How to Draw an Eye – Step by Step

2M
Mark as Completed

How to Draw an Eye – Step by Step

2M
Mark as Completed

Draw the Eyes

Take a picture of your own eye or find some good photos online (get some with clear light and shadows). Follow my step-by-step lesson to complete the drawing. Rewatch the lesson to review all the anatomical details. Those take a few times to understand.

Newest
Noe Luis
6d
Nov 11,2024 Eye Drawings
@purpleava
3mo
I've been practicing drawing eyes based on reference pics and capturing a likeness. The most difficult part for me is the shading and it doesn't look as 3d as I'd like.
Melanie Scearce
Try doing some structural drawings of the eye to help you understand the anatomy! This is a great way to warm up as well. Start with a circle for the shape of the eyeball and practice building the eyelids off of it in different positions. Having a good foundation in anatomy will help you create that 3D look.
Nicole Guz
4mo
Melanie Scearce
Nice work!
Artur Tyrański
Martha Muniz
Great work!
Vera Robson
OK, after a few frustrating attempts the eyes begin to look three-dimensional.
@omegaduck
5mo
Here is my first attempt for this assignment. I'm also trying to work on my shading technique so any critique on that is very welcomed !
@draft_al
5mo
Greetings @omegaduck . These are awesome. The only feedback I see here is the shape of the retina on the upper left eye. If you're drawing from a front view, the iris is more of a circle, if it's from a 3/4 view or profile then it's a bit more elliptical due to perspective. When it comes to shading, you may want to look into the different types of edges (soft edge, hard edge etc.) it will give you a chance to establish your shadows and lights. You can check Proko's take of those types of edges, or you can check Watts take on it as well. I hope it helps.
Cal Stanback
Melanie Scearce
Great stuff. I love how you've sculpted out the first eye. I think in the bottom right eye, you lose a bit of the 3D form with the location of the eyelashes -- they are right on the edge of the eyelid touching the sclera. If you had left a bit of space between the eyelash line and the sclera I think it would have given it a bit more volume.
Silvia Spadone
Here a few tries, feedback are really appreciated! ☺️
Martha Muniz
With the red eye, it seems like it's becoming more flat and focused on 2D shapes instead of the 3D form. Look for the thickness of the eyelids (usually seen as the light strip between the eyeball and the lashes/skin), as well as the shadow on the eyeball, indicating roundness and curvature. The pupil/iris is also becoming smaller (looking straight ahead, this circle should be able to fill just about the entire eye opening height-wise), and it should too follow the curve of the sphere (eyeball). You're definitely on the right track with these and you have some solid progress, just remember to keep the 3D structure in mind. You got this :)
Ash Chung
7mo
Maybe experiment with diff brush for the lashes and brows, cuz they seem to be distracting in a non flattering way now. And the green eye looks better than the other two, i think its cuz of the better defined shapes of the light n shadow.
@zack2099
7mo
Well done!!!
Joseph Osley
So; I set out to do 100 eyes, but I wanted to work on my alignment and size matching, because I struggle with all of that. I figured 50 pairs of eyes is 100, so that should be a good arbitrary goal for practice, but, I found myself starting to understand some things so I did a full 100 pairs. It was a helpful exercise all in all. I am trash at shading but I tried. A plethora to improve upon, for sure. In Conclusion: Eyelashes were invented by Satan to torment me personally.
Martha Muniz
Congrats on achieving this! And there's great improvement throughout, remarkable work :)
Patrick Bosworth
Truly a heap of amazing work!! Great expressions, excellent likeness on a few of the more iconic sets of eyes you studied (saw some Marty Feldman, and Clint Eastwood amongt others!) I LOVE a lot of the shape designs and simplification you found with the eyelashes, would love to hear any particular revelations you came across during this exercise. Keep it up!
Gannon Beck
These are fantastic!
@navneet
8mo
@dooby
9mo
Homework Dump #8|I can already see how offset the first one is and it's hurting me physically, mentally,& spiritually, plz help
Julia Pe
9mo
Hi there. About the first draw/picture: if you are able to see you own mistakes (that something is wrong) then you are in the right path. When you do the preliminary draw, the block in, that is the right time to double check your measurements, always check and compare again and again... When those measurements are right then the draw no matter what, it going to look solid and stable. I would draw again another pair of eyes (front view), and then another, many, in every try will get better, keep trying
Blake Pawlikowski
Did some practice on eyes. The first is obviously following the demo/step-by-step. The other two are from reference. I've always loved drawing eyes, but the anatomy details shared along with this lesson were very helpful in pushing a bit further and understanding more of what I'm drawing and including better detail . Will certainly be doing more eyes, but also need to get more Loomis heads in (I'm only maybe at 50 of the 100) and probably will still push forward to do the rest of the features. Thanks in advance for any feedback or thoughts. There are some things I've noticed to improve on, but generally happy with these.
@amit2140
9mo
Thank you for such a quick reply
@amit2140
9mo
How did you learn to draw the eyes in perspective stan doesn't illustrate that here
THEO
10mo
These (and your further studies on the other lessons) look great Blake! awesome work
@aweberart
10mo
This was my follow up with traditional medium. Im now going to continue forward with the course. 🙂
@aweberart
11mo
First eye I've ever drawn, I didn't push the definition as much as I could. I'm not really sure how much I like doing the process digitally, I think I just have to learn how to work with it. Going to do my next study on newsprint with charcoal.
Martha Muniz
Very well done for your first eye attempt! Digital can take some getting used to, but one of the best ways to familiarize yourself with any new medium is to practice black and white studies, as in this case. Even so, trying it out on newsprint is also a good option, as practicing traditionally gives you a solid foundation before moving onto digital. As you continue your practice, something to note here would be that the area of the iris and pupil could be larger, and that the lower eyelid should be thinner and taper as it reaches the tear duct opening, to give the illusion that it's wrapping around a sphere. I do think you did a good job organizing your values and showing the structure making up the eye, so it's just a matter of gaining more control with the medium of your choice to reach more value clarity, especially in the half-tones, which will come with practice. Keep up the good work :)
@ruthdallas
11mo
Very good result for your first try.
Vin
11mo
My first attempt.
@ruthdallas
11mo
Perfect!
@aeyt
1yr
Second round of eye practice!
Martha Muniz
Nice work :) you can really see the understanding of structure and good proportion in these, which is the main goal. As you continue into rendering, this is another tool you can use to describe structure and form. By taking a moment to pinpoint the light source, notice how the structure of the object either receives light or is cast in shadow, and push the value range, it can help you have more clear and defined studies. Also, to maximize your studies, consider studying pairs of eyes together, to help you develop a feeling for placement and proportion to one another, and it can also be helpful when checking your mistakes by being able to check one against the other.
Vue Thao
1yr
I like eye #7, #8 and #9, #10. :D
@aeyt
1yr
references:
Martin
1yr
@ruthdallas
11mo
OMG these look like examples from a drawing tutorial.
Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Martin, nice drawings! The shading looks really cool😎 - You might want to try to use the shading to communicate the structure more clearly. At the moment the structure feels a little "dreamy" and unclear. Many important transitions in the structure have been washed away with soft edges. Think of how the eye is built and try to communicate that with your shading. Perhaps you would have to start the drawing by lightly figuring out the structure, which you then shade. Especially look for plane breaks, especially those that switch from one part to another (eyelid to eye socket for example). It might be a fun challange to shade something starting with only hard edges, so that you get a chiseld sculpture typ of look, then soften the transitions that you intentionally want to be soft. Think about what you want to communicate to the viewer. Think about what you want them to see. Can you make them understand all the structure of the eye? (drawing exercise) Or maybe you choose to leave out certain things and accentuate others to tell a story? I hope this helps :)
Jack
1yr
@stevenmc
1yr
My attempt at following along. My critiques would be my lack of Anatomy knowledge is causing it to look a bit flat, I can tell the difference even though I've copied proko as best I can that his is leagues ahead of mine. There is a lot to think about while doing it. So I think I'll spend some time doing loomis with eyes 20-30 times before moving on.
Martha Muniz
It looks pretty good from what I can tell structure-wise. I do think spending some more time with the shading can reinforce the structure you already set up, and provide more visual information to the viewer. More particularly, there tends to be a strong contrast between light and dark here, whereas some half-tones in the middle can help transition and add form. For example, the eye white area in light has such a small transition that it almost appears only one value, thus flattening the illusion. Continuing shading here, along with the areas hit by cast shadows around the outside of the eye (nose, brow ridge, eyelid), can help add to the illusion of 3D form.
S R
1yr
Even though they're just clumps of dark lines, I feel like the eyelashes are surprisingly difficult to get looking nice. Perhaps my lines aren't fine enough.
Martha Muniz
Yes, eyelashes can be quite tricky, but thinking of them as clumps rather than individual fine lines is closer on the right track. They're also rather thicker at the base of the lid as they taper outwards, and you can further reinforce this by fading them out a touch as done in the demo at 4:42.
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Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
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