In this digital art tutorial I'll be showing you how to paint an ear with digital painting software and (preferably) a drawing tablet. This is the end result we're aiming for in this tutorial.
Start out by sketching the basic shape of the ear. Use reference photos or a mirror to understand the shape of the ear. Don't worry if your lines are messy, you can fix that later
Define the shapes by adding shadows and highlights. You can keep the contrast low at this point.
Increase the contrast en define the shapes even more by adding deeper shadows.
Use an Overlay layer to add color variation to the ear. I used oranges, reds and some purple.
Blend the colors to get more smooth gradients. I use a soft round brush with the opacity set to about 50% (and set to pen pressure) and pick up colors using the eyedropper tool, this way I can glaze the colors on top of eachother getting a nice blend.
Make the ear more detailed by adding the deepest shadows. Also clean up the sketchy edges.
Add the brightest highlights. I use a very light blueish tone and paint with a low opacity.
Blend the colors where it's needed and refine the edges. I also added another Overlay layer to add some more orange/red tones.
Time for the final details! You can spend as much time on this as you want :) Adding some real tiny hairs gives a nice realistic touch.
If you have any questions about the techniques I use, be sure to let me know!
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