How to Draw Cartoon Skulls filled with soft shadows

Drawing cartoon skulls: some fun facts before starting sketching!

A baby's skull is made of 45 different bones. Some will fuse together.
An adult skull is made of 30 different bones.
The skull of an adult weighs around 2 pounds.

Step 1

Before drawing some skulls, we need to know a little bit more about this mythic piece of the human body. The nose (2) and the eyes (1) are just some big holes. The back of the skull (6) is oval and not too big.

The cheek (zygomatic bone) (5) is round with some small curves. The teeth (3)... well... usually they are not that white!!!

Step 2

Looking at the shape of the skull, you will see that it's made with circles only. The nose, the eyes, the teeth and the jaw are the four most important elements to consider. This very basic drawing is all we need to know how to draw skulls efficiently.

Step 3

Start sketching your skull by drawing a circle for the head and one for the jaw. Then, draw two other circles for the cheeks and one rectangle for the maxilla. Draw the outline of your skull using those circles and then erase them.

Refine the jaw and add details like the nose and the eyes. In this case, I added some shadows to make the skull look more three dimensional.

Step 4

Now that you know how to draw some basic skulls, let your imagination run wild and try to create some variations. Your skull can have long teeth (1) or small eyes (4). You can make it more realistic (2) or really really simple (3) (6). I hope you had fun sketching this fun skull. More cool lessons can be found below. Enjoy!