CHAPTER 4 | EARS

The ear is beautiful and intricate. A bit mysterious with all those cavities in it.

Exercise 1: draw a right or left ear as above.

Everyone’s ears, like eyes, mouths and noses, are different. Maybe your ears resemble those of your father or mother, but they are certainly not exactly the same. The position of the ears can be erect or slightly angled. And not everyone has an earlobe (see examples below). Also one person has bigger ears than the other. In one they stick out further and in the other they lie flatter against the head. Take a look some time at the differences between the ears of, for example, classmates, family and friends.

Three different ears, straight and oblique, two with- and one without earlobe

In an illustration by MIKKO (Mikko Kuiper) we see such an ear beautifully drawn with deep shadows. A mouth cap hangs loosely on the ear. The illustration was made for an article by anthropologist Ginny Mooy about the Coronavirus (NRC, January 15, 2022).

Exercise 2: Comic artists simplify the ear to suit their figures and drawing style. Here are a few examples to redraw.

Tintin                                                                                 Lambik from Spike en Suzy (Willy and Wanda)

Manga figure                                                                            Detective, Blake & Mortimer

PANOTTI, THE PEOPLE WITH GIANT EARS

Ancient fantasy stories wrote about a people with extremely large ears: Panotti. With their ears they could even protect their body from the cold. Some say they lived on an island above Scotland, others call South Asia. I saw them carved in stone above the entrance of a medieval church in the French town of Vezelay.

Exercise 3: Also try to draw someone with giant ears, perhaps even bigger than those of the Panotti woman.

Panotti woman, cathedral of Vezelay