Drawing and shading Realistic eye

1. Introduction: I'm Ritika. I'm a portrait artist and a calligrapher. I've been teaching on Skillshare for 3-4 months now. [MUSIC] Welcome to my Realistic eye drawing course. This course is all about learning how to draw human eye. Eyes are the most important facial feature that actually gives or brings life into your drawings. This class is aimed for those who want to develop portrait drawing skills without no experience level at all and for those who are interested in experiencing and learning how to draw realistic portraits and eyes. By the end of the class, you will have the knowledge of drawing any kind of human eye, from sketching to understanding the anatomy and shading it realistically. First of all, I will tell you all the materials that you'll need for the class. Followed by that, I'll start with teaching eyelashes and eyebrows. This is the project that you're going to draw for eyelashes and eyebrows. There will be a complete demonstration of these two. Once you have learned that, there will be a study of different types, how old people eyes look, how a male eye and a female eye differs, and how will a baby eye will be. Understanding all of this will be very easy for you when you draw portraits. To make your learning process more interesting and fun, I've also prepared worksheets so that you'll be able to practice different types of lashes, brows, and also different eyes. You will also be getting a detailed PDF document of the by-step instructions of the class. Don't wait further. By taking the class, you'll be able to create beautiful, realistic eyes in no time. 2. Class project: Coming on to the class project, so this is the eye that you'll be drawing right along with me. I will be guiding you completely on how to draw this and shade it. For the reference image, I have linked the image that I'm using in this class in the resource and the project section so you can check them out. I have also linked few other eye images that you can use as a reference. 3. Drawing Lashes and eyebrows : First, I'll be teaching you how to draw eyelashes and eyebrows. Once you got a basic understanding of how to draw eyelashes and eyebrows, you'll be able to draw any kind of lashes and brows. Let me start with a basic tutorial now. I'll show you how the basic strokes for eyelashes and eyebrows should be. First, give lot of pressure when you start, and release the pressure as you move further, so like this, good pressure, and then release the stroke like this. You should not have a uniform thick stroke for the lashes and brows, it will ruin the entire drawing or it will make it messier. At this point, see you have thickness and darkness. That is what you need when you draw lashes and brows. With that practice, let's see how to draw eyelashes on an eye. This is the upper eye line. I'm keeping this a little dark. Now, draw a line below that lightly, because we are going to erase that. Then draw curves like this. You can keep this lightly, because we won't need this later, so we can erase that. When you draw, observe the direction of the lashes, it will go in these directions. In the module, it will face straight. So starting will be like this, and it will turn slightly when it comes to this end. Also you observe that at the end the lashes will have more height. Randomly add strokes and corresponding to the directions. You can see the length increasing from the start to the end, gradually. First I used a lighter tone pencil. Now I am darkening with a 4B pencil. Draw different strokes with intersecting each other, overlapping each other. Like this. I am erasing the extra lines, and I'm creating small curves like this, to keep it natural. The eyelashes will have folds like this. Then I'm just shading it mildly. This is how you draw lashes. This is a representation of how the directions will actually look. I've shown a demo of the upper lashes, after that you can practice the lower eyelid lashes or from the worksheets. I'll show you how to do that and I'll demonstrate the worksheets now. This is the worksheet that I mentioned and you can find them in the resource section. If you have any doubts in finding the worksheet, you can always feel free to start the discussion on the class. It is actually available only on the browser in the PC. First, this is the eyelash e-book. There will be step-by-step instructions on drawing the lashes. See, I have mentioned the all the steps in it, just what I've showed. Then I've also included different type of lashes with different shapes, sizes, and angles. You can just print them out and try it on the right column. Let's now start sketching the eyebrows. This is the reference image I've chosen. Look at the outline structure of the brows from the image and then sketch that like this. [inaudible] the curves and the sharpness wherever it is required, see how the shape of the brows looks and then try to sketch it. After sketching, I've enlightened the outline and then shaded it. Take a lighter gray pencil like HB and then add strokes that we have already practiced. [MUSIC] Remember the stroke should have more pressure when you start and when you end the stroke, you have to release the pressure gradually. Add now any number of strokes, try to in overlap and intersect the strokes, only then it will have a natural feel. When you add the strokes absorb the direction from the image. I've add a base layer with HB pencil, use 2B pencil and add more strokes. This is the first or the base layer for shading. After that, you can just smudge with a soft brush. Make sure that it is really gentle. Before you use the brush, ensure that the brush is clean first. Smudge it lightly like I did, don't be so hard on the paper. Then to add a players and increase the darkness and using AB charcoal black pencil and draw the same strokes with different directions. See the directions from the image again, don't draw it on your own. Observe the directions from the reference, and then draw that. [MUSIC] Then at the start of the eyebrows and all the sides and edges add strokes like this with bido pencil, can we do 3 or 4B or even HB? But make sure you add it on all the sides to make it look natural. Now I've added on the bottom, adding now in the top, then I'm smudging it all the way again. Again, this has to be very light, so this is how you draw and sketch an eyebrow. Coming to the worksheets, I have different eyebrows on the left, print them and write out on the right, so it has different shapes and different sizes. You will also get an e-book of drawing eyebrows like this. This is a step-by-step instruction for drawing and shading the eyebrows that we've already seen. This is again, an eyebrow assignment that you can take. Try this eyebrow and draw both sides of it. All the worksheets and the e-books are available on the resource section of the class. If you are checking on the Cloud on your mobile or Tab in the app, you might not find it. Please do check it out on the browser on a PC, only then you'll be able to find it. If you have any difficulties on finding the PDF documents and the reference images and all the worksheets, you can always feel free to question me in the discussion section below the class. 4. How to understand the Anatomy of an eye: These are the eye studies that we will be seeing. You can see each and every eye has a different shape and size. I will tell you how to analyze the different angles and sketch them accurately. First, I'll show how different eyes can look. Not all the eyes are similar, even though there are certain things that are common. Each eye has its uniqueness, either in shape or color. You have to observe it before you draw. I'll start with this one. This is a male eye. Usually, a male eye will look sharp and thin compared to female eyes but not every male eye has this feature. Mostly every male eye falls into this. Here you can see it's very sharp here and also here. You can observe the sharpness in it. When you're going to sketch it, the first and foremost thing that you have to observe is the shape of the eyebrows. Observe how the eyebrows start and end and then you have to observe the middle line that is cutting through the eyes like this. Then observe this distance from the end of the eyebrows to the end of the eyes, this. Then the distance from here to here, that is the starting of the eyebrows and the starting of the eyes. These are all the things that you have to observe when you draw, shape of the eyebrows, the lines, the angle, and the distance. This is a female eye with a lot of makeup on it. You can identify the makeup, the presence of the shine, and the glossiness in the eyes. Again when you sketch it, first observe the shape of the eyebrows. For your identification, I will sketch it out darkly so that you'll be able to identify the shape. I'm outlining the eyebrows. [MUSIC] This is the shape. Also observe the unevenness in the head, strokes on the top like this. Note it down and when you shade it, you can add them on in your drawings. After that, identify the line that is cutting through the eyes, so from here to here. You can see this cross that is in this it was straight. This is how you would create the differences in each eye. Next, observe the distance from here to here and also from the edge of the eyebrows to the end of the eyes like this. This distance will vary for each and every eye, for some it will be very large and for some it will be small. Now also note the height in the middle. The next one, this is a baby's eyes. First, observe the eyebrows as I have told you. Then the line that is cutting through the eyes and then the distance. You can see the shape is deferring a lot when compared to the first two eyes we saw and this height. [MUSIC] For this one, I've marked the eyebrow shape, then the line, then the distance from the eyebrows to the eyes on the both sides, and then this eyeball height. [MUSIC] The next eye is an old man's eye. You can see all the wrinkles and when you shade it try to add the wrinkles so that you can now differentiate the age. Mark the eyebrow shape, then the middle line, then the distance on the both sides, and the height of the eyeball. For the next eye, this is the main project that we'll be seeing. I'll tell how to observe this, see the eyebrow shape actually it's very close and even the eye itself is totally close and it also has a different angle. Note that and mark all the common things that I have told you earlier. I have included the outlines of each and every eye that I am sketching with the worksheets for you so if you have any difficulties, you can observe it and draw. Or if you want to only concentrate on the shading part of the eyes, you can download and print the worksheet and start shading each and every eye. You have the reference image and also the outline of it. 5. Female Eye Study : From the observations that we have made before, now let's sketch the eyes. I'm drawing the line for the eyebrows, then marking the distance from the eyebrows to the eyes and then I've also sketched the middle line of the eye. Now I have outlined the eyebrows as well. First everything will be rough then we can fine-tune each and everything. [MUSIC] Then I will mark the start and the end of the eye. Note the difference from the reference image. See how cross it is from the end of the eyebrows so it goes like this so I'm marking that point and then just outlining it. After that, I am placing the eyeball, so then the line below the eyeball. Soon as you've seen that, I have drawn only the inner line of the eyes. Now I have drawn the outer line, or the outer line of the eyelid. This is not a detailed eye study instead it's just a simple study of how to understand the outline and how to shade it. Now you have the rough outline. After this, let me show you how to fine-tune this and shade it. I'll start with shading the eyeballs. First I'm giving a basic layer with any pencil you can give it. I am giving it with 4B pencil. [MUSIC] When I'm shading the eyeball, I am leaving out the highlight portion. Make sure you leave the portion white so that when you shade it further, you can get the pure white of the paper. First, I'm actually shading all the shadows so that it'll be easy for you to understand you can also do the same thing. First, identify wherever it is dark and shade the shadows first. These are all the portions where the image has darkness in it. You can observe it from the image [MUSIC] I have marked and shaded all the shadow parts. After this, let me sketch the eyebrows. I'll draw the basic strokes that we usually give. I'm adding more strokes. I'm also adding dark and light strokes mixed. After adding the shadows, I'm also adding the light tones here and there in the upper eyelids and also the rest of the portions. Now, I will add the depth to the eyebrows a little more like this. I have also darkened the shadows in the eyeball. This is not a complete realistic shading, it's just in study so that you understand where it is dark and where it is light. Means you can now observe wherever the shadows are and wherever the highlights are. Let me add the lashes too, remember the directions that I have told you. Keeping that in mind, also, observe from the reference image and draw the lashes. Usually the lower eyelid will have less lashes when compared to the top one so follow like that. Our first eye study is complete now. 6. Old man's eye study: For the second one, I've chosen the old man's eye. Observing the eyebrow shape, I'm sketching that first. After that, I'll mark the end of the eye and the starting of the eye. Then the distance. Then sketch the shape of the eyes and the eyeball. The shape is slightly bent, and it has that, well, what to say the aged looking at. Try to replicate the same. Here, again, when I'm shading the eyeball, I'm leaving the highlight portion. Then now I'm adding the shadows to the eyes. Here in these eyeballs, I can see the lines in the pupil. I'm also adding that. I'm just shading wherever I can see dark tones. That is the shadows. Here it is very dark and also here. The eyelids are folded. Here we go with the eyelashes. Here you can see the skin tone is actually very light. Here when you observe it, the eyebrows and this area looks totally dark. Similarly, add darker tones to it, like this. We can add the wrinkles later. Since it's not a detailed study now, I'm just going to roughly sketch and shade it. Now I will shade all the mid-tones. The mid-tones are nothing but the value that lies between the darkness and the highlights, that is the shadows and the highlights. Even here, there is a small amount of grayness in it. So I'm adding that also. Here and there, a few lashes and darkening it. For the wrinkles, I'm just lightly adding it here and there, not a lot. This has to be dark. For the eyebrows, I'm using charcoal pencil from Krita color, because this eyebrow from the reference image has very dark tone, that tone on the starting. Without shading a lot we can achieve the darkness from this. After applying the pencil, I am smudging it out with the brush, like this. Not only for the eyebrows, wherever you can see dark tone you can use this pencil. Overall I'm smudging it here and there a little. You can see without even spending a lot of time, we have achieved the darkness and the highlights of the eyes. This is how you shade this eye. 7. Baby eye study: [MUSIC] Next eye is the baby eyes. Again, for this, start with the basic lines that we have observed earlier. I'll draw that first, first the shape of the eyebrow. Then the starting and ending lines, and also the mid-line. After that, I will sketch the eyebrows. The shape is really different, because it is a baby's eyebrows, so accordingly draw it. You can see this is a third phased eye. Obviously, the eyeball is looking at the top, so accordingly change the angle of the eyeball. Now I'll add the shadows to the eyes. Now, this top eyeliner is really dark from the image. Since it's a baby's eyebrows, it's not very dark from the image that I've chosen, so I'll keep it light. After adding the dark basic strokes of the eyebrows, I'll just smudge it little with the brush. Now, you get the shadings well. Now for the pupil, I'll mark the darkest shadows. I'm using 4B pencils here. Don't forget to leave the highlights portion. From this image you can see the whole pupil is not dark, instead only on the edges, it is dark. I'm shading it accordingly. I am again, continuing with the shadows. Then I'm drawing the lashes, see the shape and the angle of each and every lash. Since it's a baby's eyes, it's very thick and also the shapes are different. The lashes are more, so I am drawing like that. You can see I'm not drawing each and every large of the same height, invading the height of the lashes and also the thickness of it. That is how a natural lash will look, so try to keep that like that. Without keeping it uniform, it can be natural. I'll start with the mid-tone shadings. Here in all, it is not very dark, the skin is very pale, so mildly unshaded. Since it's not very dark, let's keep it the same way. After adding the shadows and the mid-tones, I'll smoothen the shadings with the help of the brush. You should be very gentle on this step. If you are rubbing it hard, then it will spoil the entire drawing. Also after each and every time you use the brush, clean it by rubbing it on a smooth paper. I think the eyebrows and the pupil has to be a little bit dark when compared to the reference image. For that, I will smoothen this, and then add darker tones with the help of AB pencil. I think this darkness will look good. That's it with the Third eye Study. 8. Male eye study : Moving on to the last eye, this is the male eye that we saw earlier in the approaching to an eye lesson. [MUSIC] Similar to all the previous eyes that we saw, first I'll identify the eyebrow line. I'll understand and analyze the angle of it and draw it on my sheet. I have my eyeline also. Now I'm sketching the eyebrows. Understand the shape of the eyebrow from the image and try to recreate it. See there's a curve here and then it is meeting together like this. I'll fill the eyebrows lightly. Later we can shade it. This is the eyeline. See here the distance is very small, so note that and start outlining the eyes. That was the outer line. Now I'm drawing the inner line. It is totally dark in that place, so you'll not be able to see it. If you're not able to analyze the outline, use the soft copy of the image. [MUSIC] With this rough outline, I'll start shading it. Since the eyeball and the eyebrow areas are very the dark in this, I'll use charcoal pencil for this. Depending upon the darkness that you need, you can switch between the pencils. This type of charcoal will be really dark and you don't have to shade it a lot. With a simple scribbling over it, you can get the darkness. [MUSIC] Now after applying the charcoal, I'll smudge it with the brush. [MUSIC] I've almost got the basic tones now. It is very dark. Let me shade that as well. Now, actually, I'm using Staedtler HB charcoal black. With that, I'll add some details to the eyebrows like this. [MUSIC] I'll use a HB pencil here. It's comparatively lighter than the rest of the portions. [MUSIC] I'll draw the lashes now. It's very thin and it's also light. But at the top, it is a little bit dark when compared to the lower eyelid lashes. Similarly, I did it. [MUSIC] Then you can see here it is a little bit dark, so for that, I'm using 4B pencil to shade it over that to differentiate the darkness and the mid-tone. [MUSIC] Now for the highlights, I will erase here and there where I have highlights in my reference image. With the needle eraser, I'm just tapping on the drawing. Sometimes it will create patches, so you have to be careful when you use this eraser. Be gentle on it. [MUSIC] All the four eye studies are complete so you can now sketch it with the help of the outline that I provided you or with your own outline and try to shade it. 9. Project Eyes - sketching: Hi, so in this lesson, I'm going to show you how to sketch our class project that is this eye. This eye, you can see the eyebrows are slanting, and the eye is also a little bit slant. It is not as straightening facing eye. You can see from the angle of it, it is very crossed, the line that is cutting through the middle is so cross. You can also see the distance here, as well as the distance here. Observe the height also. Let's draw this now. I have my hard copy as well so that it will be easy when I measure it. At the soft copy, I will use it for the detail, the shadings. With the help of this printout. I will first draw the eyebrow line. When you have a printout and observe it closer, you'll get a clear understanding. I'll know the slant. Here we have the eyebrows. It goes like this. Then you have a slight bend here. This is the top line that is the eyelids fold in a line. The eyeball is actually present here. Then I'm drawing this line. The lashes are lengthy at the end. Here we have the highlight for our eyes. Now with this basic outline, I will make some changes that I can see. I see a little bit of changes here, so I'm doing that. It's very wide in the reference. Now we don't have to add the details in the eyebrow. We'll just mark the outlined perfectly. Understand its shape and a dummy, and then sketch it. Now we have our outline ready. If suppose you have any difficulties in drawing this, you can print out the reference just like me and try it. Even then if you're facing difficulties in drawing it, you can find this outline in the worksheet below the resource section. You can download that and print it out and use it as a solution. Or either you can observe and draw from that. For better understanding, I've provided you this. 10. Shading the Iris: Let's start shading the eyes now. I'll begin with the iris. I'm using taco 8B black from Staedtler. If you see the reference image, here, we have the highlight to leave off that portion and here, the shadows are present, so we have to get the complete darkness in those areas. Also, you can see that my pencil is very sharp, so try to have your pencil as sharp as possible. First I'll mark the places wherever we have to get the shadows. [MUSIC] After marking that, I'll shade these portions now. [MUSIC] Since it is very dark, I'm filling each and every part of the paper with the 8B black pencil. [MUSIC] After this, if you see the image, you can find lines in this area. For that, I will draw those lines, like small strokes. [MUSIC] I will slowly fill in the white gaps. [MUSIC] Here, I will use a 4B pencil to fill the gaps because our reference image is not fully dark it has those white reflections light and also the lines. [MUSIC] Now I'll darken these portions later more. [MUSIC] We saw that in the reference image there were lines both with the black and white, so for creating those lines I'm using this battery eraser in creating small lines on the iris like this. [MUSIC] Next I'll be adding these details both in the black pencil and also with the eraser until I'm satisfied with the shadings. But, make sure you have a very sharp pencil because those lines are very thin. [MUSIC] After that, if you noticed it deeply, there are a few lines in these areas too, like dots. I'm creating those with this battery eraser. [MUSIC] Since we have erased a lot, there will be some white spots in the sheet, so to fill in those dots, I'm using a 4B pencil. [MUSIC] I'm shading all over the eyes mildly with this pencil. [MUSIC] This is done now. Let's shade the rest of the portions in the upcoming lessons. 11. Basic layer: To start off the shading in the rest of the portions, first I'll use a 2B pencil and then add shadings wherever I can find shadows. [MUSIC] As you all know that the shadows are the dark tones in the picture, so here I have a dark tone. For that slowly I'll first render it with the 2B pencil. I'm not going to straight away start with the darkest shade. Instead I'm going to do light it up by increasing the tone step-by-step. Even in this portion of the sclera, we have shadows in that image, so I'll shade it here as well. [MUSIC] At this edge you can see it is really dark. First I'll shade here in this layer with only 2B pencil. Later in the rest upcoming layers we can darken the tones. [MUSIC] Now I'm shading here, I will also give a basic tone for the eyebrows. Like the first layer with this pencil itself. I'm drawing eyebrow hairs. As we have seen in our previous eyebrow drawing lesson, we have to draw overlapping eyebrow hairs and also we have to fill in the space completely with many strokes as possible. Also make sure to remember that you have to use that basic stroke that we had practiced earlier. 12. Building up layers: In the process of layering, now I'm going to add 4B pencil to the shadows that we have shaded already. So slowly I'm filling out the gaps in the paper. [MUSIC] I'm not adding all the eyebrow hairs now instead here and there I am drawing few strokes, and for the rest of the portions, I'm just shading it. In the upcoming layers, we shall add the strokes with more depth. [MUSIC] Now I'm adding depth here. [MUSIC] To darken the tones you don't have to shade it with really dark strokes or lines, instead slowly shade it over those areas, and here if you see, it is very light, so I have lightened it. [MUSIC] I will also shade these areas. It is not having a lot of depth here, even though I'm shading it mildly since it has some mild tone there. [MUSIC] I'll use a brush now to gently rub over the shadings so that it will fill all the small gaps that we might have left out while shading. It has to be very mild blending. If you rub too hard on it with the brush, it might ruin the drawing. So be careful when you do that. [MUSIC] This is it for the Layer 2. We can add more depth and more highlights in the next layer. [MUSIC] 13. Depth: To start off with the depth, first I'll draw eyebrow with a 8B pencil. I'll draw really sharp and thin lines with different directions and different angles. Observe it from the image and draw overlapping lines like this. There you can see the directions will change at each at every portion. At the starting, it will be very light I'll keep those lines very light. In here we'll have to add darkness. If you see in the image, here there is a lot of darkness. I have just speeded up the video because I'm doing the same process again. If you want to create a highlighter or some some strokes, in the eyebrows, use the erasers and the battery eraser. Since that image has a lot of depth here, I'm using 8B pencil here as well. While using 8B pencil on the skin, we have to be very gentle because it has a lot of darkness in it. We have to add it only with mild pressure. You can see I'm slowly shading it like building-up layers. Now I'm shading the eyelids portion. Here as well, our image has a really dark shadow. Why the shading the dark areas like this, you have to understand that the shadow is actually present. You can see the shadow is lying after the eyelid. That is after the line. So I heard shaded accordingly. I'm adding layers here again. I'm almost done now giving the depth to the eyes and also the eyebrows. 14. Adding Shadows and lashes: In this lesson, I will show you how to sharpen the shadows a little more, and also I'll show the process of adding lashes. At this portion of the eyes, you can see below the eyes, it is really dark, so I'm maintaining the dark tone. You might think why we are layering it and increasing the darkness rather than directly giving the darkest tone on the sheet. It is because if you give the dark tone directly on the sheet, and if you go wrong somewhere, you'll not be able to correct it. Also, if you go layer by layer increasing the darkness, it will give a smooth finishing to the shading and also a natural feel. Coming to this part, you can see the dark shadow and the lightest tone are not blending together, so now we have to blend those two tones together. The shades are gradually decreasing. If you will see in this area, there is a bright white line. Now let's add lashes to our drawing. Before adding the lashes, observe it first where the lashes line lies, and slowly add each and every line because you are going to add it with the darkest HB pencil so you'll not be able to erase it. Even if you erase it, there will be marks on the sheet, so it's better if you use a light tone first, and then you can now increase the darkness with the HB pencil. Before adding lines here, I'm shading it here because after you add lines, it'll be difficult for you to fill the gaps so first are shaded with the darker tone and then you can add the lines. Now I've added lashes on the top and the bottom eyelids. I see there are a lot of white dots in this potion, so for that, I am using the kneaded eraser and creating the white dots. Due to the reflection of the light, there are a few lashes that reflects the light. To create that, I am using this eraser. 15. Highlights and finishing: Now this lesson is for completely adding the finishing touches to our drawing. I'll either be lightening the highlights or darkening the shadows. I think the tone here is not completely merged with the lightest tone. To bring the smooth shading, I'm now using HB pencil and slowly mixing it with both the dark and the light tones. I'm also shading over those highlights that we created because I want the highlights to be subtle, not very bright. I'm shading over the dark tones and the mid-tones again to just smoothen it out. I'll brush it over this very slowly. Let us differentiate this part with a line. I'm adding a little bit of mid-tone here. Everything that I do depends upon the image that I've chosen. If it has a dark tone there, I'm just reflecting that in my drawing. Let me smoothen it with the brush so that it won't have a rough texture in it and here the line that separates the sclera and the eyelid is actually light. It is in those areas wherever the highlight is seen. Here as well I can see a reflection of the light, so I'm smoothly tapping with the eraser on the paper. Again, here is a bright line. These are all the small, small details that I can notice from the image and I'm trying to recreate that small white dots on the skin that is reflected due to the light. From the image, you can see there are small white hairs in the skin that is present. It's been reflected so much because of the lighting. You have dots over in here, near the lashes. Also here and there, there are a few dots and small hairs. That is what all this is. I think we haven't shaded this portion enough, so I'm now adding dark shades here. Our drawing is done. I have added all the details that is required for this drawing. 16. Conclusion: We have come to the end of our class. Hope you enjoyed learning it. Once you've watched the class, don't forget to leave a review. This will be a major encouragement for me and also for other students so that they will know what to expect in the class. Hope the three to four eye studies studies and one finished eyes drawing project, might have helped you learn a lot of things in this class. We'll meet you in another beautiful class. Thanks for joining me in today's class.