Pencil Drawing Realistic Eye

Image Description

I have also created this drawing of an eye for my new ebook "Learning to Draw Realistically." Eyes are often considered "the window to the soul" for many people, making them a very popular subject for pencil drawings.

Drawing an Eye (Description)

Drawing an eye requires attention to detail and practice. I must have drawn about 20 eyes before it slowly started resembling a real human eye. And after drawing about that many more, I managed to infuse a character, a kind of vitality into the drawing that can give the eye a profound meaning. To start, here's a basic step-by-step guide that hopefully can help you get started:

Step 1: Draw an oval shape for the eyeball.
Step 2: Add the pupil. The pupil is usually round and located in the center of the eyeball.
Step 3: Draw the iris around the pupil. The iris is the colored part of the eye and can have various colors.
Step 4: Add the eyelid edge. The shape can vary depending on the direction of the gaze.
Step 5: Draw eyelashes on the upper and lower eyelids. These can vary depending on whether you're drawing male or female eyes.
Step 6: Draw the eyebrows above the eyelid.
Step 7: Add highlights to the pupil to give the eye a more realistic appearance.
Step 8: Add folds and details to the eyelid to create depth and dimension.
Step 9: Draw the area around the eye, such as the skin surrounding the eye.
Step 10: Refine the drawing, erase unnecessary lines, and emphasize the eye's contours.
Step 11: Add shading to give the eye depth and volume. Consider the light source and reflected shadows.

Keep in mind that drawing a realistic eye requires practice. I always recommend using reference images of eyes to better understand the details. Start with simple sketches and gradually work on the details. You'll see that it gets better over time. By the way, you can see details from my drawing below. Good luck!

I captured the drawing process on video and compressed it into a time-lapse. In the video, I explain the materials I used and why my approach to drawing is different from many others.

Video with this image

The following video shows the painting process as a time-lapsed video.

"Pencil Drawing Realistic Eye", Speed painting, digital painting (Photoshop, Grafiktablett)

Please click to load the youtube-source.

Pencil Drawing Realistic Eye | Pencil drawing by Martin Missfeldt