Drawing Facial Features: Ears

1. Ear Intro: Hey, everyone. So in this next class, we're gonna again be dealing with facial features, and we're going to focus our attention strictly to the ear. This time, we'll go over various ways of how to construct the ear from breaking it down into simple divisions, as well as look at the individual shapes that make up the ear and how to simplify them so that the ear itself is not so difficult to draw. We'll go over how to draw the eager from various angles and things to look out for. As you do so from there will kind of start talking about the simple forms of the year and how you want to be thinking about them before you start modeling the ear and get to any sort of shading. At the very end, you'll watch me complete a drawing from start to finish, and so I'll begin with a basic block in, followed by filling in the shadows and then ultimately modeling the lights to completion. My goal for you by the end of the class is that you'll have a much better understanding of all the various anatomical parts of the ear, but that you also have a very clear way of breaking it down and simplifying it so that the ear itself is not quite as daunting. If this was a particular feature that you've had a hard time drawing in the past, because maybe there was too many little things going on in such a small space or anything like that. Or maybe you trying to hide them behind hair or a hat or anything like that. By the end of this class, you'll have a much, much better understanding so that you will actively enjoy drawing them. And they won't feel quite as terrifying as maybe they once were. So follow along and please post up to drawings if you can, and thank you for watching. 2. Ear placement: so before we actually get to any drawing of the ear or anything like that are breaking it down. I wanted to spend a few minutes just talking about how we want to generally place the year on the head. And so, for these first few examples, I'm just gonna be drawing over a photograph on and using a digital, uh, piece of software to kind of just show you how you want to be, thinking about placing the ear before you get to deconstructing it or modeling it or anything like that. So obviously, before you begin, you know, drawing an ear of any kind or anything like that, you're still gonna have to get your general construction, you know, of the head. And so you know, if you've seen any of my other videos, you know, I have done a few on just head drawing basics and things like that and just deconstructing the general shape of the head. And so I would go through that regular process like any other drawing. I would start with, you know, finding the large shape of the head, finding a center line, finding all my axes and where that's gonna exist in the head and you know, just your general construction ideas. And so because realistically the ear, you know, not just the ear but like the eyes, you know, the nose, the mouth, those are all essentially details in the head. And so, um, if you don't have large shape to begin with, you're kind of setting yourself up for, you know, potentially that experience because you're not gonna have your general proportions established. And so, you know, again, always want to focus on having your general construction before you get head and start focusing on here or any other details, for that matter. So with just the basic shape established, and I know where my nose and my eye line axes are, the general idea with the ear is that you can draw, you know, sort of parallel lines across, you know, to the side plane of the head and find the general placement of the here and now. Obviously, that's a very sort of broad statement. Um, but as a general rule of thumb in between, let's say, like the brown line and the bottom of the noses, we confined the general location of the ear and at least the top and bottom and all you're trying to do when you're first starting out is find the general location of the ear and where it's sitting in space. It doesn't necessarily mean you may not deviate from those initial measurements, but you kind of want to just find the general area first before you start breaking it down any farther. And so once I have the general location of the ear, I can kind of start deconstructing it a little bit. And the more important thing is kind of knowing the height and the width of the ear, and that is gonna vary from person to person. But again, the year's gonna exist on the side plane off the head. Um, obviously, and where it's kind of sitting and the general pitch is what you're gonna be looking for a zoo. You kind of continue to break it down into smaller sections on and things like that. But the important thing to note is again starting with your general construction. Um, you want to just build everything out, and then in between the bottom of the nose and the top of the brow, you can kind of find the general location with where you're gonna work from. And again, I just want to reiterate that the features themselves in the head are essentially details. And so, without the big structure being established first, it's going to be significantly more difficult to kind of have a successful drawing, especially if you're just getting started. And so I would encourage you to, um, you know, construct the head as best you can in a linear fashion and find all your landmarks and everything like that. And then, as you get comfortable with everything in the proportion senses, you can start focusing on the smaller aspects, like finding, you know, let's say, the eye sockets, the rough planes of the knows, the location of the mouth. And then, obviously in this case, the placement of the ear, including, you know, the height and width and things like that. And so the other thing we need to talk about two is that obviously, depending on the model and kind of the angle you're drawing from is, we do have to consider perspective. And now obviously this will change, depending on the direction in pitch of the models head. So if they're looking up or they're looking down. In this case, I have a very specific down gaze that you know is mildly subtle. It's not an extreme tilt, but by doing so or having any sort of tilts in the model's head is, we do have to consider how much perspective were dealing with and how that affects the placement of the year. And so, in this particular instance, with the model gazing down, my ear is going to lift up. If she were to tilt her head up, then obviously the ear would pitch itself down. And you know, there's basically an infinite number of degrees in between, depending on how your model is positioned. And so the easiest way, though, to kind of at least figure that out is when you're beginning and you're finding your basic construction of the head is, you would really want to focus on the level of pitch in the axes of the eye line, the nose line on and then the chin as well. And that is going to help you determine how much you know of a perspective change you're going to encounter in placing the year. And like I said earlier in this particular instance, it's not an extreme tilt, but there is a slight, very slight deviation in the angle at which, though the side plane of the head is existing relative to the front plane, Um, and so those axes lines are going to bend a little bit to accommodate the perspective, change and help me place that year. And so the easiest way to think about this is if you were drawing a box, you know, or like a rectangular form, and you were wrapping your axes lines around that that's more or less how I'm thinking about the head as I'm rapping axes lines around the side plane to accommodate the perspective. And so that's a little exercise that you can always do, you know, on the side of your paper. If you're kind of having a hard time figuring out what direction things air pitching is, look at your model or look at your reference and just literally just draw a box and try and find ah, the very specific axes lines so that you get a better sense of how things air tilting and changing in perspective, and that's gonna help you place that year. Um, you know or anything else for that matter. So even if it's like a background, or if you're getting an odd sort of angle in any of the other features like the nose or the mouth, you can always kind of draw a box or a simple, simple shaped like that and just wrap axes lines around that, and that will give you a much clearer indication of how much turn or how much change in perspective is actually taking place. So I know that's kind of a very brief explanation, but that's really all I think about when I'm when I'm trying to find the location. You know, of something like that year in the head is I don't over think it or there's no sort of, you know, tricky, you know, mathematic formula or anything like that to find the location. It's really is just using your axes lines to help you find the general location on and then taking note of the perspective in which the model is looking. And so, if you can really just focus on those 22 things, you can more or less find everything that you need to before you start breaking the year down farther 3. Dividing the Ear: Okay, so again, just after, like, the other examples we're gonna talk about now that we kind of have the idea of finding the location of the year, we need to talk about the general construction in and of itself. And so the first thing, once, once, we kind of know, Okay, that the ear is going to exist in, you know, this space, and we've decided that. Okay, well, this is where my ear is going to sit from a location standpoint. The next is we have to break it down into, um, you know, basically smaller shapes, just like we would anything else. And so the first thing to kind of keep in mind is that the ear itself is always resting, um, at an angle. So it's never going to be just a complete vertical. It's always gonna be at some sort of pitch Now, this will obviously vary from person to person, you know, depending on, you know, at the ears, or just like anything else. They can vary, you know, wildly. And so in her case, it's not a very, um it's not a very, uh, deep sort of angles. Very subtle, but nonetheless, you What you want to avoid is having a vertical line and then, you know, kind of drawing your ear on that. It's just going to look out of place. So there's always gonna be some degree of pitch that you're going to see in the ear, and it just it's gonna vary from person to person. But then, you know, you can go ahead and build your ear off of that line. And so because what ultimately this is doing is once you kind of know Okay, well, this is my top and bottom. And then now this is gonna give me an idea where the ears beginning, and then you can kind of establish the general sort of with and I still like to use, you know, straight lines, just like I do in a lot off a lot of my drawings. Um, and you can kind of figure out what that shape the rough shape is going to be. And so once this big shape is isolated, you can then start thinking about, um, you know Well, now I need to break this down further into sections or smaller shapes. And so what that means is I don't necessarily start just kind of. You know, there's all this kind of curvature that is happening with the anatomy of the ear. But the easiest way to break it down is to break it down into thirds. And so basically what those thirds are can vary quite a bit. But what I end up looking for is I start off by finding the middle third, and the middle third is essentially going to be where the biggest hole in the ear is this this hole in the ears called the contra. And so depending on the person that middle can vary quite a bit, you know? So depending on how big that opening is in someone's ear shape is I find that. And so then I don't necessarily have equal thirds. But nonetheless, I have third. So 12 and three. And so now that I have thirds, then I can start thinking about OK, well, what what parts of the anatomy of the ear exist in those thirds, and that makes it a lot easier to break down, because now I only have to think about it a section at a time, and then ultimately those sections will sort of become the entirety of the ear. But as I'm drawing in, I don't have to overwhelm myself and say like, Oh, man, there's all these kinds of shapes that air, you know, very organic and, you know, things air weaving in and out of one another. And it's kind of complicated. Just forget that statement, you know, are those those ideas overall and just think about OK, well, I have three sections of the year. Now Let me focus on Section one. Let me see what's going on in there and we'll figure out those shapes and okay, well, now I'm in section two and I just have this large sort of, you know, whole shape of the ear. And then okay, Section three. It's kind of mostly the lobe and a couple of other roundy thing. He's in the ear, and it allows you to just break it down into smaller sections so that it's not as overwhelming. And so we will go into the individual pieces of anatomy in the drawing portion, you know, of the class. But I wanted to do these in digital just so that it was a little bit easier to explain on a person and I can just draw over them, Um, and it's hopefully a little bit easier to follow, even though my digital skills are nowhere near what I could do with a pencil. But, um, anyway, hopefully that makes sense, and we will again dive deep into breaking down the anatomy of the ear and the different sections that comprise it. But, um, a couple of digital explanations that we did hopefully make sense so that we can focus on the placement of the ear and then breaking it down into smaller sections so that it's a little bit more manageable and hopefully easier to draw. 4. Ear Construction 1: So in the previous examples, we just kind of covered a few basic ideas in terms of placing the ear on the head as well as talking about how to divide it into smaller sections. Um, and so that is a little bit easier to manage. So just to reiterate is that we said we're gonna always kind of have the ear at a slight angle so that it's not built on a up and down vertical axes, but at an axes at a slight hitch on. And then once we have the rough shape of the ear is we were going to divide that into thirds eso that it isolates the specific areas of the ear itself, and it makes it a little bit easier. Teoh kind of just draw the individual pieces without getting too caught up in all the small details. Um, you know, all at once. But just, you know, one thing at a time. So once that year is kind of broken down into a very large simple shape, we can start, you know, kind of working our way down through each section and focus on the individual pieces that actually make up the ear itself, and so you wouldn't want to start doing that again prior to having the rough placement. So always have that gun first, and then we can start focusing on the smaller pieces one at a time. So for this particular portion, we're going to deal with the outermost portion of the ear, which is going to be the helix of the ear. And although I'll mention names for the different parts, is not inherently necessary to know them. But it does kind of help so that you can give them very clear, definitive names. And it's just I think it's a little bit easier. So this outer edge itself is the helix of the ear, and it's really sort of when you think about it, it's just this very distinct, almost like a C curve, more or less and now again, sort of general statements is everyone's here is gonna be made up of the same sort of parts , and you know the thing that we have to pay attention to as artists are you know, the subtle differences that make that person's ear unique and on, and what kind of gives it character on DSO? That's something that you need to pay attention to as you're drawing the rest of the year. But you know what? I'm generally trying to think about the helix is that I have this sort of C curve that I'm gonna be building into on. And then once I have that outer shape established, I can start focusing on the interior portion of the year. And so, with the helix established weaken, basically move on to the next portion off the ear. And so I'll draw another little helix down here so I can kind of separate things. But, um, again, I always start with the helix first because I feel like it sets the stage for drawing the rest of the ear and on. And I feel like once I have that large shape established, it makes it much, much easier for me to start filling in the smaller pieces of everything. And so this next shape is going to be the anti helix on which is the next sort of closest shape to the outer edge. And the way you can kind of think about it is that the the anti helix itself is sort of this why shape is and that it kind of splits off to, like a 22 little forks in the road at the top of the helix. And then, as it kind of comes down towards you know, the lobe or anything like that, it becomes, like, sort of one single road, if you will, on and so again, it's you kind of. Just think about this. Why shape that is sitting in sort of the center of the ear, and that is one creating also the conscious of the year. And then it will also lead into the anti trade giss of the ear, which is the next shape that will be looking at and again. So the interior part of the anti helix establishes the conscious shape of the ear itself. And there's gonna be a lot of variation, you know, from personal person in these parts. And so you really want to focus in and pay attention to the subtlety involved. You know, with any portrait or even if you're just practicing ears, it's good to just pay attention to all these small details, and so is the helix air. The anti helix excuse me wraps around. It's going to lead into this little tiny small ball cartilage shape and this is the anti trade is of the ear, which kind of bleeds into the loge on the bottom part of the year. And so again, it's kind of one of those areas because it's cartilage. You can kind of take on all kinds of interesting forms. And so there's these little things that you want to kind of pay attention to a zoo. You're drawing any sort of ear portrait, and as it curves around here, you can kind of see it's kind. It's gonna curve around, and it's going to go into the tray giss itself, which is a kind of little I almost think of it like a little wing. Um, you know, that's kind of going in and dipping into the contra off the ear. And, um, you know, now that you kind of see it is that's pretty much all that's there. There is by getting those last two pieces in there. The ear is essentially solved from a construction standpoint, and now again, you would kind of you know that this point, with all the shapes in place, you can kind of go back and look for any sort of subtlety. And in the curvature and things like that are, you know, like contours that are specific to that person that you're drawing. But from a construction standpoint, those are all the shapes that you really have to be concerned about and kind of like from the very beginning is if you get the shape of the helix right and you get the shape of the anti helix, right, you're kind of home free. You don't really have to do a whole lot in terms of finding out the rest of the ear. Most of the construction is essentially established by getting those two shapes in the in the drawing itself. So another visual metaphor that you can kind of think about is the ear itself is almost like a backwards question mark. And that's something that one of my teachers, when I was kind of starting out usedto tell me that, you know, just think about it like that, and then that's something that you can consider that might be helpful to some people. But for me, I always found the idea of having that big C curve of the helix and then the inner why shape of the anti Helix? Those were the two metaphors that sort of stuck with me the most. A zai was kind of going through school and so on. If you can get those, you can pretty much draw the rest of the either With a certain degree of confidence, I would say the things you would be looking for afterwards, or all the little minor nuances in that particular person's ear. And because there's so much variation within the cartilage, you know, and just kind of from, you know, whether it's male or female or different ethnic types, there's all kinds of variation toe look for in these features. And so that's something that you would want it. Once you have the general construction in place and everything is in its right spot, you can then focus on kind of those very minor differences for that particular individuals here. And so we'll go a little bit more into system construction stuff with that, with the ear and kind of how to think about, you know, modeling and things like that. But I really wanted to just do a short video on just very bare bones construction to get you started on. Then, from there, we can kind of start adding some more complicated things as we go 5. Ear Construction 2: So one other thing that I wanted Teoh discuss in terms of construction is that more often than not, depending on you know, whether or not you're drawing a portrait from life or from a photo is that odds are you may not be doing a profile and so you're not going to necessarily see all the bits of information like the previous example, which is the ear straight on and which are only gonna encounter that sort of, ah, you know, effect. You know, if a that the hair is not obscuring, you know, a large part of the year or you're drawing a profile. And so, in this particular example, I'm gonna draw the ear at a more common angle that you might encounter. So now, even though this year is going to be a different perspective, I don't change my construction method. And so I'm still gonna find the angle of the ear, um, at which it's resting. And then I'm still going to break it up into thirds, and so that just gives me something to lock into when I start constructing the rest of the year. But at least I have that beginning toe work from. And then I can kind of make the necessary adjustments that I'm gonna have Teoh because of the perspective involved. And so construction wise, I'm still going to start with, you know, drawing and focusing on the helix and then working in from there. And it's really just a matter of the perspective and you're going to see a bit more of the front. Part of the helix is as it's wrapping around towards the conscious of the ear, and you're going to see a significant, you know, probably of less significant amount of the back portion of the Helix, because now it's facing away from us in perspective. And oftentimes what you'll see happen. You know, again, depending on the person's ear type, is that you may see the anti helix here kind of sweet past the back portion of the helix, and that's just gonna be obscuring it because of again the perspective that we're working from. And you know, I'm trying not to make too many blanket statements, you know, in terms of drawing, because there's too many variables and every person's ear and so, but you can kind of see how I'm constructing the eager from this particular angle What you may encounter on your own reference or the model you're drawing from, you know? And so just like anything else is that certain parts of the ear are going to become, you know, much less visible, depending on the severity of the perspective and the angle on things like that. But, um, again, the anatomy isn't necessarily changing in the year. So all the same parts that we discussed earlier, you know, they're all gonna be there. It's just now we have to think about how they're turning in space. And so and this is sometimes too were you know, depending on the light situation that you're working from. If it's a high contrast light, you can kind of use the shadow shapes to kind of help guide your I a little bit in terms of the construction, and that can make it a little bit easier, um, to draw overall, The main thing you want to focus on again is the overall construction. In terms of finding, you know, the axes lines on breaking the ear down 2/3 that's still gonna apply. You know, I'm not going to change my construction method just because of perspective. So that's something you'll still want to try and get in as your drawing. And again, just keep in mind. Back to our metaphor here is that we had our C curve here, but I'm now bending that see so that it fits the perspective on. And then again, we have the why shape that's in there as well. And so now you just have to think about those shapes and how they're rotating in space. And that's gonna help you construct your drawing. Hopefully, a lot better. And so the important things that again remember is regardless of the perspective of the ear , as long as you can really dial in the axes, lines, um, in relative to the rest of the head, and constructing the ear shouldn't be that big of an issue. It's really a matter of finding those axes lines first and then constructing within them so that the remains in perspective and, you know, yes, there's gonna be all kinds of variables, depending on the pose and where you're drawing from. But as long as you can, you know, find those axes lines than it's really kind of easy from there And so the last sort of poser angle that I wanted to talk to you guys about was drawing the ear from behind. And now I know that's not gonna be a common thing that you encounter very much, but I still wanted to address it just in case, because there is kind of a way that I feel like you can handle it Should the situation come up and you have to do it s o. You know, I'm still going to start the same way, but and, you know, now dealing with the back few. We're not going to see the same bits of information like we're going to see in the front view, So I don't necessarily divide it into thirds. I really just focus on the top and bottom and the relative angle, you know, off the base of the year. And so the only thing you know with from this particular angle that I focus on is the pitch , you know, from the helix down to the lobe and what that angle is. And because I really because I don't have to concern myself with all the little individual parts, I really just have to focus on the base of the ear, where it's attaching to the skull, and then the relative angles of the helix and the low as it works its way down. So the only thing you may really encounter, as you know, a bit of information as you're going to see the sort of the edging of the helix as it works its way down to the low. And but again, the only other thing we have to think about is the base of the ear and where that is attaching to the head here and then kind of your you might see, depending on the person, maybe a separation of the lobe down through here and again. Those are things that are gonna vary from person to person. But from a shape standpoint, that's all we really have toe sort of think about from this particular angle. So the Onley really sort of subtle details that you might see from this particular angle is that, like again, like you might see how the individual sort of edge of the helix itself as it wraps around down into the low band around the base of the ear and, you know, again it'll it'll be, you know, wildly different from person to person. But that curvature is there. And so that would be something to pay attention to, um, as your drawing. And depending on the person's type, you might even see the helix itself sort of wrap around towards where the front part of the ear would be. But again, that's sort of a case by case scenario. So the easiest visual metaphor that I've always seen, as if you think about the ear as, like, a figure eight with a ball attached to it. You know, um, that's kind of what I think about from a back view like this. And again, this isn't a very common view that you would be drawing, you know, from necessarily, um, you know, unless you really, you know, sort of had the idea of drawing, you know, a back pose or something like that. Then, yes, you would encounter this. Um, but, you know, again there's all kinds of variables, you know, with the model and kind of what your interest is. But that's kind of how I would approach drawing the ear from this particular vantage point . You know, again, you're not going to see all the little bits of information that really make up a near. But you can kind of see, you know, the few things that are there and how you might want to draw them or at least consider drawing them from a construction standpoint. 6. Ear Form Ideas: So before we actually get to modeling the ear, I wanted to talk about more or less the simple forms you want to think about as you are going to get to the modeling. And hopefully that will make it easier to think about the forms that you're drawing so that you don't have to get caught up in the details of the ear. And you can really just think about the simple forms that are actually there on it won't be too too complicated. So I'm still, you know, continuing with the same basic construction process again. That doesn't really change, depending on you know, the angle of the ear or anything like that. I'm still gonna find all the necessary angles and axes to help me construct the ear. So, you know, bottom top, the middle third and everything. Once we get that established and the general placement of the ears there, then we can focus on the smaller forms and what they really look like as we get to modeling them. So I have my helix here, and then I can go ahead and get in my anti helix, um in the contra would then be established and we're and we're basically there at this point, you know, in terms of construction. And so with that in place, this is kind of where you would sort of have, like, a starting point, you know? And so the rough construction is done. And now that we have it in place, how do we want to think about the forms of the ear themselves? And so the easiest thing for me and I in the way I always kind of thought of the year is that let's say, if we take the helix here, for example, is that it's really just it's kind of this rounded cylinder form. Yeah, it's been flattened, you know, a little bit to kind of because here's gonna have that flatness to them. But for the most part, we have this sort of squashed cylinder effect. Um, that is going to be taking place in a lot of the forms. And so that's really what I would be thinking about with this particular thing. And yeah, you know, it'll taper and kind of it will undulate a little bit according to the cartilage and things like that. But for the most part, as you know if I were going to be modeling the here. All I'm really thinking about is I have this sort of flattened cylinder shade that is now bending in space according to how the ear is bending and and that's pretty much it, um, And so if we were to draw, you know, you know, contour lines or anything like that across the ear, it would be the same way I would draw contour lines across cylinder. And so that doesn't really change for me. And so, by thinking about it that way, um, modelling the ear from a form standpoint becomes much, much easier. And I'm not necessarily thinking about anatomy. At that point, I'm thinking about well, you know, okay, if I were to Shada cylinder, um, or anything like that, or if I think about what the form is actually doing or what it is is I'm kind of left with this cylinder shape that is sort of being twisted, but from a modeling standpoint, you know it it's really not much different van. If I were shading a cylinder, the only thing now I have to consider is you know, this cylinder is being bent and then you know now the other question would be Will wears my light source. And so depending on your you know, your lighting scenario and things like that, you would shade it the same way you shade a cylinder and you really don't have to overthink it that much. It really is sort of that symbol. And so, if you can, if you can kind of keep it toe So that simplistic sort of mentality in terms of form than when you get to modeling the ear, you know, on a portrait or just doesn't exercise it it really does become that easy because, you know, realistically and a good chunk of the ear you're gonna have some shadow shapes that are going to obscure some bits of information as well on, and you'll see that in my sort of modelling demo. But for the most part, um, you know, even here, let's say exam for the example of the anti helix is I'm kind of getting this repeated, you know, cylinder kind of effect. And, you know, obviously there's going to be variations, you know, from individual to individual. But the because you know, all our anatomies the same you don't weaken kind of the forms are essentially the same as well. Um, our job is artist is really just to find the subtle variations in those forms. But from a modeling standpoint, you know, a cylinder is a cylinder regardless of its size or what it's doing. And so that's kind of all I would really be thinking about when it came time to model these individual forms. And so I feel again, like a long as you can keep it in sort of that simplistic mindset, You're not gonna have any trouble, um, drawing the majority of the ear. The only part that's maybe slightly different are gonna be The trade is an anti trade Ghous in which I think, you know, they're still kind of rounded forms of some degree. But there is a much greater fluctuation in the cartilage in a lot of those areas, and so you still kind of have to treat those accordingly. But for the most part again, they're just very simple rounded forms. And, um and then it would be a matter of what's the light source and how What is the drop off of light and, you know, do you see very distinct form shadows or cast shadows or anything like that, and you can kind of model those from there. But, uh, that's, you know, that's kind of it. Realistically, you know, you said a lot of cases you're gonna have some shadows that are filling in the gaps in a lot of areas in terms of information. And so you really just have to focus on the areas that you do see in light. And what are those forms? And you know, what is their relationship to the light? And you know how convex or concave, you know those forms are going to dictate. Um, you know just how much drop off in light or that kind of you'll see different kind of highlights and things like that. But again, those forms themselves are fairly simple. Um, and if you can focus on how simple they are than modeling those forms is going to be much, much easier and again because you're not at that point, you're not really thinking about the anatomy, or at least I try not to. I'm just focusing on what simple form and my drawing. Let me try and capture that form with a gradation in value relative to the light source on . That's pretty much it. You know, I don't over think it you, by any stretch of the imagination and so you'll see this kind of happen in the demonstration of an actual drawing that I'm going to do. But hopefully that made sense and will hopefully make Theo the modeling portion of the ear . Ah, little be easier for you. 7. Ear Modeling 1: So as I'm going to begin this year, drawing I am This is obviously going to be very sped up. And so I'm still going to go through the normal construction process that we've been talking about over the course of the class. And so what's gonna end up happening here is I'm gonna go through the construction phase, Um, and then I'm going to fill in the shadows and then model out the rest of the year. If you've seen any of my other classes, I'm going to largely model this the same way I would do anything. And so I go through an entire linear construction phase so that I really focus on the placement and proportion of everything before getting into any sort of tone or modeling of any kind. And so I feel like that's just a general good practice. And if we're looking at this within the scope of doing a portrait, your whole portrait would be constructed in a very similar manner before you got to any sort of modelling whatsoever. Because, you know, I've said it, you know, multiple times over a bunch of different classes is that if something is not the right proportion or it's placed in the wrong spot on ahead or figure or anything like that. Modeling will not save your drawing whatsoever. And so I would always put a very strong emphasis on models are drawing, you know, your construction for as long as possible until you felt that you know, it was the best you could do in in terms of proportion and placement and everything like that. And only then until those conditions were satisfied that I would then think about adding tone into the drawing. And so what? Whatever degree that means for, you know, every person is gonna find a different level of construction that is suitable for them into which they feel comfortable moving on with. And and so for me, I like to, you know, map out my shadow patterns, and I like to have a very clean line drawing before I go too far with any sort of modeling and the idea being that is long as I stay in the linear phase, corrections are much, much easier to fix, versus if I have toned or anything like that on the paper. It is much harder to make changes if I You know, Miss, you know an area that, you know, Maybe the proportions weren't right. Or maybe the shape was wrong. So that's why I have a tendency to stay in a very linear phase for as long as possible. And so once I feel good about line drawing, I'll go ahead and start filling in my shadows. And, uh, in this particular case, I want to just get a nice even tone that looks fairly flat. I'm not necessarily worried about theatrics, Scents of the shadow or anything like that. It's really just about establishing a base layer of tone so that I see a very simple light and dark effect, you know, from there. Well, you know, we can get a little bit more involved with shadows when as the drawing progresses, but just starting out, I want to see what those shadow shapes are. And then if I need to re evaluate some of the shapes I made initially, I can go ahead and do that while the shadows are in a very sort of basic stage. And so, just to keep in mind, the pencil that I'm using is I'm actually using an H grade pencil so it's not a terribly soft pencil. So even though that these shadows might look a little bit dark, they're actually not super super dark at this point yet. And so it's really this initial laying of tone is going to be fairly light for the most part. Um, just so that I can see enough contrast between the darks and the lights and get a very good sense of what those shapes actually are. And you know, once those air in, then I can comfortably decide if changes need to be made or if I feel good about it enough to where I can start moving on into the lights, um, in model out the rest of the drawing, and so I'll continue through all the different areas until all the shadow shapes are filled in. Now, if there's areas, you know that I feel like our maybe somewhere in between shadow shapes and part of the light, I might as well put a light tone, um, in that area just so that it makes it easier to see for me, and I get a better visual about what that shape really is. And so, for example, like the little tiny shape down here is not super in shadow, but it's dark enough to where I'm gonna fill it in any way. That way, I have a very concrete shape toe work off of As I start modeling the lights, answer with me. Feeling good about the overall shape so far, I'm gonna darkened down a little bit more in the shadows. So that one I'm separating them out a little bit more. But then, by darkening the shadow, it's going to give me a lot more flexibility in the lights so that I have a much easier time turning the forms on the light side, Um, of the ear itself. Now I'm still going to be very careful about how far I go, and I don't want to over commit too soon. So it's not like I'm hitting black or anything Super, super dark. But I'm just darkening down a little bit so that I have that extra room. Teoh. Move the range up in the lights on, and then I'll have a much easier time rounding off, you know, edges and modeling on the light side of the year. And so, as I'm kind of beginning modeling in the in the light side, I have a tendency to favor always starting from some sort of shadow or starting from a darker side and then rolling into the lights. Now it doesn't necessarily matter if you're working from dark to light or light to dark. It's really about preference. And I've always found for me that working out of a dark area or working out of a shadow into the light is much easier. Because, Aiken, I feel like I have a better understanding of how much of a gradation I need to create coming out of a shadow and rolling into the light versus rolling from the light into the dark. And you know, everyone will have a preference about that. And ultimately you're gonna do what's you know, the most comfortable for you. But in this particular case, I'm going to start from the dark side of the shadow and slowly roll into the light. And so, just like we were discussing earlier in one of the other videos, is I'm treating the helix of the ear essentially the same way I would treat a cylinder. And so that's all I'm really thinking about. As I'm kind of rolling the form through this area is that it's essentially a flattened out cylinder, but it's still, it's still I'm still shading a cylinder. It's not. I'm not treating it any differently, like it's a special sort of a shape or anything like that. I really want to just treat you know the forms is very basic as I possibly can. And really, I want to focus more on the how consistent and even my gradation is because the more I can kind of create a nice, smooth and even transition from one side to the other. I'm gonna get a much better illusion off rounding throughout that particular form, and that will change a little bit in certain parts of the ear. But for the most part, as I'm working on this helix area right now, that's all I'm thinking about is the fluctuation. You know of the great Asians within the cylinder form that slowly wrapping down three ear and I want to just get that as clean as I possibly can so that hopefully, by the end of it we have nice, you know, very clean transitions and an illusion of form and kind of just working my way down. It's It's more or less fairly consistent. Down through the helix. The only the only part that starts to change a little bit is as it's going further down the helix. We get closer to like the lower area, which will kind of open up. Um, and the ear itself gets a little whiter through there. But for the most part, it's a nice and even transition throughout this whole helix area. And there's subtle fluctuations back here where the it's my it's a little thicker. And so I have kind of a little tiny shadow shape to Grade eight out of. But, um, again, kind of like what I just said in the beginning is we're just we're kind of just shading a cylinder, and and I don't let my mind deviate too far from that thought process. It's just a matter of how much of that cylinder is facing the light, how much it of that cylinder is facing the shadow and what's in between those two. And that's going to dictate how much of a great Asian I'm gonna make and how quickly that gradation rolls out from light to dark. 8. Ear Modeling 2: so is we're continuing along here. I'm gonna be building out of this shadow here as it's going upward into the anti helix because it's a fairly smooth gradation in, I would say, the anti helix, you know, kind of towards the top here, like there's a great deal of fluctuation from person to person. And so sometimes you get these really broad and expansive anti helix is. It's rising into the upper part of the helix, and sometimes it could be fairly narrow. And so that gap in between the two forms can vary wildly. And sometimes it's very large, and sometimes it's a very narrow gap, and so on him, it's fairly. It's a fairly narrow gap, so I don't really see a whole lot from this angle on. And so that's why I just wantedto have a nice and kind of even transition throughout that area. And then as it gets closer to the shadow, I see the separation of where the Y shape would be, and it's kind of you can sort of suddenly see it as the highlight along. The anti helix is kind of splitting, um, into two, and that sort of indicating where the rest of the why shape would be continuing along through the lower part of the anti Helix. Here I'm gradually, you know, you can kind of see as its tapering into more of a very sort of thin cylinder. And I'm kind of just working up to the highlight as I see it. And as it starts broadening out towards towards the top of the anti helix, that highlight kind of splits off and it starts becoming a little bit larger. And, um, all I'm trying to think about, though, is that the value range through that particular area is getting a little bit more compressed. And so I'm just trying to be really careful that I don't go too dark too fast where there's a lot of light hitting. And so I'm just kind of skirting along that highlight, leaving myself a little bit of room. I'm not necessarily going to pick out the highlights or anything like that with an eraser, but I'm just letting the values kind of transition into one another so that it looks a little bit, you know, lighter where the highlight should rest, and then I'm getting a little bit darker. Um as that highlight is rolling off in the shadow. - And so there's a temptation in the little pocket there and the conscious to keep that that value fairly light. But given how the distance relative of how deep that contra hole is, it can't be as light as some of the other sections in the year. So I'm trying to just keep that in mind. Um, as I'm modeling doesn't continuing just down the helix here. I'm just trying to work side to side and sort of so that I'm bringing up everything kind of together. And I'm not isolating just toe one area, and so that's just more of a personal preference. I find that as I'm as I build up everything together, it's easier for me to make judgments and assessments. Um, as I'm you know, modeling certain here isn't so. You know, you could go and work from area to area and do it that way, but I kind of like to bring up everything if I can help it. And so, as we're getting down into, like, the anti trade is here, the cartilage here gets a little bit, you know, smaller and this shape is a little firmer. So, um, I have this little shadow shape here that it's not super deep in shadow, but there's enough of a dark tone that I can kind of create a very distinct dark shape and then that will gradually kind of just roll into the lobe of the ear. And, you know, again, this is an area where there's a little bit of a tiny highlight that I'm gonna work up to that brightness rather than pick it out with my eraser is a kind of working over into the actual outrageous here. It's fairly, you know, it's a fairly even tone all the way across, but it is slightly darker than some of the other portions of, like the anti helix and the helix itself, and that's just because of its direction facing the light. But I am trying to be aware that because it's surrounded by a dark shadow is that I could potentially make it lighter than what it actually is. And so that's something. Does just be aware off, you know, depending on the lights, you know, and the direction you know the form is turning is that you want to be very objective about what direction something is facing towards the light. And then what it's you know, what else is it surrounded by? So because you're gonna have the sort of concept of something surrounded by dark is gonna appear much lighter than it actually might be. And so they get down to the lower part of the lobe. Here, the the ear lobe itself becomes a much broader kind of a flesh year sort of substance in, You know, compared to, let's say, like the cartilage around like the top of the helix, which is much firmer. So as that form eyes expanding into the larger part of the lobe, it's also getting a bit softer and flesh here. And so I have to be mindful of that as I'm modeling it so that form itself is becoming a softer form, and it's also becoming much broader in scope. And so even I'm gonna have a little bit of tone on the bottom side of the lobe as it's turning under because it's still a rounded form. But as it kind of comes out of that shadow, the great Asian there is going to be fairly smooth and even across the board on, and part of that is just his ear lobe type. But I would even say is a general statement on most lobes because they have a tendency to be much softer and flesh here that it's gonna be a very sort of delicate form. And the gradations across it are gonna be fairly broad and even. And we're pretty much at this point we got the ear filled in. And so, you know, at this point, with everything filled in, it's just like I would do in any other drawing is, uh as I got all my tones, uh, in place, I would now start to reassess, you know, areas. And, you know, could I go darker? Let's say in the shadows could I hit some accents and or do things are are things not quite looking as round as they could? Potentially And so I start to reevaluate the whole drawing and start to just go over everything once more and maybe make a second pass so I could start darkening down in certain areas so that it opens up my value range a little bit more in I'm able to roll out of the shadows into the light a little bit better, but at this point you can kind of tell where we're at, You know, in regards to modeling the year and realistically, if you were doing a portrait, this may not be may not put as much detail into the ear because it might take away from the focal point, which in most cases is going to be the eyes or the front part of the face, for that matter. If you've made it this far, though, I'm hoping that you have a better understanding of the construction of the ear. A swell a some of the anatomical points that we went over. But, you know, just like anything else and in drawing, it's just a matter of kind of practicing, uh, you know, the construction and getting familiar with shapes. And then over time, you kind of start to put all the little pieces together through practice. And this is just one of the few features that you have to contend with when you're drawing a portrait or figure or anything else. And so by the end of this, I think you should have a good understanding of where you need to go with it. And please post up your drawings if you get a chance, I would love to see them and give you a critique. And, uh, just want to say thank you for following along. And I hope this was enjoyable for you. And I actually had a really good time just focusing on a feature like this and doing a little bit shorter of a video. So thank you for watching. And I will be seeing you soon. Take care.