How to draw ears at every angle of the head

Ears tend to get drawn last, which is how they end up floating. They're easier once you split them into two questions: how high the ear sits, and what shape it shows. On a level head the first answer doesn't change as the head turns, while the second changes a lot.

How to draw an ear in three steps

Start from the side view, where the ear faces you.

1. Draw a tilted C or a slightly flattened oval, top a little above the eye line and bottom a little below the base of the nose. Measured from the eye line to the base of the nose, the nose goes into it about one and a half times.
2. Inside it, draw the inner ridge as a Y shape: its stem rises from just above the lobe and splits into two short branches under the top of the rim.
3. Add the small flap in front of the ear opening, the bowl behind it, and the lobe at the bottom.

The parts have names worth knowing: the outer rim is the helix, the inner ridge the antihelix, the bowl the concha, the front flap the tragus, and the soft bottom the lobe. Lobes vary from person to person. Some hang free, others join the cheek directly.

Keep the height fixed

On a level head the ear sits on a band from a little above the eye line to a little below the base of the nose. On the front plates that's usually about a quarter of a nose length past each. Follow one head through the sixteen views of the head rotation reference and the ear stays on that band from the front, through the profile, to the back.

Tilt the head and that changes. When the head tips back, as on a view from below, the ears drop against the features and can sit as low as the eyes. When it tips forward they rise. So wrap the brow and nose lines around the skull first, at the head's actual tilt, and place the ear on them.

Place it on the middle line in profile

From the side, the ear sits on or just behind a vertical line through the middle of the skull, and the jaw line runs back and up to just under the lobe. The profile guide covers that placement, and how to draw ears from the side measures the ear's width and its backward tilt, far less than the nose's.

Let the shape follow the turn

What changes with the angle is how much of the ear faces you.

From the front both ears are narrowed but keep their full height. They flare out from the sides of the skull, and you see the outer rim, the inner ridge and a narrow opening of the bowl. How to draw ears from the front measures where they sit and how far they stand out.

At the slight three-quarter view the near ear is already mostly open, with the bowl showing, and the far ear is reduced to a small bump at the edge of the head or gone. By the three-quarter view the near ear shows its full C shape.

Turn it around the back

Past the profile, the ear starts to show its back. At the rear three-quarter view it narrows again and sits near the outline of the cheek, seen partly from behind. By the back view both ears stand out from the sides of the skull, and you see their outer rims and the cupped backs rather than the inside of the ear.

The ear is a flap standing out from the skull, so the same shape reads as a narrow flare from the front, a full C from the side and a cup from behind. The back view guide covers what else changes once the face is out of sight.

Common ear mistakes

• Starting the ear at the eye line and stopping at the cheekbone, so it comes out half its real height.
• Drawing it upright instead of tilted back.
• Setting it too far forward in profile, close to the eye, so the side of the face shrinks.
• Drawing the front-view ear as an open C with the whole bowl facing you.
• Letting the far ear show at a turn where the skull should hide it.

A nine-frame ear exercise

Pick one head and draw a row of nine small frames: 0, 22.5, 45, 67.5, 90, 112.5, 135, 157.5 and 180 degrees. In each, draw only the skull, the brow and nose lines, and the ear. Give each frame two minutes. The point is to see one ear change shape while it holds its height. The square-jaw head shown here is Study Pack 07, with all sixteen of those views.

This guide is one step in how to draw the head at any angle, which puts all the head guides in order.