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Placement and Proportions
I use relational measurements to place the large forms of the eye. If you bring a line straight up from the wing of the nose, it gives you the inner corner of the eye. A line straight up from the corner of the mouth often leads near the center of the eye. You can use these points along with your horizontal center line to triangulate the placement.
Once you have these markers, you can loosely rough in a sphere for the eyeball. I like to tuck the top part of this sphere slightly behind the socket. This builds a form-based relationship of overlaps to the structure of the eye.
The Structure of the Eye
The eye is held in place by the canthal ligament. This ligament attaches to the inside of the temple. The tarsus plates form the eyelids as a result of this ligament spreading across the eye. The eyelids are planar and slightly boxy. These sharp corners are ready areas for highlights.
When designing the eye, consider the canthal tilt. This is the two-dimensional axis of the eye from corner to corner. It can tilt low to high or high to low. A low to high tilt on the outside corner is often used to stylize a beautiful eye in comics. You can think of this tilt as the gesture of the eye.
The iris and the pupil create different surfaces on the eyeball. They create a beveled raise on the form. This addition of a small form creates a mini plane that catches highlights.
Designing the Eyelids
Everybody has asymmetrical eyelids. You want to capture this asymmetry to make the eye look natural.
- The peak of the upper lid is always higher closer to the nose.
- The lowest point of the lower lid curve is always further from the nose and closer to the ear.
Lids have thickness and depth. The lower lid has a top plane that catches light. The upper lid has a bottom plane that casts a shadow on the eyeball. I always look for these plane changes. You can trace the form of the sphere and bring it back to the alignment of the canthal ligament to build these surfaces.
The Eye Socket
The eye socket is not one flat plane. The inside of the socket near the nose recedes inward. This area always gets a greater degree of shadow. The outside of the socket twists outward with a greater prominence of bone near the temple.
I often use an S-curve to design this twisting ribbon effect. Developing these forms prevents the face from looking flat.
You can use the eyebrow to suggest these underlying plane changes. The brow hooks and changes direction exactly where the temporal fossa turns. This shows perspective in one simple line. The goal of learning to draw is to first find all of the planes. After you find them all, you artfully hide them using organic details.
Fat Pads Around the Eye
The eye is an internal organ exposed on the outside of the face. It needs soft tissue around it for protection. I think about five different shapes of fat that create a buffer around the eye. All of this fat is held in place by the orbital septum.
- Nasal fat lives on the inside corner and creates a buffer against the nose.
- Pre-tarsus fat builds directly on the tarsus plate of the eyelid.
- Lateral fat sits on the outside edge above the eye.
- ROOF fat lives at the top of the socket.
- SOOF stands for suborbicularis oculi fat. This lives under the eye and covers the transition of the cheekbone.
In some ethnicities, the tendon holding the upper fat in place is absent. This creates a monolid. The fat falls and creates a beautiful effect where the tarsus plate becomes softer.
Aging and Wrinkles
Understanding fat pads is the key to drawing age. When you age, the orbital septum weakens. Gravity pulls the fat down. The shapes create deeper impressions and herniate against the skin.
When the SOOF drops, the prominent bone of the cheek becomes exposed. This creates a dark triangular cavity underneath the eye. Malar fat is your cheek fat. In youth, this fat is held high. With age, malar fat collapses against the side of the nose. It never falls farther than the corner of the mouth.
Wrinkles are just the fatiguing of skin. Wrinkles always take place perpendicular to the path of a muscle's pull. The frontalis muscle of the forehead pulls up. This means forehead wrinkles go horizontally across. The eye is a sphincter muscle that pulls in a circular path. This creates radiating crow's feet at the corners. I rely on the shifting of fat rather than just wrinkles to age a face.
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