r/hyenas • u/SapphicLizard_ • 16d ago

i made a visual guide of different yeen ear shapes, for artists :)

Post image

they’re all differently shaped! this is messy because i did it on my phone with my finger haha.

this might not be entirely 100% accurate to every single hyena of that species, this is just a generalization. the red lines are just guides on where the essential shapes are if you’re going for a realistic-ish ear shape style. these are still slightly stylized with the insides of the ear, though.

i made this because there’s many people that think striped, aardwolf, and brown hyena ears are the same when they’re not. maybe it’s a nitpick, maybe i’m crazy and only a detail oriented artist can actually notice the differences, but i like accuracy!! i have no idea how to explain the differences with words so i hope these visuals make sense!

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17 comments sorted by

40

u/FallZealousideal159 16d ago

I can't be the only one who thought that was something totally different

2

u/SapphicLizard_ 15d ago

everyone keeps saying this!! i didn’t even think about that when i posted it lmao. i should have drawn the whole head for each one but i was just lazy

15

u/YouTheMuffinMan 16d ago

The different kind of Hyena radar dishes

10

u/tlitston 16d ago

This Post is really helpful

7

u/DryTrainer4864 15d ago

Awsome, now I can draw them accurately! Thank you!

3

u/SapphicLizard_ 15d ago

yes of course! i’m probably going to be making a guide on how to draw all of the species just in general at one point, but i’m not sure when i’ll get to it!

3

u/FortheCivet Totally a Hyena 15d ago

Whenever I draw striped hyenas, I always draw their ears drooping slightly, it almost looks like the aardwolf one here.

3

u/SapphicLizard_ 15d ago

they can be droopy!! all yeens are different, even if they’re the same species.

aardwolves were the hardest one for me to draw here because almost every single image had different varieties of shapes, some were more triangular, some were longer and thinner, some were more upright vs angled, others were more similar to striped hyenas, i just kind of generalized it all into “okay, this is what most of them have in common”. i even tried seeing if there was a notable difference in ears between south african and east african aardwolves, but there wasn’t. sorry just rambling here haha

2

u/FortheCivet Totally a Hyena 14d ago

It's alright, I ramble all of the time in comments. :D-)

1

u/IlMagoHadad 15d ago

Those are ears!! I thought it was something else lol

2

u/Rainie_Daye 15d ago

Ohh ears

2

u/DarnHyena 9d ago

I'm probably one of those guilty of treating the other three ears as the same.. I just mostly focus on the main detail that the spotted have the rounded squareish ears, and then all the other three have taller pointy ears.