Lesson 12 - How to Draw an Ear

Ears aren't as scary as you think. If the head were turned, this is how the ear would look. Pay attention to the way the skin curls around the top of the ear and goes down about halfway. Look at the area where the ear canal goes into the head. Now look at the way the fold comes out of the bottom, below the ear canal, then curves up and around and back into the ear where the upper fold is. Now we're going to take the ear and turn the head.

 Here is a face looking straight ahead. Because of this, we only see part of the ears. This is what we'll draw today.

The ear sits between the eye and nose line. That is where the top of the ear goes into the head. From there, the ear goes up a bit before curving down and around to go to the nose line.

Let's start. First, starting at the eye line, you will be drawing what looks like the flattened half of a heart. Go up and around, then angle straight down to the nose line.

Go to the bottom of the ear (at the nose line) and round out the bottom half of the ear on the lower right side. Try not to make it too round, just a subtle swell. Now erase the line inside the bottom half that you no longer need.

 Go to the top of the ear. As we talked about above, there is a flap of skin that folds down along the top of the ear. Simply draw a parallel line that goes under the top line of the ear, and comes down about a third of the way along the outer edge, like below. Next, in the center of the ear is a little curve of skin that comes away from the the cheek line. This too, is a very subtle curve, not too round.

 Now in the center of your ear is shell shaped cartilage that curves up and around. You know that little curve of skin you just drew against the cheek? We are going to make that shell-curve parallel to it. The bottom of it will start about 1/4 the way up the ear and end when it touches the top fold.

 Now we'll do the inside fold of the shell shape. Go the little curve of skin we drew against the cheek, and drop a short line straight down. Stop when you are about 1/3 the way up the ear. Now take that line and curve it out right, running almost parallel to the outer shell curve and go up almost another 1/3. And there you have it! That wasn't so hard!

Now, along with your eyes, nose and mouth, you can add ears into your face proportions. 

Next week: How to draw hair.