Drawing an eye can seem daunting, but it’s a rewarding skill that anyone can master with a little practice. Whether you’re a complete beginner or looking to refine your artistic abilities, this step-by-step guide will walk you through the process of creating a realistic eye from scratch.
Grab your pencils, and let’s get started on this creative journey together!
Background
Throughout the centuries we find many creative descriptions of the eyes, both in literature, science and in Art. It is not absolutely sure who wrote first
‘The Eyes are the window to your soul’, indeed, both William Shakespeare and Leonardo da Vinci are both said to have used this phrase or similar.
Our eyes absolutely hold great depth, beauty, mystery and they are the windows to expressing our innermost thoughts and feelings.
Take a moment to think of the emotions you have seen expressed in the eyes of another or in your own eyes in a mirror. Think about how you can feel the intensity of another’s emotion and state of mind simply by making eye contact.
Our eyes convert our emotions in several ways, they adapt the size of the pupils and the Iris and our nervous system controls the rate at which we blink.
One of the most noticeable changes happens when they secrete tears, tiny droplets of water running from our eyes can be tears of joy, pain or sadness.
We can easily read fear, confusion, excitement and love all by looking into another human beings eyes.
In this article, I will take you step by step through the process of drawing an eye and explain the components that our human eye is made up of as well as a little insight into how they work.
The Structure of a Human Eyeball
Identify the different elements that make up the human eye using the drawing below to help you.
Once you are feeling that you understand the shape and form of human eyes, you are ready to follow the steps to draw a generic human eye.
Gather your equipment, get comfortable and let’s get started.
Equipment You Will Need
- HB pencil 3B pencil
- Eraser or putty rubber
- Cartridge paper or sketchbook
- Pencil sharpener
Study Some Eyes
Before following my step by step guide, it would be a great idea to take a look at your own eyes in the mirror, getting to know their shape and form.
You could take a look at some photographs of people’s eyes online. Looking at different ages, different colours of eyes, male and female eyes and ones that are expressing different emotions.
Draw An Eye Guide
Follow these steps to draw an eye
Drawing the basic shape of an eye
Our eyes appear to be almond in shape. With a rounded end nearest our nose and a more pointed end nearest our ear.
Draw an almond shape with one end rounded and another finishing at a point.
Try not to grip your pencil too hard, work from one end of the almond to another, creating a smooth arc as you go, one for the top of the almond and one below.
Tip: Use several, sketchy curved lines if you find it a challenge to create one single, smooth arc straight away.
Drawing the iris
Our Iris (the colourful, patterned circular form in the centre of the eye) takes up more space on the visible eye than we imagine.
The Iris sits in the centre of the visible eye on the Sclera (white of the eye).
The Iris is certainly not just for decoration, in fact, it has the very important job of controlling our pupils (the black circular form at the very centre of the eye).
Our uniquely patterned Iris, constantly adjusts the pupils size, dictating how much light enters our eyes.
Tip: A common mistake would be to draw it too small. However, it is the most noticeable part of the eye and is unique to the individual.
Draw a circle that sits in the centre of the Sclera (white of the eye) leaving equal amounts of white either side of this circle. The iris will take up just over a third of the visible white of the eye.
Adding the top eyelid
Add a soft arch above the almond shape, press on lightly with your pencil to allow the curve that is formed to be delicate at this stage.
Tip: Remember the eyelid is made of flesh and skin and you will add shade and eyelashes later therefore, we want to build up slowly and you don’t want to create any harsh lines.
Creating the pupil and tear duct
The pupil sits in the centre of the Iris and only occupies a small, central portion of it.
Draw a circle that sits in the centre of the Iris, this will form the pupil.
In this example, I have drawn the pupil to take up around ⅓ of the Iris diameter.
Draw in the tear duct, this sits at the far left of the almond shape and has a rounded edge to it.
You can also add a little curve at the far right of the almond shape (remember that the eyeball is exactly that, a ball which sits inside the eye socket).
Tip: When drawing an eye from life, the pupil and iris will appear to be a different size depending on the lighting conditions.
Draw the lower lid
Add a soft, curved line below the almond shape, this will suggest the lower lid.
Tip: remember to work fairly softly at this stage, especially when adding eyelids or lines. It is very easy to age the eye inadvertently so go steady.
Add pattern to the iris
There are three common features that appear as patterns in the iris of our eyes. These patterns consist of pigmented rings, crypts and furrows.
Pigmented rings are the wide bands that sit around the pupil and are a different shape to the rest of the iris. Then there are crypts, tiny diamond-shaped holes in the iris that range in size.
Tip: A good way of creating these types of patterns is to draw little elongated ovals that radiate from the pupil. These almost look like little pips from a fruit.
Now add a shape of light to the pupil. Our eyes reflect shapes and borrow light from the environment around us. Often, we will see several shapes of light hitting the surface of our eyeball. Including these shapes and glints of light is key to giving life and character to our eyes.
Draw your shapes of light inside the pupil, these shapes will stay white and be the lightest feature of your drawing.
Next select your 3B pencil and fill in the rest of the pupil, pressing firmly, this dark shading will be the darkest part of your drawing.
Tip: Add additional shapes of light on the white of the eye, outlining them using a light pressure to your pencil. You can add slight shade around these later on.
Add eyelashes to the upper and lower eyelid
Start by adding short, fine eyelashes to the top of the eye, you can use individual marks that have a slight curve to them. Working from the inner left corner of the eye, add lashes that get gradually longer as they go over the curve of the eye. Generally, our eyelashes are longest and have a greater curve as you work towards the right, more pointed end of the almond shape.
You will notice when studying different eyes, that some people have eyelashes that form little triangles by coming together at their ends.
Next add eyelashes to the bottom eyelid, this time, start short again but notice that the lashes generally become a little longer around the middle of the lower lid and then shorten again towards the outer edge of the eye.
Although throughout time, eyelashes have come to be a feature of our faces synonymous with beauty, the purpose of our eyelashes is actually essential and extremely practical. Eyelashes are a protective barrier for our eyes, their purpose is to prevent dust, debris and insects from reaching the delicate surface of our eyes and causing damage.
Tip: When it comes to drawing eyelashes, less is definitely more.
Even though we can typically grow around 90 – 100 lashes on our upper eyelid and 70-80 on our lower lid, it is best to approach them tentatively.
Start by adding them very lightly. You don’t need to draw as many eyelashes as you can actually see on the human eye to make an effective drawing.
If you try to represent each and every eyelash, you can spoil the effect and end up with lashes that look like thick spider legs.
Depending on the age and gender of the eyes you are drawing, the amount, length and colouring of eyelashes will differ greatly, so take some time to study them on different people or on photographs.
Add detail, shading and form
Remember when you shaded in the pupil, you selected your 3B pencil and added pressure when working with it to create the darkest tone to your drawing somewhere close to the centre of your drawing.
You also identified some shapes of light in which you kept the clean white of the paper. Now you are going to add several mid tones to your drawing as well as identifying some more darkest and lightest areas.
You can create dark to mid-tone details using your sharpened 3B or by pressing on with your HB pencil and adjusting it as you go.
For shading fleshy tones, such as the eyelids and under eye shadows, apply your HB a pencil very lightly to the surface of your paper, you can then use your finger to smudge the grey outwards.
Tip: If you need to add light back into any of these areas, use the edge of your eraser or putty rubber to take out the grey of your pencil, creating light areas, we call these highlights.
Using your HB pencil, now add areas of shading to the tear duct, in the crease of the upper eyelids and beneath the lower eyelids, smudge to soften and again, use your eraser to highlight areas.
Try to create a curved feel to the edges of the whites of the eye remembering that the eye is essentially a ball that fits into the eye socket.
The most pigmented and darkest area of the iris is typically its outer ring, use your 3B pencil with added pressure to form a darker ring of shade around its edge. Next, add some mid tones to the patterns formed by the crypts (tiny diamond shaped rings).
You can also add some darker lines to the eyelashes to accentuate their curves.
Adults will always have lines upon our skin, lines that radiate out from the corners of our eyes are typically known as ‘Crows Feet’ or ‘Laughter Lines’ As we age, crinkles are formed on our upper and lower lids.
Tip: Less is always more when it comes to adding age lines to drawings of eyes and faces. Start really fine, light and delicate and use your finger to soften and smudge lines out further.
Review Your Drawing
Review the overall effect of your eye drawing, have you achieved the look of a human eye?
Think about the different emotions that are conveyed by our eyes.
Working purely in pencil can be very effective, you might wish to have a go at drawing a pair of eyes next.
Maybe, you can add in different grades of pencil such as 6B or 2H to help you add further dimension of shade and tone to your work but you also might wish to start to introduce a mixture of media.
Next Level
Indeed, you can take your work to the next level by experimenting with using a mixture of media.
You can introduce:
- Fine line black pens for helping to define intricate detail.
- Add in biro for creating fast expressive lines.
- Experiment with black paint such as Gouache, Watercolour or Acrylic. Mix your chosen paint with water on a pallet. Try out different strengths of paint mixed with water to create soft washes of shading. Paint is also a great way to create a moist, watery appearance to the surface of the eyeball.
Creating artwork featuring the human eye takes practice. You may wish to follow the steps in this guide a few more times, perhaps changing media each time or simply to improve your use of pencil.
You can use the principles to create both the left and right eyes, simply remember that the tear ducts are positioned either side closest to the nose and eyelashes on the top eyelid start short and generally grow longer towards the outer edge of the eye.
Enjoy creating eye drawings, once you have made progress in copying eyes, you might wish to draw from life and ask friends or family to sit for you, progressing onwards towards drawing full portraits of the human face.
