How to draw eyes - for beginners - Step by step

How to draw eyes - for beginners

Step by step

Welcome to this tutorial for beginners on how to draw a realistic eye step by step easily explained.

If you prefer to watch this tutorial on video then here are the links, it's simplified and narrated: Part one  Part two

As a beginner you will not need a whole package of fancy pencils and other tools, just keep it simple. you will be needing:

1-two pencils of different degrees of darkness

2-an eraser

3-and a paper blending stick

note: if you don't have a paper blending stick you may just use a piece of paper or even your finger, but you have to be careful of how to use it, and where to apply it. 

Pay attention to where you put your hand on the drawing, you may end up accidently blending some unwanted areas.

Step 1:

Start by drawing four points and two lines then draw the outlines of the eye starting with the light pencil before applying the darker one.
(Figure:1-a)

Step 2:
draw the inside of the eye then draw the circles of the iris and the pupil

note: if you're not able to draw a perfect circle you may use a coin or anything round that has the right size for your drawing. Then you can delete the lines you drew before
(Figure:1-b)

Step 3:
use the darker pencil to make the pupil looks very dark. But you should make sure not to fill in a small area inside the iris because this will later be a light reflection in th eye 
(Figure:1-c)

Step 4:
darken the outline of the iris. to give your drawing a more realistic aspect it's better if you go in a zigzag motion and avoid straight direct lines
(Figure:1-d)

Step 5:

using the lighter pencil, fill the inside of the iris by drawing lines from the pupil towards the outline then when you are done, do the same but from the outline to the pupil 

(Figure:2-a)

Step 6:

darken the area around the pupil then darken the internal part of the outline of the iris (remember the zigzag curvy motion)

(Figure:2-b)

Step 7: 

start drawing the eyelashes using the lighter pencil . the eyelashes should be drawn in such manner that the lower part should be thicker and the upper part should be thinner. try using a curved motion when drawing the eyelashes, start applying the pencil hard on the paper then go in some kind of circle-ish motion as you release the pencil little by little as shown below

(Figure:2-c)

Step 8:

start using the darker pencil in the same way, having both light and dark eyelashes give them a more realistic look

(Figure:2-d)

Step 9:

darken the upper rim of the eye and using the lighter pencil add more shadow inside the eye and also add some shadowing onto the light reflection area

(Figure:3-a)

Step 10:

darken the inner corner of the eye. But ,as always, you need to avoid straight lines and to use a zigzag flinky motion 

(Figure:3-b)

Step 11:

Whenever you feel like it, you may apply some blending if you want, especially on the areas that are "finished" or you may leave the blending untill you finish all your drawing

(Figure:3-c)

Step 12:

the lower eyelashes are drawn in the same way as the upper ones except that they are a bit shorter

(Figure:3-d)

And that's pretty much it.. you are done, it's simple and easy, just follow the steps, step by step, but you may also add your own fingerprints to it. If you don't like your drawing from the first time, that's fine, try again another time, with practice drawing becomes easy.