Skull Drawing: How to Make Different Skull Designs

Designing different kinds of skulls can sound like a challenge, but it is really not that hard. Check out these tips and ways to draw skulls.

Have you seen some really cool skull drawings that you wish you could recreate? Or are you looking for novel new ways to customize your existing skull drawings?
You’re in the right place! Skulls are a really versatile design element that can be styled in so many different ways.

How about a modern, geometric skull design? Or what about a cute, floral version? The skull drawing ideas below are sure to get you inspired.

1. Use Shading to Make Skulls Look Realistic
   
   If you want to create a hyper-realistic skull, shading is key.
   Start with an image of an actual skull as a reference and sketch the basic outline. Draw interior lines to help with perspective — you can erase them later.
   Next, decide where the light in the scene is coming from. Leave areas in direct light white, and shade areas that will be in the shadows.
   Use lots of value variation in your shading to make your skull pop — don’t just shade everything in medium gray.
   
   
2. Draw Using Straight Lines for a Geometric Design 
   
   Want to create a really cool, trendy skull? Something that would work on a magazine cover?
   Geometric skulls are way easier to create than you’d imagine.
   Start by creating a basic skull shape. Next, add dots at regular intervals along the lines of your design.
   Finally, join the dots together using straight lines. You’ll be left with a really cool geometric skull that you can color as you wish.
   For an extra geometric element, fill the inside of the skull using triangles, starting from the dots you placed around the outline.
   
   
3. Paint Using Rainbow Watercolors
   
   The way you color your skull design will make a massive difference to the overall feel of the piece. Watercolors are really popular right now, with many artists using a messy ‘splash’ style to color their work.
   Create a solid black sketch of your skull to begin. Once your outline is dry, wet the paper where you want your color to go. Don’t worry about going outside the lines.
   Finally, ‘drop’ color onto the wet area using a paintbrush. Allow the shades to bleed into one another for an awesome rainbow design.
   
   
4. Give the Skull a Funny Facial Expression 
   
   Fancy giving your skull drawing a humorous style?
   Adding a funny facial expression or accessory to a regular skull is a really easy way to do this.
   You could show a skull with a tongue poking out, a comedy mustache, or a big pair of glasses.
   Get creative and have fun with it!
   
   
5. Add Plants and Flowers Growing Around the Skull  
   
   Whimsical skull designs are all over the internet and they make really cute decorations.
   Sketch a realistic skull using the tips above, and then draw plants and flowers weaving in and out of the skull, as if they’d actually grown there.
   Color using soft pastels for a really pretty finished design.

What Can You Do with Your Finished Skull Drawing?
Skull drawing is a great skill to have because it can be used in so many ways. You could turn your drawing into a cute postcard, have it printed on a T-shirt, or even use it as a logo for a new business.
Check out our design section for more cool tips on using skulls in your art.