Best Paper Skull Models

Best Paper Skull Models You Can Make at Home to Draw from Life

In this video, Vladimir London, a Life Drawing Academy tutor, will demonstrate a couple of paper skull models that You Can Make at Home to Draw from Life. Here a small collection of various models that academy students get as a part of their drawing course.

To make a model of a human skull, you would need a template. Such a template fits on several sheets of A4 size paper as a PDF file. It should be printed on 180 gsm weight paper, which is twice firmer than some ordinary office printing paper. Also, you will need a sharp scalpel and a metal ruler. Do not attempt to cut out parts with scissors. It will bend and damage the intricate geometry of a template. Every part has to be cut out along the solid black line. Those lines that are dashed, or dot-dashed should remain untouched for now. The precision of cutting is very important. Even a half-millimeter mistake will show up when you glue the model. Needless to say, the scalpel should be very sharp. It is better to change its blade if it is not brand new. After you cut out the part, use a metal needle and a ruler to indent all dashed and dot-dashed lines. This step is very important. Such indentations will help to bend the part with precision. All edges will be clean and straight. Bending is done inward along dashed and outward along dot-dashed lines. Every edge has its number. The edges with the same numbers have to be glued together. First, you need to glue the edges within one part and only then that part can be glued to the next one. For gluing, it is better to use white PVA glue that dries colorless. It holds paper well and does not leave marks. A small amount of glue could be squeezed on some piece of paper and another stripe of paper folded in half can be used as a glue brush. Such brushes are disposable. Change them as often as they become softer by absorbing water from glue. The key thing when gluing is to apply as little glue as possible while covering the bent flaps thoroughly. Flaps for gluing are indicated by light gray color. They have to be glued inside the model not to spoil its appearance. Keep your hands clean and wipe off any excess glue with a paper napkin.

Here is a fully assembled model of a human skull. It is life-size and well-proportionate. Although it has a very simple geometry, all proportions, alignments and angles are correct and true to nature. Here's another paper skull model that is twice more complicated to make because it has intricate details. As you can see, the lower jaw, the cheekbones, the nasal bone and eye sockets are all made with greater attention to their actual details and this skull appears more true to life. Both models are very light, made in actual size and come with low-polygon shapes that are very useful for learning and drawing the skull's three-dimensional nature. The templates of both versions are available free of charge to Life Drawing Academy Correspondence Course students. Such models are unique to this course and are not sold anywhere else.

To learn good drawing techniques, enroll in the Life Drawing Academy course: