How to Draw an Eye – Step by Step

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Mark as Completed

Assignments 363Lesson NotesDownloads 2

How to Draw an Eye – Step by Step

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Portrait Drawing Fundamentals

Mark as Completed

Assignments 363Lesson NotesDownloads 2

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.

Shynnel Cumming

•

2mo

Top photo is on my own, bottom photo is after/while watching the video.

Rachel Dawn Owens

•

2mo

Great improvement! You’re already focusing more on lines, forms and shapes rather than detail.

Allen Gordon

•

3mo

Definitely got to practice more but I can already the difference this will make in my art

Amani Noor (Amu)

•

3mo

This was a super helpful lesson and I had fun drawing eyes from different angles! I had some trouble with drawing #3. My reference was lit very softly but I didn’t really know how to place the halftones. Any advice on that would be appreciated.

Ethan Burke

•

3mo

First attempt while following along.

Lisanne

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3mo

I drew along with the video, next I'm going to use my own references and draw different angles. Advice? I felt the paper was kind of working against me. Is smooth paper required for working with charcoal? I'm using 'Derwent' charcoal pencils and just a simple cheap sketchbook with a coarse grain. I think I'm gonna switch back to a regular pencil for the next couple of drawings to be able to create a more smooth look.

Rivelle

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4mo

The Proko eye and my own studies.

Rachel Dawn Owens

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4mo

Nice eyes!

faye zhang

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5mo

Martha Muniz

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5mo

Fantastic work!

faye zhang

•

5mo

refs

Noe Luis

•

5mo

Nov 11,2024 Eye Drawings

@purpleava

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8mo

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

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8mo

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

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9mo

Melanie Scearce

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9mo

Nice work!

Artur Tyrański

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10mo

Martha Muniz

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6mo

Great work!

Vera Robson

•

10mo

OK, after a few frustrating attempts the eyes begin to look three-dimensional.

@omegaduck

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10mo

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

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10mo

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

•

1yr

Melanie Scearce

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1yr

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

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1yr

Here a few tries, feedback are really appreciated! ☺️

Martha Muniz

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1yr

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

•

1yr

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

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1yr

Well done!!!

Joseph Osley

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1yr

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

•

1yr

Congrats on achieving this! And there's great improvement throughout, remarkable work :)

Patrick Bosworth

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1yr

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

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1yr

These are fantastic!

@navneet

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1yr

@dooby

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1yr

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

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1yr

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

•

1yr

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.