Quick take: Andrew Loomis developed a sphere-and-plane method for constructing the human head in the 1940s that remains one of the most taught approaches in figure drawing today. Its durability comes from geometric precision — it encodes actual proportional relationships of the human skull in a learnable construction system — rather than stylistic fashion. Artists working in every medium, including digital, still return to it as a foundation.
Flip through any serious figure drawing curriculum — whether it is a university art program, a professional illustration course, or a contemporary online drawing school — and you will almost certainly encounter the Loomis method for drawing heads. Andrew Loomis published it in his 1943 book Drawing the Head and Hands, and it has been taught continuously ever since. For an instructional method developed over eighty years ago, its staying power requires explanation.
The answer is not tradition or nostalgia. It is that the Loomis method solves a genuinely difficult problem — how to construct a convincing three-dimensional head on a flat surface from any angle — with a geometric system that is both learnable and accurate. Artists who master it find that they can draw heads in any orientation with structural confidence that purely observational approaches cannot provide.
Who Andrew Loomis Was
Andrew Loomis (1892–1959) was an American commercial illustrator whose work appeared in major advertising campaigns, magazine covers, and publications throughout the mid-twentieth century. His clients included Campbell’s Soup, Kellogg’s, and numerous publications including the Saturday Evening Post. He was a working professional illustrator at the highest level of commercial art, not an academic theorist — which meant his instructional books reflected practical knowledge tested under professional conditions.
His instructional books — including Fun with a Pencil, Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth, Drawing the Head and Hands, and others — were widely distributed during his lifetime, fell out of print after his death, became cult documents traded among serious art students as photocopies, and were eventually reprinted in the 2000s to substantial demand. The gap between his death and the reprints did nothing to reduce their influence — they were simply passed hand to hand by artists who recognized their practical value.
Loomis’s books were out of print for approximately three decades after his death but remained among the most sought-after references in art education communities. When publisher Titan Books reprinted Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth in 2011, it became an immediate bestseller in art instruction, demonstrating that decades of official unavailability had created neither obsolescence nor replacement. The market for his work was waiting.
The Sphere-and-Plane Method: How It Works
The Loomis method begins with a sphere representing the cranial mass — the upper portion of the skull. This sphere is then modified: a flat plane is cut from each side and from the front bottom, representing the flattened temporal areas and the face plane. A center line is established on the sphere to indicate head rotation (left-right), and a brow line establishes head tilt (up-down). These two lines — the center line and the brow line — are the primary tools for placing all subsequent features in correct perspective.
From the modified sphere, Loomis establishes proportional guidelines: the hairline, brow line, base of nose, and chin line divide the face into equal thirds. The eyes sit at the midpoint of the total head height. The width of the eye equals the space between the eyes equals the distance from outer eye to ear. These proportions are not arbitrary — they are approximations of actual human skull proportions, simplified into a teachable system. The value is that they provide a structural armature before any individual features are placed, preventing the common error of drawing features that look correct in isolation but sit incorrectly relative to each other.
The most common error in face drawing among beginners is placing the eyes too high on the head — at roughly two-thirds height rather than the correct midpoint. This error is nearly universal and persistent because when we observe faces, we attend primarily to the feature-rich lower half (eyes, nose, mouth) and underweight the relatively featureless upper half (forehead and cranium). The Loomis method corrects this error structurally before it can appear, because the proportional guidelines are laid down before features are drawn.
Why It Works Geometrically
The power of the Loomis method is not that it provides accurate measurements — individual human heads vary considerably — but that it provides a correct geometric framework for placing features in perspective. Once you have a sphere with center and brow lines established, the perspective behavior of every subsequent element is determined. Eyes placed on the brow line will automatically recede correctly as the head turns. The nose, aligned with the center line, will shift correctly as the head tilts. Ears, placed at the brow-to-nose-base range on the side of the sphere, will sit correctly for any head angle.
This geometric coherence is what distinguishes construction-based methods from purely observational ones. Drawing what you see produces accurate results when drawing directly from life, but fails when drawing from imagination or in orientations you haven’t studied. The Loomis method provides the underlying geometric rules that allow heads to be constructed correctly in any orientation, including ones the artist has never directly observed.
The most effective way to learn the Loomis method is through sustained repetition with deliberate variation. Draw 50 heads using the construction method, varying the angle (three-quarter, profile, front, tilted up, tilted down) rather than drawing the same angle repeatedly. The goal is not individual polished drawings but internalizing the geometric relationships so they become automatic. Artists who do this systematic repetition report that after a few hundred construction drawings, they can draw heads in any orientation from imagination without reference.
How It Compares to Other Approaches
The Loomis method is one of several major head construction systems taught in art education. George Bridgman’s approach emphasizes planes and masses more than spherical construction. The Reilly method (developed by Frank Reilly) uses a more complex set of proportional guidelines. Comics and manga traditions have developed their own simplified construction methods optimized for stylized rather than realistic proportions. Each approach has legitimate advantages for specific purposes.
Loomis’s method remains the most widely taught for realistic figure drawing because it hits the balance between accuracy and learnability most effectively for students working toward realistic representation. It is precise enough to produce structurally correct heads but simple enough to be internalized relatively quickly. Artists who later move to more stylized work — comics, animation, concept art — often keep the underlying geometric intuition from Loomis even when their final style departs substantially from realism.
A common misapplication of the Loomis method is treating it as a formula to follow mechanically rather than a framework to internalize. Artists who trace through the construction steps without developing geometric understanding produce stiff, formula-like results. The method is a scaffold for understanding, not a template to reproduce. Once the proportional relationships are genuinely understood, most artists work loosely from the principles rather than following the step-by-step process literally.
A construction method is useful precisely because it fails gracefully — when the drawing goes wrong, the framework tells you where to look for the structural error.
Purely Observational Drawing
Excellent for drawing from life. Produces nuanced, specific likenesses. Fails when drawing from imagination or unusual angles not directly studied. Does not provide error-correction framework. Difficult to transfer to constructed scenes.
Loomis Construction Method
Works for drawing from imagination in any orientation. Provides proportional error-correction. Takes time to internalize through repetition. May initially feel formulaic. Transfers directly to constructed scenes and character design.
- The Loomis method uses a modified sphere plus proportional guidelines to construct the head geometrically before placing individual features.
- Its durability comes from geometric accuracy, not tradition — the proportional guidelines reflect actual human skull proportions simplified into a learnable system.
- The center line and brow line establish head rotation and tilt, determining the correct perspective behavior of all subsequent features.
- The most common beginner error — placing eyes too high — is structurally prevented by laying down proportional guidelines before drawing features.
- Construction methods outperform purely observational approaches for drawing from imagination or in orientations not directly studied from life.
- The method is a framework to internalize, not a formula to follow — mechanical application without genuine geometric understanding produces stiff results.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to learn the Loomis method if I only draw in a stylized way?
Not necessarily, but many stylized artists find it useful as a foundation. Understanding realistic proportions gives you informed control over how and where you deviate from them — stylization that emerges from understanding tends to be more coherent than stylization that emerges from ignorance. That said, artists working in flat, highly stylized traditions (certain graphic design contexts, abstract work, specific animation styles) may find other frameworks more directly relevant to their practice.
Where can I find Loomis’s original books?
Titan Books reprinted the major Loomis titles starting around 2011 and they are available through standard book retailers. Drawing the Head and Hands and Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth are the most directly relevant to face drawing. Several of the books are also freely available as scanned PDFs through drawing resource communities, though the printed editions are worth having for sustained reference work.
How long does it take to learn the Loomis method properly?
Most artists who work through it systematically — drawing 100 to 300 construction heads with deliberate angle variation — report that the geometric relationships become intuitive within a few months of regular practice. Initial results often feel stiff and formulaic; the method becomes productive once it is internalized well enough to be used loosely rather than mechanically. The time investment varies with practice frequency and prior drawing experience.
Is the Loomis method relevant for digital drawing?
Completely. The method is medium-independent — it describes spatial and proportional relationships that apply whether you are working with pencil, ink, paint, or a stylus on a screen. Digital artists often find the method particularly useful because digital tools make it easy to work in construction layers — building up the sphere and guidelines on a lower layer, then drawing the final head on a layer above — which separates the construction phase from the rendering phase cleanly.
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