If you’re a beginner and want to learn how to draw realistic eyes, or you want to improve your drawing skills, practice is essential. Without practice, you can’t make progress.
Here’s how you can easily practice your skills on paper and learn how to improve your drawing to create a realistic-looking eye. It only takes a few steps and some of the most basic drawing tools.
Find a good reference photo
If you’re a beginner, having a reference you can look at while drawing can help you a lot. A good reference photo will show you the shape and size of an eye you should aim to recreate.
You will also be able to see some smaller details and features, such as how the light reflects in the eyes. Starting with a good reference photo will also help you get proportions right.
Find the right tools
Make sure you also have the right tools that will help you get thelook you desire. The right tools will also allow you to get the shading done the right way.
The right tools will help you accentuate small details and make the eye look extra realistic. Some of the tools we recommend are:
- Mechanical pencil with 4B and HB lead
- General’s charcoal pencil, 6B (extra soft)
- Tombow MONO Zero eraser
- POSCA paint pens
- Old makeup or paint brushes (they will help you blend things)
Watch useful tutorials
If you’re unsure of how to start, you can look up YouTube tutorials on how to draw an eye. You’ll get to watch someone who’s practiced a lot demonstrate the steps to you. You will be able to differentiate the hand movements when shading and outlining. Overall, it will help you get a general idea of how to go through the process yourself.
Here’s an example of a video that’s especially useful for beginners.
Follow a step-by-step guide
If you want to completely break down the process of drawing an eye, following a detailed, step-by-step drawing eyes guide is the best way to do it. Here are the steps that will help you draw an eye realistically, even as a beginner.
Step 1: Draw the Outlines of the Eye
Firstly, you need to draw the contour of the eye. Think of this as the first sketch. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s simply an outline that you’ll slowly build the rest of your drawing on. So, make sure to move your hand lightly and loosely draw the contour lines.
Start with the upper side and move to the lower side of the eye. Make sure you leave the space for the tear duct.
For this step, you can start by using an “H” (or hard) pencil and try to apply as little pressure as you can. Within the shape you’ve created, you can then draw the shape of the pupil, iris, and a shape of the strong highlight slightly overlapping the pupil.
At this stage, don’t worry about being precise. This is the stage where it’s fine to draw as many light lines as you need. Later on, when you start applying more pressure on the paper, you’ll be more precise and choose more wisely where you draw the lines. So, be patient and trust the process.
Step 2: Shade the Pupil and the Iris
In the next step, you’ll start to lightly shade and add layers to your drawing. This means you will be layering some darker values inside the pupil. Your goal here is to preserve the highlight as you keep adding darker tones.
By leaving this glimpse of highlight behind, you will create the illusion of the eye being wet. This will make the drawing so much more realistic-looking. Try your best to keep this area clean, because it’s much harder to erase marks to create the highlight later.
Eventually, you’ll make the pupil the darkest area of your drawing, but right now, focus on adding layers one at a time. This way, you will have a more precise control over adding layers of darker tone.
You also need to be careful not to create “graphite shine,” which occurs when the pencil is pressed too hard on the paper. As a result, you can end up flattening the texture of the paper and leaving a shiny area behind.
After you’re done with the pupil, start leaving marks in the iris radiating from the center. Though most of the marks are linear there are a lot of those that appear in more organic shapes.
Try to gradually adjust the values you’re layering. There are two portions of the iris: the outer and inner. They are created with somewhat different values. Make sure to adjust your pressure as you go.
Step 3: Shade the Tear Duct, Eyelid, and the Whites of the Eye
Now, you need to use gentle application of an “H” pencil to highlight the whites of the eye.
As the eye is a sphere, you need to make the edges slightly darker than the center of the eyeball. This will create the illusion of a realistic eye on paper. Make sure to properly shade the area and use the brushes to blend it out even more.
The tear duct is supposed to be darker but leave hints of lighter value as well. Since this area of the eye is also wet, leaving out lighter areas will help create that illusion.
The top eyelid slightly overlaps the eyeball and since the light source is usually above us, the shade will be placed somewhere beneath the upper eyelid. As for the lower one, you should darken it and make the crease above the lid enhanced.
Step 4: Create the Skin Texture Around the Eye
To make the drawing even more realistic, take some time to carefully craft the area around the eye. This means you need to highlight the skin texture.
Usually, there will be a few wrinkles appearing around the eyes when we smile or make specific facial expressions. Try examining your own eye area (and how it moves with every expression) in the mirror.
You can add some visible wrinkles on the left side of the upper eyelid crease. Then, with a light application of graphite, highlight the texture of the skin under the eye. You can start by making small shapes and isolating subtle areas with lighter value.
Then, you will work your way up towards building up applications and layering darker values to create an illusion of skin texture. To make a light application for skin texture, use the “H” pencil.
Step 5: Draw the Eyelashes
Lastly, to finish up the drawing you need to draw the eyelashes. By using a well-sharpened “HB” pencil start pulling thin lines from the skin. For the upper eyelid make sure to curve the eyelashes bending first downward and then upwards.
Some eyelashes will be bending in unexpected directions. The same goes for the lower lash line, except the eyelashes will be pulled first upward and then going down. The eyelashes on the upper eyelid will be more concentrated than the ones on the bottom eyelid.
Conclusion
In conclusion, be patient, trust the process, and allow yourself to learn even from your mistakes.
If you follow a tutorial or a step-by-step guide, trust your hand movement, and practice as much as you can, you’ll be able to draw realistic eyes effortlessly.