{"id":50095,"date":"2020-09-23T16:35:28","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T21:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vitruvianstudio.com\/?p=50095"},"modified":"2022-06-22T13:12:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T18:12:18","slug":"how-to-draw-better-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitruvianstudio.com\/blog\/how-to-draw-better-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Draw Better Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve resisted writing this kind of post for a long time. In my experience, the type of instructional content found in countless books, blogs and YouTube videos with titles like How To Draw \u2018X\u2019<\/em> is usually oversimplified and misleading.<\/p>

There are 2 reasons for this. First, when you draw a portrait, things like the model\u2019s individual morphology, our perspective as the viewer, and the lighting environment are different in every case, and can profoundly impact your decisions. Drawing well is usually more complicated than just following a list of formulaic steps that don\u2019t take variables into account.<\/p>

Second, thinking in terms of \u201chow to draw eyes\u201d \u2013 as if the eyes are somehow privileged and separate from the rest of the face, head and body \u2013 breaks up the figure into artificial categories. In truth, there\u2019s as much structure to be observed on the model\u2019s cheek or forehead as in the eyes, but we tend to be unaware of that (there aren’t many “How to Draw Foreheads” tutorials out there). Instead, we focus on \u201ceyes\u201d, \u201cnose\u201d and \u201cmouth\u201d too much, and forget about everything else. Articles like this make me queasy because they seem to reinforce this way of thinking.<\/p>

Nevertheless, drawing convincing eyes is something a lot of students struggle with, often unnecessarily. We tend to approach the eyes in our drawings with lots of anxiety because they\u2019re psychologically important to human beings. It\u2019s also where we look first in a portrait. Mess up the eyes, and you\u2019re suddenly stuck with a \u201cbad drawing\u201d, while the same degree of error in describing the neck or chin may go unnoticed by most viewers. It\u2019s not fair, but it\u2019s the way it is.<\/p>

In this post, I\u2019ll lay out the things I think about most when drawing eyes on a portrait. I\u2019ll try to take some variables into account, but remember these instructions are not universal. There will be plenty of times while drawing a model when you\u2019ll encounter problems not mentioned here. But that\u2019s what learning to draw portraits is like. As similar as human beings are to one another, there\u2019s still no one-size-fits-all instruction set for drawing eyes \u2013 or anything else. The way forward is to absorb what you can from teachers you trust, but be prepared to adapt and improvise as you encounter unique problems\u2026 because you will.<\/p>

So, let’s get started.<\/p>

Big Things First<\/h2>

This is good advice for drawing any subject, not just eyes, because it\u2019s easy to get bogged down in details when drawing something complicated. Eyelashes, wrinkles and subtle highlights are all fun to draw, but are nothing but distractions early on (ones I still succumb to from time to time). As students who\u2019ve taken online courses at Vitruvian Studio<\/a> already know, it\u2019s always advisable to work from \u201cgeneral\u201d to \u201cspecific\u201d while drawing. In other words, establish the biggest, broadest shapes first, then subdivide them to arrive at the smaller, more specific characteristics.<\/p><\/div>\n\n

\"Reference
The reference I’ll be using for this post.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>

Context is Important<\/h2>

You don\u2019t have to be a comedian to know that when telling a joke, you can\u2019t just jump to the punchline. You have to \u201cset it up\u201d first. If you don\u2019t, even the funniest joke in the world<\/a> won\u2019t quite work.<\/p>

The same principle applies to drawing.<\/p>

The biggest problem with most \u201chow to draw eyes\u201d tutorials is that they jump too quickly to drawing… well… eyes \u2013 the eyelids, iris, pupil, etc \u2013 without first setting-up a structural context for the eye. In other words, eyes look the way they do in part because of everything that surrounds them.<\/p>

This means that we need to look beyond the boundaries of the eye itself to consider the broader eye region, including the bony structures of the forehead and brow, the cheekbones, and the nose.<\/p>

1: Build the Eye Socket<\/h2>

The eyeball is set deep within a cavity in the skull called the \u201corbit\u201d \u2013 or more commonly, the “eye socket”. Each eye socket on the skull is bordered visually by 3 bones:<\/p>