How to draw eyes
By Kelly | April 17, 2007
1. Eye Anatomy
Before drawing, either realistic or in a stylized fashion, you should understand the basic anatomy of the eye. The eyeball itself is roughly spherical, with a bulge over the pupil due to the lense. This bulge is the reason highlights often fall on the iris and pupil area of the eye – it sticks out further and catches the light.
The eye is suspended in the eye socket by muscles and soft tissues. The hard bones create highlights around the perimeter of the eye socket. Soft skin folds over the sphere of the eye, and eyelids wrap around its surface. Notice that you can see the upper edge of the bottom eyelid, as it curves under the form of the eyeball. It’s essential to visualize the 3D structure of the eye anytime you are drawing one.
Highlights on the eye are often bright and sharp, due to the moistness of the eye itself. These highlights should reflect the intensity, direction and shape of the light source in your drawing.
2. Stylized Eye
When drawing the eye, it may help to block out the structure of the head, with eyes drawn first as spheres. Then you can go over the sphere with the eyelids and flesh, and add other details. Even a stylized eye should have some basis in real-life anatomy.
Here are a few examples of cartoony eyes in action. Notice that when the character looks up, the bulge of the eye pushes on the skin, making folds above the eyelid more pronounced. When looking down, the crease of the lower lid is becomes pronounced. When angry or skeptical, the brows force skin over the eyelid, making a deeper crevice. Study your expressions in a mirror to get a better understanding of how different expressions affect the shape of your eyes.
3. Animal and Anthro Eyes
As you can see, the anatomy of a feline eye has some big differences from the human eye. Although both human and felines have forward-facing eyes, the shape and structure for cats is less affected by fleshy folds. If you want to create a more expressive anthropomorphic character, incorporate some human eye anatomy. Eyebrows and eyelids add expressiveness. The slit pupil is distinctly cat-like, and you can incorporate feline traits like eye color or shape to create a human-cat hybrid.
In this example, you can see a normal cartoon cat, and on the right one with more human features – eyebrows and eyelids add a more human element.
Feel free to apply this knowledge to other creatures you want to draw. Once you grasp the basic human anatomy, it’s pretty simple to research animals and combine the traits according your preferred style and method. Good luck and happy drawing!
Topics: Drawing tutorials | 40 Comments »
40 Responses to “How to draw eyes”
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August 23rd, 2010 at 12:15 am
@Kellin-lol? anyway i love this thanks 4 the help
April 11th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
that’s very nice good
April 2nd, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Does this website include tutorials on how to draw scaly anthro characters? or does anyone know where I could find a guide?
February 23rd, 2010 at 5:23 pm
thanks!! this really helped me with drawing eyes. (which I used to fail at) :3
January 24th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
this site is very useful & i am thankful that it is free goodwork & good luck
January 2nd, 2010 at 5:04 am
Thank you so much for not charging for this wonderful site! your techniques really have helped me get drawing!
December 16th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Wow, thank you very much, i love draw eyes e.e…
November 11th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Uber good help!*uber-Big,Huge,Big-Time*
thx 4 da help im not good at eyes… but i will BE!!! :)
November 9th, 2009 at 1:53 am
One thing that’s always hard for me is to keep the eyes the same shape and size, do you think you have any tips to help with that?
September 25th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
This has helped me alot =3 The eyes are the hardest part for me to draw. Thank you <3