Most people love drawing eyes and watching others draw them. And maybe it is the most magical part since the eyes tell so much about the person without any words.
Before you draw a realistic eye you will benefit from studying what it looks like. Be ready to spend some time to draw the eye. I sometimes spend more than one hour doing a realistic drawing of an eye. If you have never drawn an eye before you probably haven’t paid attention to what it looks like up close.
If you take a good look you can see that the black area in the center, called the pupil, expands and contracts in size depending on the light and the mood. For example, if you are angry or in the light, it contracts, if you are happy or in the dark, it expands. This is very useful for capturing the mood of the subject.
The area around the pupil is called the iris and this gives the eye its color. No eyes are the same, the iris has lots of detail and lots of different colors. Look closely. You will see lots of bands of color radiating from the center. Getting the details of the iris right will be a big step toward capturing your subject.
The shape of the eye depends on ethnicity and age among other things. The eyelids cover parts of the eye depending on our mood and emotions. The position of the eyelids can show when someone is happy or tired.
To draw the eye realistically, be sure to add shadows and highlights to the eye and eyelids to give it depth and life. the videos below show you how to do this. You will see when we have different highlights in different areas it gives different effects. You will most likely find the highlight in the darkest part of the eye. This little white dot is a reflection of a light source, it can be big or small. And, there can also be more the one. This can depend on many things, for example, whether the person is indoors or outdoors.
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- Alvin Stainless Erasing Shield
- A set of erasers
- Eraser in pencil Koh-i-Noor Eraser Pencil Soft.
- Knetgummi eraser.
- Blending stubs
- Mechanical pencil – I have a 3 mm, 5mm and 9mm lead.
- Graphite pencils
It will take a while to go through all of these steps, but the time pays off in the end. After practice, it will become much easier.
Start by drawing the outline, this can be a fast sketch, work on the detail of the shape a very light sketch of an oval. I used HB pencil. Don’t make the outline too dark or else you will having trouble erasing it.
TIP: You can draw a line and make a cross before you draw the oval like I do in the first video.
I have drawn a big circle as a helpline so that I can imagine the form of the eye. The helplines should be barely visible. Draw the round iris, the pupil in the middle, and the corners of the eye.
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Darken the edge of the iris. Use the blending stump to soften the shadows. The two small light parts close to the pupil will be light source reflections. Start by filling in the pupil using the 6B pencil.
Make sure not to press too hard or else you will not be able to erase. Instead, add it in layers. Keep on doing this until you are satisfied with it.
I also use the 6B pencil to darken the edge, avoiding the area of reflection.
I use the 2B pencil to draw a subtle shadow under the lower eyelid. This will separate the eye from the eyelids.
Take the drawing stump and smudge the shadow over and under the lower eyelid.
Before you add the eyelashes, take a good look at the reference photo look for the angle, most are not going straight down, except for the ones in the center.
Pay attention to the direction and shape of the eyelashes. Study how the lashes grow.
When you are drawing the lashes make sure to curve them, they are not straight. Draw them quick from the eyelid and out. That way you get a lash that is nice and thin at the end.
Take a sharp pencil and thicken the eyelashes, adding more hairs in between.
If you are new to drawing, I recommend you find some paper and practice until you are happy about it.
The eyelashes are curvy.
Draw the lines that you see around the darkest outline of the iris, first try to make them quick and light, it would be much better if they look random.
Use the blending stump and subtly blend the outline of the iris. Use a soft pencil and fill the pupil with it. The darkness of the pupil will define the contrast for the rest of the drawing. For this, I am using a black color pencil or soft oil-based charcoal coloring pencil like this Nero.
Make sure you don’t shade the highlights or else you will lose them. You can always erase those areas after so they won’t be as bright. Now you see it is coming to life, layering is a big part of this drawing.
Take the HB pencil and very lightly sketch and shade the brow shape and draw with a tilted pencil to avoid sharp lines. Blend the shaded area with the blending stump.
Take a sharp soft pencil, and accentuate certain parts of the eyelashes. shade it, drawing more fibers, some darker than others so you get a nice contrast.
Eyebrows and eyelashes are formed by soft, delicate hairs, so draw these lightly. Take the HB pencil and draw the direction of the soft delicate hairs in the eyebrow.
Use a soft pencil to draw a shadow of the upper eyelid over the iris, the shadows are following the form and must be curved. Go over the iris and shade and draw more fibers, so that some parts are darker than others. Take the eraser and clean the illuminated area with it.
Finally, draw the tiny details to make it more realistic. You can make the skin more uneven just by crossing it with rows of sharp lines.
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