How to draw ears in three-quarter view: width and placement
Archive of Fine Arts
Turn a head from profile toward the front and it's tempting to narrow the ear, as if it were foreshortening. On the ten drawn heads we measured, the ear does the opposite on the page: at 45 degrees it's wider than in profile on nine heads and no narrower on the tenth. This guide gives the width at 22.5 and 45 degrees, the reason, and where the ear sits.
The heads are the ten bald heads in the free head rotation reference, read on the pencil plates at 22.5 degrees, 45 degrees and 67.5 degrees, against our ears from the front and ears from the side measurements. The heads turn toward the viewer's right, so the near ear is the left one on the plate. We took the width as in the side guide, straight across the page from the back edge of the rim to the tip of the tragus, the small flap in front of the ear hole. That's the width you draw, though once the head turns the back edge is a different point on the rim than in profile. A script found both on plates 1024 px across, and we checked every pick on enlarged crops. Lengths in nose lengths run from the eye line to the base of the nose.
Treat each width as a rough read, within about a twentieth of the profile width. The gaunt-planes ear has no clear tragus at 45 degrees, so it's the least certain read. The numbers describe ten drawings, not people's ears, so use them to check your own drawing.
At 22.5 degrees, already as wide as in profile
At a slight turn the ear ranges from about a tenth narrower than in profile to a fifth wider, about the same on a typical head, and from a little under half to about three fifths as wide as it is tall.
The back edge of the ear is the outline of the head here. On six heads it's level with the back of the skull at the eye line; on the hard-plane, gaunt-planes, heavy-jaw and full-lips heads it sticks out past it, by a tenth to two fifths of a nose length.
On four heads, the soft-planes, square-jaw, full-lips and heavy-brow heads, a small loop of the far ear's rim still shows past the far side of the head, about a tenth of a nose length out, from the top of the ear down about a quarter of its height. On the other six the far ear is gone, and we found no simple sign of which heads show it, so check your reference. At 45 degrees it's out of sight on every head.
At 45 degrees, wider than in profile
At 45 degrees the ear ranges from a twentieth wider than in profile to a little over a third wider, about a sixth wider on a typical head; without the uncertain gaunt-planes read, the widest is about a third wider. The hard-plane ear, only a twentieth wider, is within our error of its profile width; the other nine are clearly wider. That's about three fifths of the ear's height, from a little over half to about seven tenths, and nearly three quarters on the gaunt-planes read; in profile it's about half, from a little under half to three fifths. At 67.5 degrees it's about as wide as at 45, from about 7 to 30 percent wider than in profile.
Why the ear is widest between three-quarter and profile
The ear doesn't lie flat against the side of the head. It stands out from it and faces partly forward. In profile you see it at a slant, and somewhere between three-quarter and profile you look straight into it.
A flat shape facing about 30 degrees forward of straight sideways fits the measurements. From each head's 45-degree width alone we worked out how far forward its ear faces: 26 to 42 degrees. With that one number per head, the same model predicts the widths at 22.5 and 67.5 degrees within about a tenth of the profile width on nine heads; it misses the gaunt-planes ear, the uncertain read, by about a quarter. The ears that face furthest forward, on the soft-planes, full-lips and heavy-brow heads, are already wider than in profile at 22.5 degrees.
Where it sits at 45 degrees
The gap to the eye is the same as in profile. From the tip of the tragus to the outer corner of the near eye is a little over one and a half nose lengths at 45 degrees, from about one and two fifths to one and four fifths. On the nine heads with a profile reading, that's within 8 percent of the same gap in profile. At 22.5 degrees it's shorter, about one and a tenth to one and two fifths nose lengths.
The back edge sits inside the outline. Level with the eye line, the back of the ear sits about a sixth to nearly half a nose length in front of the back of the skull, about a third on a typical head.
Halfway back. Measured on the eye line from the back of the skull to the outer corner of the near eye, the tragus sits about three eighths to nearly halfway along. In profile it's about three fifths to two thirds of the way.
The rows don't change. The top of the ear stays close to its front-view height at 45 and 67.5 degrees on all ten heads, so place it on the same rows as from the front. The lobe we checked by eye; it stays close too.
Order of work
- Draw the outline of the skull and set the rows for the top and the lobe as from the front.
- Place the front of the ear from the eye. At 45 degrees, measure back from the outer corner of the near eye the same gap as in profile, a little over one and a half nose lengths, and put the tragus there.
- Set the back edge about a third of a nose length inside the back of the skull.
- Check the width: about six tenths of the ear's height at 45 degrees, wider than you'd draw it in profile.
- At 22.5 degrees, let the back of the ear form the outline of the head, keep it about as wide as in profile, and add a small piece of the far ear's rim only if your reference shows one.
For a head turned the other way, mirror all of it.
Common mistakes
- Narrowing the ear as the head turns. At 45 degrees it's wider than in profile on nine heads and no narrower on any.
- Sliding the ear toward the eye. The gap at 45 degrees matches profile.
- Putting the ear on the back outline at 45 degrees. It sits inside, by about a third of a nose length.
- Raising or dropping it. The rows hold at every angle.
What these numbers don't cover
We didn't measure the shapes of the inner ridges, the lobe at a turn, or where the ear sits at 67.5 degrees, only its width there. The width is taken across the page; at 45 degrees the back edge isn't the same point on the ear as in profile.
Related guides
How to draw ears at every angle follows the ear all the way round the head. At the same angles, eyes in three-quarter view, lips in three-quarter view and the nose in three-quarter view measure the other features, and the head in three-quarter view builds the whole head.
A short exercise
Draw the full-lips head and the hard-plane head at 45 degrees and in profile, the same size. Place each ear from the eye first, then the back edge, then measure the widths. The full-lips ear should come out about a third wider at 45 degrees than in profile, the hard-plane ear about the same width. Then lay your drawings beside the plates.
The full-lips head is Study Pack 08 in Volume 2 and the hard-plane head Study Pack 01 in Volume 1.
This guide is one step in how to draw the head at any angle, which puts all the head guides in order.