair, and start working out details.

The main objective here is to figure out form and pose before adding any details!

More Examples

These are old but should give you some idea how I approach different species:

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Topics: Drawing tutorials | 186 Comments »

186 Responses to “How to draw anthro heads”

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1. 170
   hawk Says:
   May 1st, 2010 at 5:03 pm

   wow, i never thought about drawing heads that way. whenever i draw anthro heads they look more cartoony than i like. this will help me a lot! thanks!

2. 169
   Murdoc Says:
   March 26th, 2010 at 1:22 pm

   Thanks, this helped alot. now all i have to do is get my eyes symmetrical.

3. 168
   KidFurry1098 Says:
   March 24th, 2010 at 11:53 pm

   im still practicing but no luck =( i dont think ill b able to do it ever

4. 167
   FuRrY321 Says:
   March 21st, 2010 at 7:11 pm

   *ahem* sorry there’s a dash in-between “darkriser” and “1080″: http://darkriser-1080.deviantart.com/

5. 166
   FuRrY321 Says:
   March 21st, 2010 at 7:10 pm

   Thanks for the guide! It really helped me in drawing my “Clive” character, which may-or-may-not make it into a webcomic, but definitely will make it into my gallery at deviantart! ( http://darkriser1080.deviantart.com )
   Now I just need help drawing tails. :D

6. 165
   Sirabell Says:
   March 20th, 2010 at 12:16 pm

   This is extremely helpful, but, I noticed you have no examples for birds…my Love is a Phoenix/Cat hyrbrid and I’d enjoy some help with wings and beaks and such… since I always have such a hard time on my own. ._.;;

7. 164
   Shai-san Says:
   March 12th, 2010 at 11:29 am

   This Guide does help quite a bit! I always get a bit confused when it comes to the base shapes for the snouts. I think this will help give me better guidelines and make things easier on me. There is one thing I’d really love to understand better; I’m terrible at make dog/wolf faces with the snout pointing down at a frontal view… Um… Much like the third rabbit’s picture. When I make the muzzle a simple extension from the face it looks terrible and unrealistic… I was wondering if perhaps in the future you could maybe put a diagram up explaining how to do this better. :D

8. 163
   Sylverclaws Says:
   March 12th, 2010 at 10:54 am

   Amazing tutorial! It really helped me out a lot!

9. 162
   nadime Says:
   February 27th, 2010 at 3:30 pm

   could you do a tuorial on drawing a husky face? i really cant draw them =( help anyone

10. 161
    Rob Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 8:21 pm

    First of all thank you very much for this site it have helped me soooooooo much secondly could you make a tutlorial for skunk heads bodies etc once again thank youso very much :3

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