How to Draw an Ear

Today we are going to show you how to draw an ear with our easy-to-follow steps. Whether you want to add to your drawing collection or make clipart, this tutorial is for you. Learning how to draw body parts can seem scary, but don’t worry. We will guide you through the steps, from basic sketches all the way to adding color or shading.

Let us get all of our drawing supplies together. You can use pencils, markers, or Procreate as your drawing medium of choice. Feeling inspired to create more drawings of animals and objects? See our free drawing tutorials for more drawing fun.

Step 1 - Create the Guides of your Ear

Let’s get started by creating guides for our ear illustration. We would recommend that you use an erasable sketch medium, such as graphite pencils, in this step. Sketch a vertical rectangle for the max height and width as a guide for your drawing.

Next, draw lines on the four corners of your rectangle. Starting at the top, draw a line that goes through both corners. On the bottom left, only draw the line on a smaller area of the corner. On the right, draw the line across a wider area of the rectangle. See our example sketch below.

Step 2 - Add Curves to the Ear Base Shape

In our second step, we will add curves to our ear drawing. First, you are going to round the outer edge and then add details. Feel free to look at our ear drawing reference or view your ear in the mirror to guide the shape.

Round the Outer Edge of the Ear

Start drawing a curved line inside the rectangular base shape starting from the top left corner and moving top towards the bottom left corner. We left a small gap on the bottom right with a sharp curve at the bottom left for the earlobe.

Add the Inner Ear Detail

Draw a vertical line close to the left of the rectangle, as we indicated in red. Then, following the curves of the outer ear edge, draw a curved line that looks like an incomplete number nine.

Next, create curves close to the opening of the ear. Begin by drawing a curved line on the left, then draw inward curving lines on either end (shown in red and blue). Lastly, sketch a larger curved line towards the curved line of the Helix (shown in green).

Step 3 - Outline your Ear Rough Sketch

Using a lining medium, let us create a defined line drawing of our sketch. Outline the areas you want to keep and avoid those you don’t. Procreate inking brushes work great for creating a clean monoline outline. Once you have made your ear outline, go ahead and remove all rough sketches.

Step 4 - Add Color or Shading to your Drawing

In the final step of our drawing lesson, you can add color or shading. We will be adding shading using a Procreate pencil brush. You can use any type of brush with a skin tone color palette to add dark and light areas to the ear sketch.

Fantastic work on your simple ear drawing! You can explore more drawing tutorials and learn how to draw a giraffe or draw crystals. Thank you for joining us on this drawing adventure. We hope you enjoyed following along and drawing an ear with us.