Drawing the human face is hard enough when it's staring right at you. But the second that chin tilts toward the ceiling? Everything breaks. Honestly, it’s the point where most hobbyists just give up and draw a profile view instead. It’s frustrating. You try to move the nose up, but then the eyes look like they're floating on the forehead, and suddenly the whole character looks like a confused alien.
The struggle with how to draw someone looking up isn't actually a lack of "talent." It’s a perspective problem. Your brain is lying to you. It wants to draw the eyes, nose, and mouth as flat symbols because that's how we recognize people in daily life. To get this right, you have to stop drawing "features" and start drawing "volumes."
Basically, you’re turning a sphere into a 3D object that exists in space. It’s about foreshortening. When a head tilts back, the distance between the nose and the chin actually expands visually, while the forehead compresses. If you don't account for that shift, the face will always look flat and "broken."
Why the Loomis Method is Your Best Friend Here
If you’ve spent any time in art school or lurking on YouTube art tutorials, you’ve heard of Andrew Loomis. His 1943 book, Drawing the Head and Hands, is basically the bible for this stuff. Why? Because he treats the head as a ball with a blocky jaw attached.
When you're figuring out how to draw someone looking up, the Loomis method simplifies the skull into a sphere with the sides chopped off. Imagine an orange. Now, imagine slicing the sides of that orange so it's flat on the left and right. That’s your head. When that head tilts up, the "equator" line (the brow line) curves upward.
Think about the tilt.
It's not just moving things higher on the page. It’s about the curve. If the head is looking up, the lines for the brow, the eyes, the nose, and the mouth should all follow a parallel upward curve, like the stripes on a basketball. If your eye line is curved but your mouth line is straight, the face is going to look like it’s melting. Consistency is everything here.
The Jawline and the "Under-Chin" Mystery
The biggest mistake people make is ignoring the space under the jaw. When someone looks up, the bottom of the jaw becomes a massive, visible shape. It’s a plane of the body we rarely see, so we don't know how to draw it.
Most beginners just draw a line from the ear to the chin. Don't do that. Instead, you need to visualize the underside of the jaw as a sort of "U" or "V" shape that connects the chin back to the neck. This area is the "floor" of the head. If you don't define this floor, the neck will look like it's growing out of the character's throat rather than supporting the skull.
✨ Don't miss: Why the Siege of Vienna 1683 Still Echoes in European History Today
Getting the Nose Right (The Triangle Trap)
The nose is usually what ruins a drawing of someone looking up. Normally, we see the bridge and the tip. But in an extreme upward tilt? You’re mostly seeing the nostrils and the "septum"—that little bit of skin between the holes.
The nose becomes a wedge. Specifically, a triangular prism.
- Start by drawing the base of the nose as a heart-shaped or diamond-shaped plane.
- The nostrils should be higher than the tip of the nose from this angle.
- You’ll see the "wings" of the nostrils clearly.
- The bridge of the nose will appear much shorter than usual because of foreshortening.
It feels wrong while you're doing it. You’ll think, "This nose looks way too short." Trust the perspective. If you draw a long, beautiful bridge on a face looking at the clouds, you’ve already lost the battle. The nose is the most prominent "shelf" on the face; it hides parts of the eyes when the tilt is steep enough.
The Eyes and the Brow Ridge
Here is where it gets really trippy. When the head tilts back, the eyes actually move down relative to the brow ridge in your 2D drawing.
Imagine a person wearing a baseball cap. As they look up, the brim of the cap starts to hide their forehead, right? The brow bone acts like that brim. The eyes are tucked into sockets. So, as the head tilts back, the distance between the eyebrow and the eyelid gets smaller. In a very steep angle, the brow might even partially overlap the top of the eye.
Also, look at the shape of the eyelids. Usually, the upper eyelid is a big curve. When looking up, the lower eyelid becomes a more pronounced curve, while the upper eyelid might look flatter or even disappear into the fold of the brow.
It’s all about the "wrap." The eyes aren't flat stickers. They are balls sitting inside a curved surface. Everything has to wrap around that central cylinder of the face. If you're struggling with how to draw someone looking up, try drawing a mask first—literally just the surface area—before you worry about the pupils or lashes.
Don't Forget the Ears
Ears are your secret weapon for perspective. They are fixed points on the side of the head.
🔗 Read more: Why the Blue Jordan 13 Retro Still Dominates the Streets
On a level head, the top of the ear usually lines up with the eyebrows, and the bottom lines up with the base of the nose. When the head tilts up, the ears "drop" visually. If you see someone looking at the stars, their ears might be level with their mouth or even lower.
If you draw a face looking up but keep the ears high, the head will look like it’s being crushed. Moving the ears down is the easiest way to "sell" the tilt to the viewer’s brain.
The Neck: More Than Just a Tube
The neck isn't a straight pipe. When the head tilts back, the muscles in the neck—specifically the sternocleidomastoid (the big ones that go from behind the ear to the collarbone)—stretch out.
You’ll also see the Adam's apple more clearly, even in women, though it's less pronounced. The skin under the chin stretches tight. This is a great place to use some subtle shading to show the tension. If the neck looks too relaxed, the pose won't feel "active." It’ll look like a mannequin.
Shading the "Upward" Face
Lighting is where you can really make the 3D form pop. Usually, light comes from above (sun, ceiling lights). If a person is looking up into that light, their whole face becomes a "light" plane.
The areas that stay in shadow are:
- The hollows of the eye sockets (under the brow).
- The area under the nose.
- The area under the lower lip.
- The space behind the jawline on the neck.
However, if the light is coming from "above" in the world, but the person is looking up at it, the "under-nose" shadow might actually disappear. This is a common point of confusion. You have to decide: is the light moving with the head, or is the light stationary? Most of the time, keeping the underside of the jaw in shadow is the best way to define the jawline's edge against the neck.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
I’ve seen a thousand drawings where the artist gets the tilt right but then draws the hair as if the person is standing straight. Hair follows gravity. If the head is tilted back, the hair should fall away from the forehead and hang toward the back of the neck.
💡 You might also like: Sleeping With Your Neighbor: Why It Is More Complicated Than You Think
Another big one: the mouth curve.
When you smile while looking up, the corners of your mouth move "up" toward your ears, but because of the perspective curve of the face, the mouth might actually look like a "downward" arc on the paper. It’s a total mind-meld. You have to draw what you see, not what you know.
Putting It All Into Practice
If you want to master how to draw someone looking up, stop drawing finished pieces for a second. Grab a sketchbook and just do "egg heads."
- Draw an oval.
- Draw a curved line for the brow (arching upward like a rainbow).
- Draw a parallel curved line for the nose base.
- Place the ears lower than you think they should be.
- Sketch the "U" shape of the underside of the jaw.
Do this fifty times. Seriously. It’s muscle memory. Your brain needs to unlearn the "flat face" habit.
Look at real-life references. Sites like Adorkastock or Line of Action have great high-angle photos. Use them. Trace over them if you have to—not to cheat, but to feel the shapes. Trace the "mask" of the face and see how the features compress.
Drawing is just a series of corrections. You start with a guess, see why it looks "off," and fix the perspective. Eventually, you’ll stop drawing "a face" and start drawing "a form in space." And that’s when your art starts to look professional.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Drawing:
- Check your ear placement: Are they lower than the eyes? They should be.
- The 3-Plane Rule: Make sure the forehead, the nose-bridge, and the under-jaw are treated as three distinct planes tilting away from the viewer.
- Limit the Bridge: Shorten the bridge of the nose by at least 30% compared to a straight-on view.
- Curve the features: Every feature must sit on an upward-arching longitude line.
- Focus on the Neck: Ensure the neck connects behind the jaw, not just to the chin.
Once you get the hang of the jaw "floor" and the ear "drop," the rest of it falls into place. It’s just geometry with a little bit of soul. Stop worrying about the eyelashes and start worrying about the skull. The rest is just window dressing.