Realistic Pencil Portrait Mastery Home Study Course

Lesson #1 How To Draw A Realistic Eye Like A Master

Brought To You By Christopher Sia www.PencilPortraitMastery.com

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Everyone can draw a human eye, but before showing you my step-by-step demonstration, I will teach you some quick basic information of drawing eyes that you need to know.

Eyeball
The biggest mistake for people in drawing eyeball is that they leave the eyeball white. The eyeball is round and it should be shaded like one, it still depends on the light source.

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Eyelids
Dont draw the eyelids flat because eyelids are not flat. The eyelids are actually wrapping around the eyeball. Other than that, its important to show the bottom plane of upper eyelid and upper plane of lower eyelid.

Iris
The iris will be a perfect circle if its from front view. However, when the eye moves around, the shape of iris becomes an oval. The illustration below shows that the further the iris is from center, the narrower the oval will become.

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To draw a realistic eye, it is important to firstly observe it very closely. It's crucial that the eyes are drawn correctly and in such a way to convey the feeling of your subject. The following is my step-by-step demonstration of the realistic human eye drawing. Tools used: 2H wood cased pencil 2B wood cased pencil 5B wood cased pencil Facial tissue, q-tip/ear bud Eraser If you find it difficult to learn from this lesson, I suggest you to go through the 12-Weeks Pencil Portrait Mastery Exercises.

Choose the image eye from eyemastery folder.

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Firstly, we will start by drawing the outline of the eyebrow by using 2H pencil.

After completing the outline, draw the base tone for the eyebrow. You dont have to make it too dark as youre drawing the base tone. The shading technique that Im using is simply a technique using the blunt side of the pencil to draw. (Refer to 2nd week of pencil portrait mastery exercise)

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After finished drawing the base tone, use a regular facial tissue, wrap it with one of your fingers and blend on the entire base tone.

Now, we should start looking at the reference picture carefully and draw by following the tones. Look at the reference picture and start to add the tiny eyebrows. Use a sharp 2B pencil to draw them. To draw the tiny eyebrows, start from the root, pull it to the desired direction and lessening the pressure as you come to the tip.

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It doesnt have to be completely the same as the reference picture.

If you look carefully on the reference picture, the tiny eyebrows on that area arent exactly the same tone. Use 2H pencil to add other tiny eyebrows.

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Once youve done that, draw the base tone on that blank area.

At this point, you will have to observe and compare the tone of the eyebrows. By knowing how to observe the tone, you will realize that it isnt that hard to draw the eyebrows with realistic effects. Let me explain how you can observe before we begin.

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Lets look at the reference picture below:

Always start by observing 3 main colors of the eyebrows: 1. Light Grey 2. Grey 3. Dark Grey These 3 main colors help you to identify which area need to be light or dark toned. Lets zoom in the reference picture and find out how to identify light grey, grey and dark grey:

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You might be thinking that this is very hard if this is the first time youre trying to identify the three main grey colours. Start by observing just 2 colors which are light grey and dark grey. With more experience along you go, try to go on with 3 colors or more. (Note: it doesnt have to be completely the same for every strand of eyebrow that you draw. You just need to follow some darker areas that are more obvious in the reference picture.) For drawing eyebrows, I use 2 techniques which are the shading technique that I mentioned and the drawing-tiny-eyebrows technique. For the area that is darker than the base tone, use the shading technique, while for any area that have lines, I use the technique of drawing tiny eyebrows. Now, we will start to draw from left to right by using 2B pencil.

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To create a more realistic effect, observe the tones as detailed as possible.

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After youve finished drawing the eyebrow, observe the tone again to see whether they should be darker or lighter. Darken the darker area if theyre supposed to look darker.

After touching up the eyebrow, you can now use 2H pencil and draw the outline of the eye. Make sure you dont make the outline too dark.

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Then, we will be concentrating on the iris for now. Start by filling in the pupil using 5B pencil.

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Draw the shadow on the upper part of the iris using 2B pencil.

After that, draw the base tone of the iris. Because the iris is quite dark, you can use a 2B pencil to draw the base tone.

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Once youve finished drawing the base tone, draw the outer part of the iris. The outer part is always darker. Dont press too hard, this will outline the whole iris.

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Draw the shadow for half of the iris starting from the edge of the iris

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Draw the shadow around the pupil by pressing harder with 2B pencil.

Now, draw some lines starting from the shadow around the pupil that youve drawn.

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Do the same starting from the outer part of the iris but dont make too many lines, just a few will do and it should be random.

Weve now finished drawing the iris and before you begin to draw other parts, look at the reference picture again and see which area of the iris should be darker. The darkest part of the iris in the reference picture is the upper part. Use a 5B pencil and draw it again to make it darker.

Thats all for the iris. If you follow the steps and do it correctly, your drawing of the iris should be almost the same as the picture above. Next, we will move on to draw from the upper to lower part of the eye.

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Start by drawing the outline of the eye lid with a sharp 2B pencil. Notice that the left side of the eyelid is darker in the reference picture. Press harder when you draw the left side of the eyelid. We will see how dark the eyelid should be after shading between the iris and the eyelid.

There are some highlights on top of the iris but these highlights arent completely white. We will be drawing two layers of base tone on it. The first layer will be as light as the highlight. If you have a kneaded eraser to make the highlights, then you can just draw one layer of base tone and erase the highlights. If youre doing this with other reference picture without highlights on this part, you can just draw one layer. Here is a demonstration on drawing two layers of base tone. First, use a blunt 2H pencil to draw the first layer. Just press it very lightly.

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Next, we will draw a second layer on it. Theres a highlight under the left side edge of the eyelid. Avoid drawing second layer of base tone on highlight parts. Use 2H pencil for this instance as well. You can press harder for the second layer but dont make it darker than the iris tone as the iris is darker.

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Draw the outline of highlights very lightly. You can draw it a little bigger because if you find out the highlights are smaller, you can cover it by making them smaller with the second layer. If youre starting out with smaller highlights, it will be very hard to make it bigger unless you have a kneaded eraser.

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There are some highlights which are not really obvious here. Draw the outline of them very lightly as well.

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And lastly, leave this area of highlight.

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Now, start to draw from the left again but this time, use 2B pencil and press hard from the lower to upper part by lessening the pressure of your pencil to create a gradient look.

The pointed arrow area is the bottom plane of upper eyelid. It should remain as the second layer of base tone.

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Use a tissue to blend it to make it look smoother. It is ok if the eyeball is blended a little because we will blend the whole eyeball later. After youve done it, the shading will look lighter.

Draw it again on the darker area including the eyelid and this time, blend it softly. Repeat this process until it looks like the picture below.

Then, we will move on to draw the eyeball. Note that the eyeball isnt completely white. Use 2H pencil to draw on the eyeball lightly starting from the left to right.

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In this reference picture, there are shadows on the left side. Draw it with 2H pencil.

After that, continue drawing lightly on the right side of the eyeball. Theres a highlight at the tear duct.

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Draw the darker area on the right side of the eyeball. If youre wondering how to do this smoothly on a light area like the eyeball, start to draw from the darker part sideways. Look at the second picture below.

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Do the same on the darker areas beside.

If the eyeball that youve drawn isnt smooth enough, blend it lightly with tissue.

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After finished drawing the eyeball, we will start to draw the top plane of lower eyelid with 2H pencil. Lower eyelid is quite often darker than the eyeball.

The shadow of the eyeball never ends on it and continues on to the lower eyelid as well. To separate the eyeball and lower eyelid of the same tone, draw on the upper shadow area of the lower eyelid a little darker. (The red line as on the picture below)

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Continue drawing the lower eyelid. Theres a not so obvious highlight on it.

Once youve finished drawing the lower eyelid, we will draw the skin under the lower eyelid. It looks complicated and hard to draw with highlights, shadows and eyebrows around. However, theres actually an easier way to do it. Break it down to small areas and few steps to draw it. Identify the highlights, shadows and eyebrows.

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We will be focusing on this area to draw:

Now, imagine that the eyebrow doesnt exist. Focus on drawing highlights and shadows:

The green circled area is the area of highlights and the area within the red but outside the green will be the area of shadows.

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We will start by drawing the outline of the shadow with 2H pencil.

After youve finished drawing the outline of the shadow, begin to draw the shadow by using 2B pencil.

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Then, observe which area of the shadows should be darker. Draw them by pressing harder with 2B pencil.

After drawing the darker areas, look at the reference picture and you will see that the highlight areas arent just all highlights. We will draw shadows on highlight areas which should consist of shadows. The highlight areas that consist of shadows arent all equal so you should draw it slowly.

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Make sure you start to draw the shadow from the bottom of the lower eyelid so that you wont over draw the lower eyelid with shadow:

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Before you begin to draw the eyelashes, draw the skin around the eye by using 2H pencil. (This part is optional. You can skip this part and begin to draw the eyelashes on page 41)

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After drawing the base tone, draw the skin underneath with second layer by using 2B pencil. Make sure you pay attention to the tone gradients.

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Draw the wrinkles by using 2H pencil and press it a little harder. Dont press it too hard because it shouldnt look too dark based on the reference picture.

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Continue drawing the second layer of shadow.

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Draw the wrinkles again by pressing harder with 2H pencil and draw the area under the wrinkles darker with 2B pencil. Observe again which area on the underneath skin should be darker and darken them.

After finished drawing the underneath skin, use tissue to blend on it softly.

You can now draw the eyelashes to complete the eye drawing. Heres how to draw eyelashes the correct way. Draw by following the direction of growth and start from the root. Pull it and lessen the pressure as you come to the tip. Make sure you curve them as they are not entirely straight. Draw the upper eyelashes with sharp 2B pencil from the left to right. (You can learn more about drawing eyelashes in 3rd week of pencil portrait mastery exercise) Copyright PencilPortraitMastery.com All Rights Reserved 40

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Once youve finished drawing the upper eyelashes with 2B pencil, use a SHARP 5B pencil to draw again for the EXISTING hairs that are darker. Draw on them again but this time, with a 5B pencil. Start from left to right again.

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Weve now finished drawing the upper eyelashes. Move on to draw the lower eyelashes. Pay attention to the lower eyelashes as they are lighter than upper eyelashes. Use a 2B pencil to draw.

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Well, thats all for the realistic eye drawing. Congratulations for completing the stepby-step eye drawing! Dont worry if the first time doesnt come out right, keep practicing and you will see amazing results soon.

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If you want to complete it by drawing skin around the eyes, read on to see how you can draw them. Start by drawing base tone below the eyebrow from left to right using 2H pencil. (Divide it to half and start by drawing upper part of it.)

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Continue by drawing the lower part.

Draw it lighter at the red circled part because there is highlight on that area.

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After finished drawing base tone, use tissue to blend on the skin that youve drawn. Then, draw on the upper part of the darkest area with 2B pencil.

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After drawing on the darkest area, use tissue to blend it and set a gradient on it.

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After putting on the gradient, use 2B pencil and press it softly on the lower part of the skin.

Use tissue to blend it. The tone will become lighter after youve blended it. Draw it and blend it with tissue again. Repeat this process if its necessary until it looks like the image below.

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Then, continue by drawing the right side of the lower part. Dont draw on highlight areas as shown in the red shapes. There are no fixed shapes in the highlight areas .

Blend it with tissue, draw on it, and blend it again. The final step will be looking at the reference picture and observe which area should be darker. I darken the eyebrow, upper eyelid, below of the upper eyelid and a little bit of skin tone. I also darken around some of the highlights to make them look even more shiny.

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Try not to just copy the steps. Instead, learn the techniques from each step and apply them to other eye drawings. This is not the only method to draw eyes so dont just rely on this. Alternatively, find another method that may suit you better. The more you draw it, the more you will understand each step and it will become much easier and faster.

To Your Drawing Success,

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