There’s something undeniably endearing about a dog with long, floppy ears. Whether they’re the velvety, trailing ears of a Basset Hound, the expressive, face-framing ears of a Cocker Spaniel, or the cheerful, drooping ears of a Beagle, they add a huge amount of personality and charm to our canine friends.
When you’re drawing a dog, capturing the weight, texture, and life in those ears can transform your sketch from a simple outline into an expressive and adorable portrait.
But making them look natural, soft, and three-dimensional can seem like a real artistic challenge.
If you’ve struggled with this, you’re not alone. The secret to success lies in understanding their basic structure and learning how to use simple shapes and shading to create a realistic effect.
This guide is here to demystify the process and show you exactly how to draw floppy dog ears in an easy, step-by-step way that is perfect for beginners.
We’ll explore a few different styles, from the long, pendulous ears of a hound to the folded, triangular ears of a retriever.
Grab your pencil and paper, and get ready to add a new level of realism and character to your dog drawings. You’re about to learn how to master this charming feature and bring your puppy portraits to life.
Table of Contents
Your Artist’s Toolkit: Gathering the Right Supplies
The wonderful thing about drawing is how accessible it is. You don’t need a lot of expensive or complicated materials to start creating beautiful art.
To learn how to draw floppy dog ears, you just need a few fundamental tools.
The Essential Drawing Kit:
- Pencils: Having a small range of graphite pencils will make a huge difference in your ability to create depth and shadow.
- A Hard Pencil (H or 2H): Ideal for sketching the initial light outlines. These lines are easy to erase and won’t leave deep grooves in your paper.
- A Medium Pencil (HB or #2): This is your standard, everyday pencil. It’s perfect for defining shapes and adding mid-tone shading.
- A Soft Pencil (2B or 4B): Crucial for creating the dark shadows inside the folds of the ear and for drawing dark, textured fur.
- Paper: A good drawing surface is important. While any printer paper will do for practice, using paper from a sketchbook or a sheet of mixed-media paper will provide a better texture (or “tooth”) that grabs the pencil lead more effectively.
- Erasers: An eraser is not just for fixing mistakes; it’s a drawing tool.
- Kneaded Eraser: This soft, putty-like eraser can be molded into any shape. It’s excellent for lifting off graphite to create soft highlights without smudging.
- Precision Eraser: A pen-style eraser with a fine point (like a Tombow Mono Zero) is a game-changer for creating sharp, fine highlights, like the shine on fur.
- Blending Tools: To achieve that soft, velvety look, you’ll want to blend your pencil marks.
- Blending Stump or Tortillon: These are sticks of tightly rolled paper used to smudge and blend graphite with precision.
- Cotton Swab: Perfect for blending larger, softer areas of shadow.
- A Reference Photo: This is your most important tool! You can’t draw what you can’t see. Find clear, well-lit, high-resolution photos of the type of dog ears you want to draw. This will help you understand the shapes, folds, and how light interacts with the fur.
The Basic Anatomy of a Floppy Ear
Before putting pencil to paper, let’s break down what a floppy ear actually is. It’s not just a flat shape hanging off the side of a head. Understanding its basic structure is the first step in learning how to draw floppy dog ears realistically.
- The Base (The “Burr”): This is where the ear attaches to the skull. It’s the widest and thickest part, often covered in dense fur. It’s a sturdy anchor point from which the rest of the ear hangs.
- The Fold: This is the key to the “floppy” look. The ear cartilage folds over on itself near the base, causing the ear to hang down instead of standing up. The location and sharpness of this fold determine the ear’s shape.
- The Leather: This is the main, hanging part of the ear. It can be long and heavy (like a hound’s) or a softer, lighter triangle (like a retriever’s).
- The Inner and Outer Surfaces: The ear has an inside (usually less furry, with visible skin and cartilage ridges) and an outside (covered in fur). Even when the ear is hanging, you will often see parts of both surfaces.
Thinking of the ear as a folded piece of heavy fabric can be very helpful. It has weight, it has thickness, and it creates shadows on itself and on the dog’s head.
Style 1: The Long, Pendulous Hound Ear (Basset Hound, Bloodhound)
This style of ear is characterized by its extreme length, weight, and luxurious folds. They hang like heavy velvet curtains.
Step 1: Sketch the Basic Shape and Placement
- Start with the dog’s head. Lightly sketch a circle or oval for the top of the skull.
- Determine the attachment point. The base of a hound’s ear is set relatively low and far back on the side of the head. Mark this spot.
- Draw a “U” or “J” shape. Using your hard (H) pencil, draw a long, sweeping “U” shape that starts at the attachment point, hangs down well below the jawline, and then curves back up slightly. Don’t worry about details yet; just focus on capturing the overall length and gentle curve of the hanging ear.
Step 2: Define the Fold and the Inner Ear
- Create the fold. Near the top of your “U” shape, draw a curved line to indicate the main fold where the ear collapses on itself. This fold is what gives the ear its volume.
- Show the inside. From the fold, part of the inner ear will be visible. Sketch a line that suggests the ear is turning inward, revealing the less furry interior surface. This creates an immediate sense of three-dimensionality.
Step 3: Add Shading for Depth and Weight
This is where the ear comes to life. Remember that it’s a three-dimensional object.
- Shade the inside. The inner part of the ear, which is turned away from the light, will be the darkest area. Use your soft (2B or 4B) pencil to lay in a deep shadow inside the main fold.
- Add a cast shadow. The hanging ear will cast a shadow on the dog’s neck and shoulder. Lightly shade this area to make the ear look like it’s physically present and blocking light.
- Shade the main body. The ear leather itself is not flat. It has gentle waves and curves. Use your pencil on its side to add soft shading that follows these contours, making it look rounded and heavy.
Step 4: Add Fur Texture and Highlights
- Follow the direction of growth. The fur on hound ears is typically very short, smooth, and velvety. Use short, consistent pencil strokes that follow the direction the fur grows (downwards).
- Use an eraser for shine. Use your kneaded eraser or precision eraser to lift out some soft highlights along the top of the main fold and on any other raised areas where light would hit. This will create a soft, velvety sheen.
Style 2: The Folded Triangle Ear (Labrador, Golden Retriever)
This ear is shorter, lighter, and has a more defined triangular shape. The key is capturing the soft fold that gives it its friendly, approachable look.
Step 1: Map Out the Triangle
- Position the base. This type of ear is set higher and further forward on the head than a hound’s ear. Lightly sketch the dog’s head and mark the top corner of where the ear will attach.
- Draw an inverted triangle. Using your H pencil, draw a soft, rounded triangle shape hanging from the base. The bottom point of the triangle should be near the dog’s cheek.
Step 2: Create the Fold
- Draw the fold line. About a third of the way down from the base, draw a slightly curved horizontal line across the triangle. This is the primary fold. This simple line instantly changes the shape from a flat triangle into a folded ear.
- Refine the shape. Above the fold line, the ear should look like it’s lifting slightly away from the head before it folds over. Redraw the outer edge to show this subtle lift.
Step 3: Add Shadow and Form
- Darken the underside. The area directly under the main fold will be in shadow. Use your 2B pencil to create a dark, soft shadow here. This is what makes the fold look like it has depth.
- Shade the ear tip. The tip of the ear often curves slightly inward or outward. Add a touch of shading to suggest this form.
- Blend for softness. Use a blending stump or cotton swab to soften your shading, giving the ear a softer, less rigid appearance.
Step 4: Draw the Fur Texture
- Use flicking motions. The fur on retriever ears is often longer and wavier than on a hound. Use short, curved, “flicking” strokes with a sharp pencil to represent the hair.
- Layer your strokes. Build up the fur in layers, starting with lighter strokes (HB pencil) and adding darker hairs in the shadowed areas (2B pencil).
- Erase for highlights. Use your precision eraser to “draw” in a few fine, light-colored hairs along the edge of the fold to create a beautiful, realistic texture.
Style 3: The High-Set, Expressive Ear (Cocker Spaniel, Poodle)
These ears are often long and covered in dense, curly, or wavy fur. They are set high on the head and frame the face beautifully.
Step 1: Establish the Placement and Flow
- Set the base high. These ears attach high on the sides of the head, sometimes almost on top of the skull.
- Sketch the flow. Instead of a simple shape, think about the overall flow of the hair. Use your H pencil to sketch two long, flowing rectangular shapes that frame the dog’s face. These shapes represent the mass of fur, not the ear leather itself.
Step 2: Hint at the Structure Underneath
- Even under all that fur, the ear structure is still there. Lightly indicate where the fold would be near the top.
- Use slightly darker shading to suggest where the ear leather ends and the longer “feathering” begins. You are drawing the illusion of an ear hidden beneath a curtain of hair.
Step 3: Build Up the Fur Volume with Shading
- Work from dark to light. Identify the darkest areas—usually deep within the folds near the head and on the underside of the ear mass. Use your soft pencils to lay in these shadows.
- Use directional strokes. The key to drawing long, curly, or wavy hair is to use pencil strokes that follow the direction of the curls. Use long, looping, “S” shaped strokes to build up the texture.
- Leave white space. Don’t color the whole ear in. Leaving patches of white paper showing through will act as the initial highlights on the glossy fur.
Step 4: Refine the Texture
- Define the curls. Go back in with a sharp, dark pencil (4B) and define the shadows between individual clumps of curls. This will make the texture pop.
- Lift out highlights. Use your kneaded eraser, shaped to a fine point, to lift out bright, curly highlights on the tops of the waves. This contrast between dark shadows and bright highlights is what creates the look of shiny, voluminous hair.
Putting It All Together: Your Guide to Drawing Ears
You’ve now explored the techniques for three distinct styles of floppy dog ears. You have learned that the secret to how to draw floppy dog ears is not about drawing a single shape, but about understanding folds, weight, and texture.
By breaking them down into simple structures and using light and shadow, you can create believable and expressive ears for any dog portrait.
The best way to improve is to practice. Grab photos of different dog breeds and try to identify the basic shapes and folds. Don’t be afraid to experiment.
- Observe how the ears move when the dog is alert versus relaxed.
- Notice how different types of fur affect the overall shape.
- Pay attention to how the ears cast shadows on the head and neck.
Every drawing is a step forward. The more you observe and sketch, the more confident you will become. You now have the foundational knowledge to not just draw floppy ears, but to give them the personality and life they deserve.
