How to draw a skull with a pencil step-by-step drawing tutorial

In today's drawing tutorial we will look at how to draw a skull with a pencil. This can be a perfect drawing for the Halloween but can also be used for more academic drawing to better understand the bones and how they impact the drawing of the human face.

Step 1. Outline the shape of the skull drawing.

In the first step of our skull drawing tutorial, we want to draw an egg-like shape to outline the skull shape. Also add the crossing lines to show the middle of skull drawing.

Step 2. Outline the eyes and nose holes on the skull drawing.

In step two, we need to outline the holes for the eyes and nose. As you can see to draw the eye holes for our skull we are using the middle line from the previous step but also added a line above it that will denote the upper part of the eyes. Then we draw a mouth line and the lines to show the jaw.

Step 3. Draw the skull eye holes in more detail. Draw the skull in more detail.

In this step, we draw the skull parts in more details. As you can see, we draw the holes for the eyes and nose in more detail. We also draw the lines separating the frontal and parietal bones (the ones on the sides of the skull). We also draw the zygomatic bones in more detail (the ones sticking out to the sides below the eyes).

Step 4. Draw the skull's teeth.

As you might have noticed, in the previous step we added two additional lines, one above and one below the mouth line. In this step, we draw the skull's teeth.

Step 5. Finesse your lines, start shading the parts of the skull.

Now that you have drawn your skull, you want to go over it and finesse your lines making them harder and more visible. Then start hatching for the darker parts of the skull: inside the holes and on the right. For our skull drawing tutorial, we imagine a light source on top left of the skull. Thus the darker areas are in the top left parts of the holes and right part of the skull.

Step 6. Continue shading parts of the skull. Finalizing the skull drawing.

In the last step of our skull drawing tutorial, continue to shade inside the eye and nose holes and on the left part of the skull to finish our skull drawing.