How to draw ears from the side: width, lean and placement

From the side the ear faces you, so its whole shape is on show: the rim, the inner ridge, the bowl and the small flap in front of the ear hole, called the tragus. Three choices decide whether it looks right: how wide you make it, how far it leans back, and where it sits between the face and the back of the head. We measured each one on ten drawn heads.

The heads come from the free head rotation reference. On each pencil plate at 90 degrees we took:

The top and the lobe, the highest and lowest points of the ear. The rows come from our ears from the front measurements.
The back edge and the front of the tragus, the point of the rim furthest from the face and the furthest-forward point of the tragus. A script read both inside a window around each ear, and we checked them on enlarged crops. The gaunt-planes ear is drawn differently, so its tragus is the least certain read.
The back of the skull level with the eye line, and the front of the brow ridge.

Every pick was drawn back on its plate and checked by eye. Lengths come as shares of the ear's height, or of the nose's length from the eye line to the base of the nose, as in the front guide. All ten heads are bald and drawn in one style, so the ranges describe these drawings, not people's ears. The step strip near the end builds one head's ear mark by mark.

About half as wide as it is tall

From the back edge to the front of the tragus the ears are a little under half to about three fifths as wide as they are tall, just over half on a typical head. In nose lengths the width runs from a little under two thirds to a little over nine tenths, about three quarters on a typical head. Neither unit narrows the spread more than the other.

The two points sit at different heights. The back edge bulges out furthest a quarter to two fifths of the way down the ear. The front of the tragus sits lower, about two thirds of the way down on nine heads. The gaunt-planes ear is drawn with its opening higher, and its tragus sits halfway down. So take the width between those two points, not straight across one row.

It leans back far less than the nose

Draw a line from the top of the ear to the lowest point of the lobe. On these heads it leans back at the top by 6 to 15 degrees from upright, about 12 on a typical head. The bridge of the nose on the same heads leans 25 to 34 degrees. Four of the heads are tipped back slightly on their plates, and their angles have that tilt taken out. The tilt is a rough read; straight off the plates the ear lines lean 9 to 18 degrees.

Some guides tell you to draw the ear parallel to the slope of the nose. We read the ear's lean three ways: the top-to-lobe line, a line along the back edge, and the long axis of the whole ear. On every head all three lean less than the nose, by at least 13 degrees. Tipping a head turns the ear and the nose together, so this gap doesn't depend on the tilt estimate. Head by head, the top-to-lobe line leans about two fifths as much as the nose on a typical head, and under half on all ten. Each angle is good to about 3 degrees, mostly because the lowest point of a rounded lobe is hard to pin.

Most of it sits behind the middle of the head

Level with the eye line, measure from the back of the skull to the front of the brow ridge, and mark the middle. On nine heads that middle crosses the ear near its front: the back edge sits a third to about two fifths of the way from the back, and the front of the tragus just past the middle, never as far as three fifths of the way. How far past varies, from almost nothing up to about two fifths of the ear's width. On the gaunt-planes head the whole ear sits behind the middle, with its tragus just short of halfway.

The eye gives a second check. The front of the tragus sits about one and a third to one and four fifths nose lengths behind the outer corner of the eye, about one and two thirds on a typical head. That's on nine heads; the gaunt-planes eye corner can't be read.

The full-lips head in profile. By our measurements its ear is the narrowest of the ten, a little under half its height, and leans back about 10 degrees while the nose leans 33.

Height and rows match the front view

The ear's top stays almost level with the front view's on every head, and its height is almost the same on seven, so place it the same way as from the front: the top about a quarter of a nose length above the eye line and the lobe about a quarter below the base of the nose. Ears from the front lists the heads that differ.

In profile you can also see the brow ridge, which on the front plates can't be told apart from the eyebrow and lid lines. On all ten heads the top of the ear sits below the front of the brow ridge, by about a sixth to two thirds of a nose length. The ear doesn't reach up to the brow.

How to draw an ear from the side, step by step

The heavy-brow head, drawn level. Its ear is a little narrower than typical and leans about 9 degrees, against a 30 degree bridge; the steps give typical values. In 4 the dashed lines are upright and the bridge's slope. New lines red, earlier marks blue-grey; the faint straight lines are the plate's construction lines.

Draw the eye line and the base of the nose, and measure the nose's length between them.
Mark the top and the lobe, about a quarter of a nose length above the eye line and a quarter below the base of the nose.
Find the middle of the head level with the eye line, from the back of the skull to the front of the brow ridge. Put the front of the tragus at the middle or a little in front of it, about one and two thirds nose lengths behind the outer corner of the eye.
Lean the ear back by drawing the line from top to lobe about 12 degrees off the line at right angles to the eye line, well under half the nose's slope.
Mark the back edge about half the ear's height behind the front of the tragus, a quarter to two fifths of the way down. Draw the rim from the top round the back edge to the lobe.
Add the inner ridge, the bowl and the tragus inside the rim.

Common mistakes

An ear that leans as far back as the nose. On these heads it leans under half as much.
An ear as wide as it is tall. It's about half as wide.
An ear set forward on the cheek. Most of it sits behind the middle of the head.
An ear that reaches up to the brow. Its top stays below the brow ridge.

A short exercise

Draw the full-lips head and the heavy-jaw head from the side at the same size. Before any detail, draw the eye line, the base of the nose, the slope of the nose and the middle of the head's depth, then mark each ear's top, lobe, back edge and tragus. The full-lips ear should come out narrow, a little under half its height; the heavy-jaw ear the widest of the ten, about three fifths as wide as it is tall. The heavy-jaw ear also leans closest to its nose of all ten, and even it leans only about half as much. Then lay each drawing beside its plate.

The full-lips head is Study Pack 08, in Volume 2, and the heavy-jaw head is Study Pack 03, in Volume 1.

How to draw ears at every angle follows the same ear around the head, and how to draw the head in profile builds the rest of the side view around it. This guide is one step in how to draw the head at any angle, which puts all the head guides in order.