A lot of work goes into a horse portrait. There are a lot of things to draw. Some are easy and some are not. Today, I’d like to show you how to draw horse ears, one of the more difficult parts of a horse for me.
How to Draw Horse Ears
Since I worked this portrait through a total of four phases (umber underdrawing, Verithin color glaze, Polychromos color glaze, and detailing), and since I’ve already written about some of those elsewhere, I won’t detail every step of drawing the ears. For those who are interested only in learning how to draw horse ears, I’ll share enough detail here to explain what I did at each step.
As a reminder (and for those who haven’t read the other posts), I used Clairefontaine Pastelmat in White for this portrait.
Now, let’s get to the step-by-step.
The Umber Underdrawing
I began the portrait with an umber underdrawing, and with Faber-Castell Polychromos. Polychromos pencils are dryer then Prismacolor pencils, and they hold a point well. They are great on Pastelmat, so they’re my go-to pencil.
But they leave something to be desired in drawing small areas, especially on small portraits. Since this portrait is 8 x 10, there were some very small shapes.
Step 1
So after doing a little work with Polychromos Walnut Brown, I switched to Verithin Dark Brown. Verithin pencils have thinner and harder pigment cores. They sharpen to a very fine point, although Pastelmat wears them down surprisingly fast.
Even so, I was able to work through several layers of color and work the ears up to a good amount of detail.
My main concern, however, was making sure values and shapes were correct. I let the color of the paper be the lightest values around the rims of the ears. In the darker values inside the ears, I applied several layers of Dark Brown, using light pressure and hatching strokes. The strokes began on the left side of each ear interior and moved toward the right. Even though I didn’t draw a lot of detail, using strokes this way helped establish the shape of each ear.
I also adjusted edges as necessary by working both sides of the edges. Verithin pencils are perfect for this because they’re easy to remove with transparent tape or a kneaded eraser. For example, I drew the background in order to establish the shapes of the ears where I didn’t do an underdrawing.
I also used a paper stump to blend color. You can see this especially in the background. Verithin pencils produce a lot of pigment dust because they’re so dry. Blending with a paper stump makes use of that dust by pushing it down into the tooth of the Pastelmat.
Verithin Color Glaze
Ordinarily, I do one round of color glazing. This time, however, I liked using Verithin pencils so much that I decided to do two rounds of color glazing, and use Verithin pencils in the first round. Verithin color selection isn’t great, but there were enough earth tones and enough range between light and dark to work with this portrait.
Step 2
I chose Verithin Pumpkin Orange because the horse has a decidedly orange tinted chestnut coat. Terra Cotta was too red and the other browns were too dark and/or too blue.
I used light to medium-light pressure to apply the first glaze, working around the highlights and darkest values in each ear.
Then I scumbled Pumpkin Orange on the backs and insides of both ears.
Once again, I paid more attention to shapes and values than details. As you can see below, the color glazes did not completely cover the umber underdrawing. Verithin pencils are very translucent. That was definitely an advantage in working on this portrait.
Polychromos Color Glaze
When the Verithin color glaze was complete, I switched back to Polychromos pencils. These are my absolute favorite pencils for Pastelmat and I’ve done quite a few portraits with this paper-pencil combination. The color selection is near perfect for horses of all colors, but especially for this orange-red chestnut. As it turns out, they’re just enough softer than Verithin pencils work work very well on Verithin layers.
This round of color glazing took quite a bit longer than the first round, so I’m breaking it up into a few additional steps for the sake of clarity.
Step 3
The first color I used was Burnt Siena. It’s a nice earth tone, but is orange enough to make a good base color for a horse of this color. I applied a couple of layers to the back of each ear, and one or two inside the ears. The insides are darker than the backs, so I didn’t want too much of this relatively bright color in those areas.
Next, I did the same thing with Caput Mortuum Violet, glazing all of the same areas with scumbling strokes applied with light pressure. Because Caput Mortuum Violet is darker than Burnt Siena, I applied more layers inside the ears than on the backs of the ears.
As always, I used the lightest pressure I could for as long as possible. I increased pressure only when absolutely necessary, and only as much as necessary to apply fresh color. I kept my pencils sharp, which is helpful in small areas. I used hatching, crosshatching, or contour strokes.
Notice that the umber underdrawing is still visible. That pattern of light and dark is a good roadmap for applying color and getting the values right.
Step 4
I used Caput Mortuum Violet, Walnut Brown, Dark Indigo for all of each each, and a little Black on the inside of each ear. The strokes matched the general shapes within each ear, starting on the left and moving toward the opposite rim. I didn’t go all the way to the rim because of the lighter color around the outside. I added Brown Ochre and Burnt Siena in those areas.
I also layered Burnt Siena, Caput Mortuum Violet and some Cadmium Orange on the back of each ear. A mix of strokes and applying strokes in different directions helped fill the tooth of the paper.
I used medium-light or medium pressure for all of this work.
In this illustration, the left ear is more advanced than the right ear, giving you a good point of comparison.
Step 5
I started with the right ear, using a mix of Dark Indigo, Walnut Brown, Caput Mortuum Violet, and Black inside the ear. I increased pressure layer by layer, but didn’t quite get to heavy pressure before finishing.
On the back of the ear and around the rim, I mixed Burnt Siena, Cadmium Orange, and Burnt Ochre using short, flicking strokes following the direction of hair growth.
In a few places, I added strokes of Cream.
Step 6
In the background areas around the ear, I alternated layers of Walnut Brown and Terracotta with a few strokes of Black, just to deepen the shadow.
You might wonder why I’m including this in a post about drawing ears. It’s because I often work the background around whatever part of the horse I’m drawing, so that I can adjust edges. It also helps me reshape any areas that need correction. It’s far easier to do this than to lift color and redraw everything.
But I also worked on the left ear with a mix of Terracotta and Burnt Siena, and touched up the ears with a few strokes of Ivory into the lighter parts of both ears.
Then I blended the backs of the ears with with Ivory, and the ears were finished at the Polychromos color glazing phase.
Detailing
The last step is detailing. How much detailing is necessary is different for each portrait and for each part of the portrait. Things I generally do in the detailing phase is add flyaway hairs, random highlights, and whiskers or other tiny details. The larger the portrait, the more of these small details I add.
Since this portrait is only 8 x 10, there wasn’t a lot of detailing to do on the horse. As it turned out, I did no further work on the ears. It wasn’t necessary.
How to Draw Horse Ears
The two most difficult areas for me to draw on a horse are the ears and the muzzle. Obviously no two horses have the same shapes in either area, so it’s important to get them right if you’re doing a portrait.
My subject for this portrait has the natural hair in the ears. Many horses, especially show horses, have shaved ears. You need to pay attention to those details.
I don’t know for sure how long it took to draw the ears, because I worked on them while also working on other areas. But the Polychromos color glaze took 14-1/2 hours start to finish, so I’m going to guess about an hour for the ears.
In general, I hope I’ve helped you get better acquainted with the shapes and shading of horse ears. If you have questions, leave them in the comments below, or contact me. I’m always happy to answer questions.
Previous Posts in This Series
Drawing a Digital Grid on a Reference Photo
Drawing a Horse with an Umber Underdrawing
Drawing a Horse with Verithin Glazing
Drawing Leather with Colored Pencils
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