Drawing Facial Features: Eyes

1. Drawing Facial Features Eyes: he everyone. So today we're gonna spend a little bit of time talking about how to draw eyes. Now, there's a lot of different approaches that you can kind of take with these, but I decided to really just keep it very simple and deconstruct them to make it as easy as possible. So this class is basically just going to be a general overview of how to take something really complicated like an eye, but just deconstruct it so that we get it down to the most simplest basic forms, and then we start adding information on top of that. Now, I don't want some of the things that people love drawing the most, and it's very easy to get caught up and all the little details and nuances. But what I'm gonna show you in this class is really if you can focus on looking at the larger forms and gradually deconstructing the I. And actually they actually could be quite simple on day. Don't have to be so difficult as they may seem. I'm gonna walk you through various angles of how to deconstruct them, how I would block in, and I if I were actually doing a finished portrait, and then finally, I'll show you how I would end up modeling and I to aim or less finished approach, and hopefully, by the end of it, this will all make sense, and you'll feel a lot more comfortable with these features. 2. Getting Started: all right. So before we actually get started, I just wanted to talk about some general concepts about drawing eyes because I think for a lot of people, it could be kind of intimidating at first because there's a lot going on in a very small area now. Ah, lot of us. When we first start drawing, we have the tendency to draw this sort of really generic kind of almond eye shape. And, um, we're all guilty of this. I think you know, when we first kind of are starting to learn how to draw on, especially portrait's and things like that. So don't feel bad if you've done this before, everyone has. But we have a tendency to start with this sort of really sort of simple, almond shaped and a lot of it is, I think, just based off of a preconceived notion about what we think eyes are. And when you think about it, we you know, we see people every single day, just, you know, on a day to day basis, and we look at faces, but we were not necessarily when we're looking at a face or talking to someone or anything like that, we're not being very analytical, as's faras. The shapes are concerned. So we end up with this kind of very sort of I conical shape of like an almond, because that's kind of sort of the first thing that, you know, maybe comes into our mind when we're thinking about drawing it. And so the reason this happens is because when we're going to draw, Portrait is we're simply not being objective enough in what we're looking at. So we just kind of by default err on the side of this really sort of generic kind of shape . So what we're going to be discussing throughout this class is just kind of really how to move beyond that and really try and capture, um, that what the I actually is and a lot of that you know, I do want to avoid kind of going into anatomy because even though that's important, um, it doesn't really have to be that big of a deal, because what becomes more critical when we're doing this is how we're analyzing the shapes that are ultimately making up the I. So just follow along the best you can and we'll go and we'll talk about just different, um, you know, angles and things like that and just kind of what to think about before you get started. So before we actually get to drawing the eye, what I really want people to think about is before we get to the details, we have to draw what you know, sort of like the the general location of the eye. And what this means when you're drawing Portrait's is you may or may not really start with some sort of, uh, you know, I shape or like, what would ultimately be like an eye socket shape, because this would be a general landmark that you would want to establish before you start filling in the eyes themselves. And so I'm gonna just draw just a really simple, um, skull socket just so that you can kind of see where we're gonna be going with this throughout the class. And the general principle is gonna be just like anything else is that we're always going to start from the larger shapes down to the smaller shapes and kind of slowly refined things so that we don't get ahead of ourselves and get caught up in detail just yet, So I'm gonna just kind of just get a really simple socket shape. Um, and again, I don't really want to stress too much anatomy or anything like that. But any anatomical knowledge that you have or any practice you have drawing skull, all of it helps. So, um, so what we have to think about is this eye socket shape and that the is gonna fit basically in here. But we also have to consider where the eyebrow is. Um, the ball of the I on and then, like, the lower lids and just kind of those air, all of the sort of pieces and components that are going to make up the I. But we're gonna We still have to start with that socket, because once we have that in place, we have a better idea where everything is gonna fit in terms of location. And we know we can't, you know, verge too far away from that. Otherwise, the eyes gonna be completely misplaced on the face in general. So once we get that ball in, we start adding other information. So, like, we'd want to find where the tear ducts are. And once we use those. We can use them as landmarks to go ahead and basically look for where the lids air starting and ending. Um and then just kind of slowly start adding bits of information and you know, a lot of the times, depending on the lighting, things might be covered. But as long as you look for the general eye socket shape Onda few with the landmarks, you pretty much kind of know where to go from there. So I'm just gonna add some smaller shapes in here, and this would kind of be sort of the iris of the eye, which is the colored portion of the eye. And then we would have a pupil, and you kind of see this sort of like bullseye effect. That is kind of happening. But you realize once the lids kind of come into play, a lot of that information is going to be covered, so we're not necessarily going to see all of that, But it is there. And so you can kind of just see here in this little diagram what more or less would be happening in that particular instance. But the other thing we have to think about is unless you're drawing a head in, You know, a perfectly straight on scenario. We do still have to consider perspective and the best way it is just really sort of get a better understanding of that is really the I is nothing more than a sphere. And if you were to wrap a line around that sphere, that line is gonna bend depending on the direction the person is looking at. So if we had a 3/4 you know, sort of gays, you know, from the model or anything like that, we can basically just wrap these axes lines around that and that's gonna immediately tell us, like, All right, this person is looking off into the distance that way. And really, from from those axes, we can kind of build the iris on top of that, and now you can kind of get a sense of all right. You know, this is now in perspective. The the sphere is turning away from us in a different direction, and you can think of the I in the same way on. And this is really becomes helpful. Especially, you know, if you were to have a model that is looking and sort of an extreme 3/4 you know, but not quite a profile pose. Um, it's really helpful to think about the eyes as they're turning, and you can use the iris and the pupil to kind of help you get a better understanding of that direction because the majority of the ball of the I is going to be covered. Um, you know, by the lids, it could be part parts of it could be in shadow, depending on the lighting situation. So there's a lot of variables to consider as you're going, and we'll also spend a little bit of time talking about how to do eyes and profile and some other kind of odd angles that you may encounter. You know, granted, you know things in profile, you don't have quite as much to deal with. But there's still some good strategies that you can use to kind of develop the eye from that sort of vantage point. And ultimately, what I'm hoping is that by the end of the class you'll have just a much better understanding of how to construct the I and to be really objective with how you're drawing , you're shapes so that you can kind of start branching away from that almond. I, um if you're prone to do that and again, which we all are when we first start, So just kind of take it slow and really you know, drawing an I or any other feature is just like drawing anything else. And it's just good to work slow and just really spend enough time really kind of digging into the shapes and being objective as possible. So hopefully this will all make sense by the end of the class, and you will have a much better understanding of where to go. 3. Eye Construction Ideas: so I wanted to start out with just some basic construction ideas on Lee from the standpoint that these will help you start to think about how you want to start constructing the I if you're just starting from zero. And so what we showed earlier, we kind of talked about the I just being a sphere. And then obviously we have islands to consider. And when we think about the islands, we want to think about these sort of fleshy sort of objects that are wrapping themselves around that sphere. And that's really just sort of the simplest way to start to think about it. And so if we have another sphere here, what I want you to sort of think about the islands is imagine we had sort of two small cups that are going to sort of envelope the I and but they're gonna sort of they're gonna they're gonna conform to the eye. So they will, you know, they're not going to be like these very stiff shapes. They're gonna be these very sort of organic shapes that are going to slowly wrap themselves around the eye. And the trick is, is that that those those lid shapes are going to vary quite a bit from person to person. And so that's really sort of the main thing that we have to consider. But the general concept remains the same is that we're gonna have a top lit in the bottom lid, and they're just going to wrap themselves around. One thing I will say is just sort of a generic kind of principle is that the upper lid will generally be a little bit larger than the lower lid. And there's too many variables, obviously involved, because everyone's eyes are gonna be so different. But that's just kind of a good rule of thumb to think about is that the upper lid is gonna be much fuller on and the lower lids going to generally be on the smaller side as it gets connected into the cheek and everything. And so if you can kind of start with that idea in mind, I think it's just kind of a good thing. Think about in the back of your head, um, so that you get a just that an understanding of, you know, maybe just a basic construction process to get started with your obviously not going to draw, you know, cups, you know, or anything like that. You are gonna just focus on drawing the eye. But it is just kind of, ah, concept to think about as these shapes are fitting into the interior of a socket, it's not a bad way to go at least to get started. So the next thing I want to talk about is using anchor points as you're constructing your eye. So if we take an eye here and we're looking at it straight on, um, we know the lids are gonna wrap around. We already have that idea. Um, the next thing we really want to pay attention to is the tier ducks, because at least for me, these air some of the most important points in the eye. Because I know that if I find those, they're gonna sit relatively, you know, more or less, you know, right across from one another. And I know that the eye is going to are the lids. Rather is gonna emanate from those tear ducks, and so I can construct both the top and the bottom lid. Once I know where those points are. And even if the model was in perspective or anything like that. I can still use those tear ducts from side to side and help in just basically use them as a guide to help me construct the I. And so once I have those those points locked in building the rest of the I becomes a lot easier, and then it just it's a matter of okay. I have to really pay attention to the angles of the eyelids on and everything like that as I'm constructing them. And so you can see here that I kind of made the eyelids almost geometric, You could say, and the reason I did that is because when you really stop and look at people's eyes, there's all kinds of just very subtle variations in the angles of how the lids are wrapping around the sphere, the I and how they may taper down towards the corners of the tear ducks and by using the tear ducts. That gives me a better understanding of how that slope effect is going to take place as I'm looking at someone's eyes and so again, that's why when I'm starting out to construct and I always find the tear ducts first, because that's gonna give me a much better indicator of how things are gonna align. And then once we have that in pretty much you can kind of start drawing in the rest of the eye. And so the lids are established, and then you can kind of say, like All right, well, I can start filling in the iris. I can start, you know, putting in the pupil and start basically developed the I and whatever details may be involved. But again, use those tear ducts and then look for the angles in someone's I because that's gonna help avoid getting that generic almond eye effect. There's just lots of little things taking place, and the more you can focus and pay attention on those, the more accurate your likeness is gonna be with that particular person. 4. Other Eye Angles: so I'm gonna show you how to kind of start an eye and profile. And depending on how you're blocking of the head is going, I still wouldn't hesitate to start with some sort of a ball shape. That way, at least you know kind of the general size of the eye and how much space is going to occupy . The second thing I would start. Those with is fine, used the back tear duct of the eye and build the lids off of that. And that way you'll get a better understanding of how you know how wide or how little the eyes open and you're basically. Then you just have a tiny little sliver of I that's peeking out from the lids, um, and then cause realistically to, you know, a lot of the eye, or at least the visible portion will be covered, you know, by eyelashes and things like that. But you can kind of see here within a profile. It becomes very obvious that the upper lid is considerably larger than the smaller portion of the lid. But granted again, that's going to fluctuate from person to person, so just keep that in mind. But I feel like in a profile scenario, it becomes a little bit more obvious. And so once you kind of have the rough shape, you can kind to start building off of it. And so, like I said in a profile instance, depending on your model, often times you're going to see a bit more of the eyelashes is gonna make a very obvious shape, and you can kind of use those to connect. You know, the pupil and everything like that, and it becomes like a nice, simplified graphic shape, and you can see here with very little information. The I already kind of takes shape, and you can get a sense of okay the direction it's looking at, Um, and there's not a whole lot of detail here involved. And that's why I didn't want to, you know, spend too long talking about doing profiles because it becomes a lot less information that you really have to juggle with when you're when you're working on a profile versus a 3/4 or straight on. So the other thing you might sometimes encounter is if a eyes sort of gazing down, and this will fluctuate, too, depending on what the model is doing. But if you if you know, if the model had their eyes and they were gazing down, I would still go ahead and maybe start with a ball shape of some kind. And I would still go ahead and use my landmarks for the tear ducks. And then from there, I wouldn't even think about the I so much as I would just be creating three overall, I last shape. Um, I say this is probably a little bit more, um, more common, I think When you see you know, see, female models are that are opposed. You see, like a nice, elegant sort of I last shape on and it can have that kind of a nice look to it, you know, in terms of like a mood or an atmosphere depending on the kind of portrait you're working on. But once the eyelashes air filled in, the upper lid just becomes, you know, it becomes it goes back to that sphere shape and you can kind of shade theme upper lid, just like you, which, you know, Shadab all are any sort of organic sphere, and that would essentially become the entire I and So you kind of run into these odd angles , you know, especially if you like. If you're in a life drawing class of some kind, you're going to see all kinds of variations depending on where your position is in relationship to the model. Um, you know, But otherwise, if you're if you're working from a piece of photo reference, maybe that you photographed yourself or if you're, um, you know, copying something from a magazine, you'll still encounter a variety. But generally speaking, a lot of those will be optimally set up. You know, whether it's like an advertisement or anything like that. But these air just kind of some variations of angles that you'll come across. But, um, I find that these are a little bit simpler toe to manage. Then, you know, if you were drawing an eye that's fully open and there's a lot more information taking place, and so before we get onto modeling, I wanted to spend just a few minutes talking about the general form principle that you want to be thinking about before you get started, and this has more to do with how the I forms are going to work with the lids, the eye itself and things like that. So you don't necessarily have to copy this diagram. But it is helpful to understand it so that as you do start modeling your features. You get that sense of how things are actually rapping together. So I started with, you know, just a simple ball, obviously put in my tear ducks, and I'm going to construct the lids off of those. And the construction process is essentially going to stay the same. So I really don't, you know, feel the need to deviate a lot of the time, So I kind of stick with a very similar construction process, regardless of the angle of I that I'm drawing. So once we establish the lids, um, we kind of have a rough I to begin with. Now, depending on the angle that you're working from you very often, you'll encounter a little bit of the lower lid here in what it becomes is you're seeing that shelf of the lower lid, and it kind of goes back to that cup concept that we were talking about in the very beginning in that you actually see that it looks kind of like a cup and you're seeing the lid itself. You're seeing a very distinct top and bottom. And depending on how wide the eyes open, you may see mostly just the lower portion of that cup. Sometimes you may see both from the upper and lower lid, but it's important toe basically just kind of keep that stuff in mind because, you know, if if a model is looking really wide open, you'll probably see a bit of both. If you're depending on your vantage point and let's say you're working from life, you may just see a little bit of the lower portion, but we need to account for those things that are there in. The reason for that is that we really just need to take account, um, all the forms that we're gonna encounter as we're modeling and so I'll go ahead and put in the iris here, and that way you can just have the rest of the eye and it will make a little bit more sense . But now that we have that in, I'm gonna go ahead and put in some sort of topography lines so that you haven't understanding of what is actually taking place with the I. And so what that that that becomes, is is that as you think about the lids, it's gonna come down and then tuck in. And so that's the top portion of the of the lid. It's going to roll down into the eye, and then you're gonna see that little bit of a dip in that shelf, and it's gonna go across the top part of the lower lid down the lid, and then it would go down the cheek. And that's the thing that you want to take away from. This is the understanding that there is this sort of stair step effect that is happening with the lids, the eye itself on Bennett's just trailing all the way down. And so, as you're going across the lid, that's something you just need to be aware of of what's happening with the form and depending on, you know, lighting, you know, situations and things like that. Obviously, these things will kind of change, depending on how much is in light. How much is in shadow, but it gives you an idea to think about as your modeling across the forms. How much variation is actually involved. And so the more you can focus in on those variations, I feel like you're gonna have a much better end result in your finished eyes. So it kind of just keep those things in mind as you begin to model and kind of, you know, take things a little bit farther in the drawing and I find that you'll see this stair stepping effect. It's much more apparent when you look at an eye and profile. So depending on, you know, kind of, you know the angle which you're drawing something you'll really see this dramatic effect happening. Um, and I find, you know, if you're working from life, the best thing you can do is actually just walk around the model and really look for these things because they will become much more obvious when you get a chance to just walk around and see things from different angles. So this is just something to keep in mind before you get modeling, because I find it will help quite a bit 5. Blocking in An Eye: All right, so after we've drawn, you know, multiple diagrams You kind of have an understanding of, you know, the general thought process in construction of the I in a simple sense. But I wanted to show you how I would actually block in. And I if I were actually drawing a portrait and we were flushing out the head and we were going to develop it, Let's say for like a finished portrait, because realistically, you're not gonna necessarily gonna want to draw diagrams or anything like that. You're gonna want to actually draw a little bit more what you're seeing in order to capture a likeness. And so, as you can see here, I'm still going to start with some sort of a socket shape. Um, and I feel like that's really gonna be the most important thing. Um, you know, if I were doing any sort of block in for a portrait is that I need to have just a general shape to start with and what I usually what I'm doing here is all used the eyebrow as a beginning point and then from the eyebrow, all use those toe, locate the tear ducks and cause like I was saying earlier, the tear ducts become a very fundamental landmark in order to build the rest of the I. And so I can go ahead and just put a line across those two. Um, and I'm gonna use that as sort of a starting point in order to establish the rest of the I . And between those two points, the eyebrow will have. Obviously, there's a little bit of a fleshy portion just below the eyebrow before we get to the actual lid. So those air other measurements that I would be kind of considering as I'm getting started . But once I have those tear ducts and again, I feel kind of comfortable that all right, I can start constructing everything else around those landmarks, and I'll usually just start with the top lid on only because that for the most part, I feel like once you establish the top lid, the lower lid has a tendency to kind of take care of itself and again, going back to you know, what we were saying earlier is that the lower lid is generally a lot thinner, Um, unless full as the upper lid. So when I'm doing a portrait. A lot of the times, I usually just suggest the lower lid. I don't necessarily draw the whole lower lid in its entirety, so I kind of let it resolve itself as I add information. So I put a lot more emphasis on the upper lid and then just sort of work from there. And sometimes just a few little indications is all you really need. You know, I find as you're blocking in stuff, a lot of times you want to try and not necessarily draw everything. But just draw the stuff that you really need that's going to serve the drawing and try and eliminate information as best you can, if that's a possibility. But you'll see here, too, that I'm still kind of. I'm drawing very sort of simply in the sense that I'm trying to use very simplified lines. Um, a lot of my block ins tend to be a little bit on the more angular site, and the reason for that is that I know that as I model a nine start adding value and tone to it is that those things will naturally soften up. So even though this might look a little, you know, sort of almost two angular for most people. Um, I recommend at least trying it at first because again, the the tone will kind of help resolve all of those angular lines. But what I do is I use those straight lines to show me playing changes. So as there is a very small plane changes in an eyelid or or anything like that, it makes it a lot easier for me to see versus if I were to use a bunch of curved lines, it becomes a little bit more ambiguous. Hands will go ahead and put in just the overall IRA shape. And even from there, you can still kind of see without, you know, even though I didn't say put in an axes line just by the placement of the iris, you get a sense of where the eye is sort of gazing off, and sometimes that's all you really need. We'll go ahead and just to look, you know, put in the the highlight of some kind and a pupil. And so, like I said here, I probably won't even really put much of a lower lid in because I don't feel like it really , really be necessary. You know, I can kind of just make a suggestion for it, Um, and kind of leave it at that. And you're I will kind of fill in those gaps and it'll say like Okay, well, this has to be, you know, the lower lid, because there's this small indication here, But again, you know, it's always gonna vary on, you know, on the situation, the model and everything like that. So I don't want to make too many sort of steadfast rules or anything, but you always just kind of always refer to you know what you're looking at. But from there, they mean, that's kind of where I would almost leave a block in. I, um you know, I would go ahead and flush out the eyebrow if there were more shadow patterns or anything like that. You know, depending on the lighting situation, I would go ahead and map those in just so that they're accounted for, because oftentimes those shadow patterns can also help you judge distances in proportional things. But in terms of blocking in, I would probably leave the I, um, in this sort of state, and I would get the entire drawing up to this sort of level before I start filling things in and then start softening areas down and really try to roll form, you know, with gradations and things like that. But that's kind of what I would aim for as a block in if you were going to, let's say, do an entire portrait or even if you want to just practice drawing eyes. Um, I believe, like the diagrams and stuff like that are good, Teoh understand, and maybe even copy them. But ultimately we do want to get to a point where we can draw, you know, beautiful looking eyes. And so it goes back to then just good, you know, fundamental drawing. And to me, good fundamental drawing means starting with a good block in and a good description of the shapes and everything like that. And then from there we can really start flushing things out a little bit more in terms of shadow on volume. 6. Basic Form Modeling: so before we actually get to modeling. And I I just wanted to show you Ah, very simple exercise that if you don't feel quite comfortable just yet with, you know, modeling and I or maybe right now with where you're at drawing wise. Um, you know, maybe you feel like it's a little bit too advanced to try and sort of model one of these things. And so what I wanted to do is just kind of make a suggestion as's faras how you can approach it and just kind of how to think about modeling the eye so that it's not so difficult and how you can sort of minimized the amount of detail that you're seeing and really just focus on the overall large form that you're working with. So as you can see here as I'm just drawing a basic sort of sphere and I'm going to just make it a really simple shadow pattern, um, and this isn't gonna be terribly fancy, But what I wanted to show you with this is you can really ignore sort of all the details of the eye and start off with just a very simple volume and from that volume, you can start adding details sort of as you see fit. And ultimately, you know, you'll end up with some sort of an eye, and so you can see I just gonna have a simple shadow pattern, and we're gonna basically I'm gonna just kind of slowly make a gradation And so, based off, you know, our little light source here that I'm making up, we're just gonna great ate out the edges so that we achieve some sort of basic volume. And you can really do this with a lot of the features on the face, so you don't necessarily have to get caught up in, You know, all that. There's all these little pieces and little sub forms that make, you know, make things look complicated with a bunch of detail. We can really start off with something this simple, and we can always make it more complicated as we go. And so if you really feel like, sort of overwhelmed or intimidated by drawing eyes or anything like that, maybe this would be something you give a shot. So we have our simple sphere. Nothing terribly, you know, complicated. But what we can do now comfortably is we can start adding some extra information. And so in this case, I'm just gonna build right on top of it. And so if I were drawing and I I can start adding some lids and you know, there's gonna be some overlap obviously here that you can see, but hopefully the concept will make sense. And so I'm gonna just use this fear as a guide, and I'm gonna build my lids on top of that. And so I would still go ahead and, you know, probably find my landmarks like the tear ducts and things like that. But you can see here now that you know, there's gonna be some areas we're going to have to just add a little bit more shadow. But I can have the upper and lower lid, and you can kind of now see that it's going to slowly start coming together. And so add the lower lid and you can see here. You know, there's gonna be some transitions where you know, if if if I were drawing this for real, I would probably go back and maybe correct, though, so that they're a little bit more subtle or that the continuation of those gradations was a little bit more seamless. But you can see here just as we add the lids that it's slowly starting to take shape. And so I start is that I start adding the other details of the I were now just kind of filling the rest of it in, but the since we started with simple volume first on and established that it makes it a lot easier to just start putting details on top of the I. And then it's just a matter of how finished do I want to make this? And so I'd really recommend if you're if you're just kind of starting out and you don't feel quite confident just yet with, um, you know, modeling or, you know, some of the details that are in the eye is maybe start this way and you can always make things more complicated and, you know, get more fancy and things like that. But if you just start with a very basic form, uh, you can easily just slowly build that up. And I think, really like by the time you're done, you can have a very pleasing results, you know? So long as you know, the values air good, the transitions in, you know, as volumes roll into the light. As long as all that stuff looks good, you can actually draw something pretty pretty nice without having to get caught up in anatomy. Or, you know, any of the really sort of subtle details that are going on and, you know, sort of the interior portions of the I. And, um, they're nice if you can put them in, but it just requires a much broader knowledge of what you're actually drawing, which is good toe have. But again, if you just want to keep things simple, um, and kind of straightforward, this may be a good way to at least get started. 7. Modeling An Eye: All right. So I'm gonna show you how I would go ahead and start modeling and I and it's still, you know, the process doesn't really change. We're gonna be doing the exact same thing we've been doing earlier. So we're going to start with a nice, solid block in, um, and then fill in the shadows and kind of then start developing the forms. But I'm not gonna draw the rest of the socket or anything like that. So imagine it's there and, uh, you know, and that I flushed out an entire head or anything like that, but we're going to focus on just the I. So, um, again, the block in is still going to be the same sort of thing. I'm not I never really deviate very much. Um, from that. So I like to just keep it nice and linear. It's going toe look somewhat angular. And like I said, as I start modeling and filling in values on things like that, all those angles will naturally start to soften up and look a little bit more organic like the I should and so pretty much any of the details that I want in the eye. I'm gonna go ahead and put them in in a linear fashion and this eyes going to be lit from above. And so I kind of want to just be to be sort of conscious of that as I'm blocking in, um, even the little or details that are gonna happen in the eye. But as you saw in the earlier block in video like this is gonna be this sort of the same approach. Um, you know, and I'm a, you know, kind of add more detail that to this one than the previous one. But, um, the approach will be the same, and we're just gonna take it a step further. So now that the you know, the majority of the I in terms of shape is there, So I'm gonna go ahead and fill in what are essentially going to be my shadow patterns and a lot of times in the eye, depending on the lighting. I treat the eyelashes as a shadow pattern and often times it will connect into the pupil, and it will create somewhat of a cash shadow on the iris as well. And so you'll see that effect happening here. But you can see here now that you know the things air flushed out and I've just kind of filled in Ah, very light shadow pattern. And that just allows me to see the shapes. Ah, little more clearly. And if something is wrong at this particular stage or something looks off, this would be the time to go ahead and make those corrections. The last thing you would want to do is to have a really dark value in place and then find out later that you have to go back and take something out. But once you for once you feel like really good about the shapes and everything like that and nothing looks off and things are looking pretty decent. Then I would go ahead and start committing to, ah value range of some kind. And so I would start this again, treating thes portions of the I sort of like a shadow pattern. And I would go ahead and basically get them to some sort of value range that I could feel comfortable modeling the rest of the eye to meaning I need a dark enough shadow patterns so that as I start modeling the forms around the I like the lids, um, and things like that, Um, in order for them to roll properly and look round, I need to have a dark enough value toe work out of or to work in two. And so that's why I usually like to start with what would constitute the eyelashes, the pupil and the things around it. That way it helps me build up a value range that I can work around. And so now, once those values get dark enough, then I feel comfortable to start modeling into the lights. And so that's basically anything, really, that's not part of the shadow pattern is going toe, obviously not be is dark, and so I can start building the forms based off of that. But I think the main thing for me is to really even though you know we're dealing with some degree of anatomical nuance, you know, with I is that it's fundamentally still a ball shape. And so I try not to let that leave my mind as I'm working. So, um, we're still dealing with a rounded form. It's just that there's all these, you know, other forms that are surrounding that ball um, which could make it look a little bit different. But fundamentally, if we think about the I as an entire form, we're really just trying to make it look around. So that's always in the back of my mind as I'm drawing it so that I don't over complicate things for myself because it's fairly easy to do with an eye because there's so money. There can be so many little details. If you let them distract you. Eso just try and keep Overall, you know, no matter how detailed you may or may not want to get, keep the big picture in mind that it's really just a glorified sphere. And so, with most of the dark values established in the Eiken, start rolling out into my lights in this case, which is going to be like the lids and the things around the eye. So and ah, lot of it. What you'll see is that it's a it's a very sort of gradual buildup. I never just go in Russian and try and overly rush the modeling. Um, for me, it's always about creating like a buildup to things so that things gradually happen over the course of the drawing. Um, so everyone's gonna have their own way of modelling or, you know, it kind of does come down to maybe some stylistic choices. And I never really want to pass on my idea of style or, you know, or anything like that on to anyone. But if we're just going for from a pure modeling sense, um, I find that it's easier to just gradually build things up. And that way, you know, you don't get too caught up, um, in any one thing and you can really just slowly build up your forms naturally. So as I continue, I'm just, you know, kind of adding little bits of information at a time. And a lot of it has more to do with trying to make things look rounder and rounder, um, with the form. And so I'm not so much adding detail to the I at this point, but I'm just making sure that my gradations within the light side of the form are looking nice and even in continuous and nothing is really happening to abruptly. And ultimately it's it's kind of up to you to decide, like toe what level you want to take, You know, um, a rendering or toe what level of detail you want to bring this to. But hopefully you can kind of see where we started from the beginning to where we are now, Um, a very sort of step by step start to finish progression happening. And really, I could kind of tinker on one of these things for, you know, several minutes to an hour. Um, you know, depending on what I really wanted. But I feel like even just even if you're not drawing portrait's for the time being. But you want to just focus in on just the features. These could be really good exercises to do. If you find eyes and you know, from whether it's photo reference and or like magazines or anything like that, you can really find an endless supply of things to practice on on and just practice the exercise and get comfortable with the breakdown from a block into something that looks a little bit more polished. So at this point, I feel fairly comfortable with where the eye is at. Like I said, it's one of those things where you could kind of just keep messing with it and messing with it until it gets to a point where, I don't know, maybe you lose it or you know where you mess up or something like that. But I think you'll be able at least tell from the very beginning again where we started and where we're at now. Just the general concept that you want to be thinking about as you're kind of starting to develop a new understanding of how to build the I in terms of a mechanical standpoint and then ultimately, to something a little bit more finished like this. And my hope is that throughout the class you're getting a better understanding of where to go, if especially if you've never drawn portrait sor if you've never really attempted to isolate features in this way from a construction standpoint, getting down to just very mechanical ideas about how the features air made. So hopefully this gives you some ideas about how to approach, um, you know, drawing eyes. And obviously there's a lot more Teoh portrait's than just the eyes, and we have some other features to kind of consider. But I always feel like eyes air the most fun thing to draw. Um, and I think a lot of other people feel that way too. So I wanted to isolate this class just down toe eyes, um, so that people can hopefully get a better understanding of how to start and kind of where to go. Eso please post up your projects. Any sort of block ins or finished eyes that you have. I would love to see them, and I'd be happy to give a critique. And, uh, yeah, I just hope everyone enjoyed the class and thank you for watching.