Drawing: Cranial Unit

There are many approaches to drawing the human form. The one most people know is the head counting where you compare their proportion by number of heads. If this works for you, that is great. But for me it left a lot to be desired. Most of the chosen spots are things that change a lot from one body type to another such as the navel, nipples, etc. It gets even more awkward with multiple characters as their head size will vary and trying to keep them in proportion to each other. However the skeleton structure tends to stay much more similar than the skin.

That is where the Cranial Unit comes in. Instead of measuring the entire head, you measure just the round part of the skull, the cranium. Where the head unit is about 7.5 for a person height, the cranium is 10.5 and hits more consistent landmarks, such as where a bone ends or begins. It also has the advantage of if you can't see the head you can still find the cranial unit for proportions using the clavicle, sternum, or scapula bones, which are all a size of a cranial unit. Also I find a square is much easier to use for perspective than a rectangle. To learn more read it on Studio Incamminati's post on the 'Cranial Index'. It has great detail images and general text overview. There is also a video by Proko that can help you with the concept.

Some practice on finding and using the cranial unit

I'm always working to know more and improve my art techniques. There are places that create gesture practice lessons on this site which has one for Figure, Animal, Hands and Feet, and Faces and Expressions. I find it a great way to warm up or practice when one feels little out of practice. For new artist, it is a great way to learn. So as a sum up, if you find a method doesn't work for you, search for a different one. For me, heads didn't work, but cranial makes much more sense to me and helps a lot more. Sidenote, all gestures was done inside the program called 'Mischief'

Face gestures and some expressions