How to Draw an Eye

Open with essential drawing materials for eye drawing, including pencils and graphite tone, explore value, coloring pages, and tutorials for portraits, plus articles with pictures to guide you.

Use high quality Fabiano Bristol paper and a pencil toolkit with 8B and 2H pencils, HB, eraser, blending stump, q tips, and a white marker for eye drawing.

Test and compare the Caran d'Ache blender bright for colored and graphite pencils, noting it darkens areas and how it stacks up against a colorless blender.

Sketch an eye by constructing a round iris with a compass, outline the pupil, upper eyelid, and tear ducts, then mark the reflected light and erase the excess pupil boundary.

Draw the eye by shading the pupil with a dark pencil, defining the iris boundary, and adding radiating lines for depth and highlights.

Shade the sclera using circular motions to build a smooth gradient texture for the whites of the eye, with cast shadows, highlights, and blending toward the iris.

Shade the skin around the eye and eyelid fold with a b pencil, use circular motions, blend the edge with a q tip, and delay eyelashes until shading is finished.

Shade the area above the eyelid fold with circular motions and varied pencils to create a smooth gradient toward the eyebrow, blending with a q-tip toward the highlight.

Shade the eyebrow area and draw lashes by following hair growth directions with varying pencils, blending, and erasing to create depth, highlights, and a natural shape.

Master shading the skin under the eye, applying makeup effects, and drawing eyelashes with circular motions, shadows, and blending to create depth and realistic edge between skin and lashes.

Apply finishing touches to the eye drawing by adding highlights, refining edges with an eraser, adjusting graphite with blending and shading, and using markers for subtle whiteness and texture.