Head shapes

I better post some of the sketches I've been sitting on! I've been thinking about skull shapes for anthros for sometime. Previously I looked at the need for anthro skulls to have a cranial dimension like that of a human, if you're thinking intelligence it seems fitting to exaggerate an animals skull to hold a similar brain size to a humans.

The 2 small intermediate diagrams show the distinction of cranial size (red), 
nose/face area (blue) and jaw (green).

Animal skulls are much more elongated front to back than a human's. Where you'd draw an average human skull as a sphere with a box below for the jaw, for an anthro you're looking more at a ovoid with a box at the front. This is so you can retain the distinct facial features such as those elongated noses and jaws. You can break this idea down further into class (I take class to mean either carnivore, omnivore or herbivore). The main distinction between them being the required jaw size to tackle their specialised foods. As a general idea, jaws tend to get both longer and deeper with herbivores; more muscular action is needed to grind plant matter, so a large bone surface is required, their food is generally in a hard to reach place, hence the long face. For either class, starting with a skull similar to that of a human guarantees you'll retain an adequate brain size.

Taking this a little further the idea of snout length is certainly up to not only the species and the class but also to your own preference. Felines tend to have a much rounder short snout, canines have a more rectangular and thin snout. Length adaptation is up to you. For example, the sketches above are for carnivores, their main principle is that their jaws are thin and sleek with large forward pointing eyes however the length of the snout is undefined.

Jaws are nothing without teeth, and teeth are distinctly specialised for each class. There are a number of other more subtle differences than teeth to think about, especially if you want to be creating expressive characters. Jaw depth i've mentioned, however it's carnivores that tend to have a much larger jaw opening range to catch and eat pray. Useful for expressions showing rage and anger. Due to their large teeth, particularly their canines, carnivores have limited side to side motion which herbivore use to rotate their jaws to grind plant matter. Side to side motions are more or less reserved to show puzzlement or thinking. 

Ahhhhhh a splinter!

Huh?