Realistic Drawing - Eyes Pt. 1

A large part of The Big Book of Realistic Drawing Secrets focuses on the human face and its features. This worked perfectly with my goal of learning how to draw faces, so I decided to make a post focusing on human eyes.

The author recommends a variety of different tools in order to draw an eye, such as stencils, compasses and even pieces of paper. I used a dime to draw the perfect circles and a ruler for the sketch lines for reference.

The author, Carrie Stuart Parks, states "Many people make the mistake of drawing the iris of the eye after the eyelids, resulting in an awkwardly shaped eye. Drawing the iris first will make the ye look more natural in the end" (Parks, 144). In this sketch, I took her advice and drew the iris using the dime, then daring the artist lines for the pupil and finally the eyelids around the eyes.





So far, the tips the author has given have helped me improve how I draw a persons eyes, mainly the shape looking natural.

I will be making a follow-up post soon when the eyes are completed, until then, is there any advice you would like to give on drawing eyes? Have you ever drawn eyes before that looked realistic?

Parks, Carrie Stuart., and Rick Parks. The Big Book of Realistic Drawing Secrets. Cincinnati, OH: North Light, 2009. Print.