Tuesday, August 08, 2006

EDM 79 Ears

ear 3

ear

Mercy, what a challenge!! I'm learning, yet again, that the better one KNOWS something -- ie like the anatomy of flowers -- or EARS-- the better one is able to SEE and hence to sketch that particular topic!

I tried to sketch the ears of my grandchildren -- thought that would be a fun comparison. Unfortunately, they are 80 miles away and every photo I have access to from work even when showing their wee ears, is so tiny, I can't SEE the subtle curves and hollows even after I blow it up -- I only wind up with pixels.

I settled for this challenge on a photo from WetCanvas that was large enough for these ol' eyes to see ...

I want to sketch this again -- maybe take some photos of my grandchildren's ears ... alone! LOL And try this in watercolor .... it certainly is a value/shading challenge!

(The two ears are based on the same photo and done with mechanical pencil - I tried to improve the darkness of the lines in Photoshop but wound up with two different looks so I'm posting both. The dark 'fringe' is supposed to be hair!)

3 comments:

Teri said...

Lin, this is great! I have already tried sketching ears and know this challenge is going to be a real challenge! I hope mine look half as good as yours!

Jana Bouc said...

These are very realistic and believable. Nice job! I agree about getting to know a subject and aren't ears interesting to get to know. So many little ridges and funny little shapes! Congratulations on tackling this challenge right away and doing it so well!

Anonymous said...

Lin, do you have some books on drawing human anatomy? I have some somewhere and will try to find some for recommending to you. Your little ear sketches are darling, though. A good book can just help tell you what to look for in terms of structure and proportion.