 Hi everyone, welcome to a new video here on my channel. My name is Zyra and I post mainly art and drawing videos. So if you'd like to watch more, be sure to check out my channel and subscribe. Today I will be showing you how I draw eyes for my portraits. This video was highly requested from my previous tutorial videos. So if you haven't watched those yet, they will be linked in the card section. So go check them out. Now, let's get started. There will be different parts of the video that deal with how to draw eyes. As you can see, these are the timestamps for each part. So if you want to skip to a section that you're interested in, feel free to do so. Eye Anatomy. As we all know, the eye is a three-dimensional object which means that our perception of it changes with perspective. This also means that the way we draw two-dimensional shapes and lines must change in order to convey the three-dimensional form of the eye. As you can see on this diagram, the eyeball is a sphere and it consists of many parts, but what's relevant for us is the sclera or the white part of the eye, the iris and the pupil. Then there's skin that wraps around the eyeball basically mimicking the spherical form of the eyeball. This creates the upper eyelid, the eyelid crease and the lower eyelid. And lastly, there's the eyelashes growing on the upper and lower eyelids. As you can also see, we've kind of started to see the basic shapes and lines that we will be using to draw the eyes. Drawing the other eye. For this demonstration, I will be drawing both eyes, so please refer to the right side of the screen for a real-time demonstration and sometimes the left side of the screen for some animations to help with my explanation. In order to draw both eyes and have them look the same, the best method I've found is to draw them simultaneously. This means that with each step or small detail that I add to one eye, I will immediately replicate onto the other eye. That way, the steps and techniques are fresh in my memory, which gives me a better chance of achieving an identical replica. Of course, I will also be using guidelines and measurements to help me achieve symmetry, balance and precision when drawing both eyes. Basic lines and shapes. Let's start with a circle to represent the spherical form of the eyeball. The size of this circle determines the size of your drawing, so the bigger the circle, the bigger the eye, the smaller the circle, the smaller the drawing of an eye is. Next, let's establish the center cross. This cross is important when drawing the eye in different angles. For a front view, this cross will be completely straight and centered. However, in a three-quarter view, the vertical center line will shift to the left or to the right of the circle. And of course, as we know from a sphere, this line will become a curve. The same goes when drawing the eye from a high or low angle. However, that's the horizontal center line that will start to shift, and then you can also do a combination angle where basically the cross will start to shift. Next, let's draw a small circle right in the middle of the center cross to represent the iris. The diameter of this circle is roughly a third of the diameter of the large circle. And when looking at this from a front view, the circle will also be symmetrical on all sides. However, as it moves around the circle to represent the iris, looking right, left, up or down or any direction, the circle actually becomes asymmetrical and it starts to look more like an ellipse. Next, let's draw a concave line to represent the upper eyelid and a convex line to represent the lower eyelid, creating a shape that I often refer to as a shape that looks like a leaf. Now, the length of this shape is equivalent to roughly two of our small circles. The height, on the other hand, I personally like to draw it just slightly smaller than the height of our small circle or the iris since the eyelids generally do not show the whole iris in a relaxed state. Of course, we can change that. If you wanna create different eye shapes and expressions, you can totally change the size such as the width or the height of this shape and you can also change the tilt. For example, changing the overall size of this shape can give us big round eyes or narrow eyes. It can also give us a shocked expression, a relaxed expression or an angry expression. And if we change the tilt of this shape, it can give us almond eyes or downturned eyes. When drawing the eyelids in front view, I like to think of them as perfectly symmetrical. That just makes it easier for me to understand how this shape in particular will become once I start drawing the eyes in different angles. And similar to the shapes that I've mentioned before, this shape also becomes asymmetrical all because of perspective. And not just that, the degree of these curves can also actually change based on the angle if the face is looking up or looking down. And here we have a very basic eye. From here, we can mix and match the angle of the eye to the movement of the iris and start to play around. However, once you're kind of at this stage, just keep in mind the relationship of the iris to the upper eyelid. When the iris moves up or down, even through observation, you might notice that the upper eyelid moves with it. And here are some examples of different ways that you can mix and match the angle of the eye to the movement of the iris. But now let's draw some more essential parts of the eye. Let's draw another concave line above the eye to represent the eyelid crease. The length of this line is roughly shorter than the length of the eye. And like with other lines, this is also symmetrical in front view, let's say, but it will become asymmetrical and the degree of this curve will also change when drawing this line in different angle views. You can also change the tilt and the distance of this line to create different eye shapes. For example, the distance of the eyelid crease to the eye can create deep set eyes or hooded eyes. And sometimes that distance is so minimal that it creates a monolid. You can also change the tilt of this line to create tapered eyelids, for example, or a low eyelid. Lastly, let's draw another convex line below the eye to represent the under eye. The length of this line is roughly shorter than the length of the eyelid crease. And of course, we will also treat this as symmetrical in front view, but it will become asymmetrical and the degree of the curve will also change once we start to draw this in different angle views. You can also change the tilt, the distance and how subtle this line is to represent expressions and age. For example, we can change the distance of the under eye to create tired puffy eyes and we can also change the tilt to represent the eyes of an older person. Notice how you can make simple adjustments to all of the basic shapes and lines that I've just mentioned. And what I absolutely love about them is that you can mix and match, you can experiment and you can play around with those adjustments, play with different combinations to create diversity, to create different expressions and also to stylize the way we draw eyes. So that is pretty much how I draw a very basic looking eye. And if you wanna know more, let's start adding details. Adding details and refining. With the very basic eye shape that I've drawn, I'm going to show you how I change that up to create a more refined drawing of an eye. So I'm going to change the eye shape into an upturned or almond shaped eye. So of course I'm going to change that tilt. I'm also going to deepen the curve of the convex line to expose some sclera underneath the iris. I feel like this gives the eye an almost bored expression which a lot of my favorite artists do and we often see this expression in models and it's just kind of my personal style. So I'm doing that for this demonstration. And whilst we're at it, let's refine the shape so that it doesn't look too symmetrical. Even though I know literally 10 seconds ago, I said that if we're drawing this shape in front view, it is perfectly symmetrical. However, symmetry, especially in a semi-realistic style, tends to look a little boring and a little cartoony. And so in order to achieve that semi-realism, we start to embrace imperfections. So we're going to make it asymmetrical. And the way to do that is we can either change the curve so that they both look asymmetrical but still identical or we can change the curves individually so that it looks like they're going in opposite directions. And we can also actually change the curves to make them look a little bit more angular. So it gives us a more masculine look. Basically we can do anything that we want. I'm going to go in the opposite directions for this. And it's actually a common way of how other artists draw eyes. So if you've watched another video, this is probably how they've drawn it. I've started with more of a symmetrical just to explain how perspective affects this particular shape. Next, I'm going to change the length, rotation, and distance of this eyelid crease curve so that it touches the inner corner of the eye. It's closer to the eye and it tapers upwards. I find that this kind of eyelid crease goes really well with almond-shaped eyes. As for the convex line or the under eye, I'm not going to make any changes to that because I'm quite happy with how it is. Next, let's add some tear duct onto the inner corner of the eyes by altering the curve of the eyelids. Even though we've already altered them before, that was just changing the overall shape. Now we're actually going to alter it so that we can make the inner corner of the eye either pointy, rounded. It can also be pointing straight or pointing downwards. However, I'm going to kind of mix and match and choose a rounded shape that's also pointing downwards. Next, let's add the waterline which is a convex line just above the lower eyelid. We can choose to draw this as a strong solid line or we can just show this through shading. A lot of my favorite artists actually just show this through shading but I'll personally do both. And speaking of shading, as we're also doing this, let's shade in the sclera in a curved motion because that's the form of the eyeball and we want to be able to show that form through shading as well. And this will also separate the tear duct from the sclera and also add some shading under the upper eyelid, especially if the light source is above the object which it often is. Next, let's draw the details on the iris. Since this is going to be how I draw eyes, I like to simplify it by first mapping out where the highlight is going to be. This completely depends on the light source, of course. So my light source is on the upper right hand side, therefore the highlight is also on that side of the iris. Next, let's shade the edges of the iris so that the edges are dark and it starts to get lighter towards the center but I also personally like to make the top part of the iris quite dark and lastly, I'm going to add the pupil which is a circle in the middle of the iris and I shade that as dark as possible. Next, let's shade the eyelid crease. So I start by drawing an oval between the crease and the top of the eye, which will be my highlight. After that, I basically just shade around it making sure that the line is the darkest. I also shade on top of the crease. For this particular demonstration, I'm only focusing on the outer edges of the eyes. However, of course, the shading of the eyelid varies based on different eye shapes but that could be for another video. Next, let's do the same for the under eye but this time making it subtle and focusing the shading only on the inner corner of the eyes. Of course, we could also add shading to the outer corners of the eyes but we're going to make it as light as possible. And lastly, let's add the eyelashes which are essentially curved lines that start from the upper eyelid line and they fan out from the center of the eye and the length of the curves are actually shorter on the inner corner and they get longer towards the outer corner. One tip to make them look natural is to keep it random. So random length, random angles and random thickness. Of course, you can also change the length and the fullness of eyelashes to create different looks like for example, eyelash extensions or false lashes and same goes for the bottom lashes. However, this time the curves are a lot shorter and there also tends to be less eyelashes if you want to go for that natural look but of course, you can also change the fullness and the length for a more dramatic look. And as a bonus, let's add the eyebrows which is slightly longer than the length of an eye. So the shape is an asymmetrical arch where the inner part is longer and thicker and the outer part tapers to a point. Of course, we can also change the thickness of the eyebrows. We can also change the degree of the arch to create highly arched brows or straight brows but for this drawing, I'm going for thick arched brows. To fill this in, we can either draw every single hair strand which fans out. It starts off straight towards the inner part and then it starts to bend and curve mimicking the shape of the eyebrow especially towards the direction of the tip. I personally like to simplify it by drawing the hair strands only on the inner and outer parts of the eyebrow. I only draw the hair at the start and then it's still kind of fanning out but in the middle it's just a solid block but then towards the tip, I add smaller hair strands that are pointing downwards. And after that, I add some more finishing touches such as more shading and refining the lines and that's it. That's how I draw the eyes and how I draw both eyes simultaneously. The eyes in perspective. In this video, I have touched on how perspective can affect how we draw the basic shapes and lines for an individual eye. However, if you wanna know how perspective affects both eyes at the same time, I do recommend watching my video on how to draw the face in three quarter view which will be in the card section of this video since I touch on it in that video. However, if you want another video on that and if you have any questions then let me know in the comments down below. Tips and tricks. Of course, what tutorial video would it be if I didn't offer some tips and tricks to help you master how to draw eyes? You may have heard these tips before but I will keep repeating them as I honestly believe that these will help you in mastering how to draw eyes and basically how to draw anything. Number one, use references. I know it's super obvious but it doesn't just mean looking at reference images and copying what you see. No, this goes so much deeper because I urge you to observe and analyze in order to fully understand how eyes work, how different eye shapes look, how we make alterations to eyes such as the use of makeup. By really observing, it can lead to discovering something that might help you with your learning and even help with developing your very own art style. Number two, learn different methods. If you search how to draw eyes on YouTube alone there are so many videos and tutorials each offering a different method, technique and style that is completely unique to each artist. So I highly recommend that you check them out and just don't stop there. Explore other resources such as books or master classes. I mean, I understand that this method that I'm showing you in this video might not work for you but I do guarantee that there will be a method out there that will. You just need to search for it and I've actually gathered links in the description box so that's a great place to start. Especially if maybe you didn't find this video super helpful. Number three, experiment. Of course this not only means to practice but it means to step outside your comfort zone, break boundaries and test your own limits. This also means to fail and make lots and lots of mistakes and of course to learn from it all. You can also try out the worksheet exercise linked in the description box that I have made for this video. Challenge yourself with drawing different facial expressions or drawing as many eyes as possible using different media maybe to draw eyes so much more. You never know what you might discover. So experiment. With that said, I will end today's video. I hope you found this method of drawing eyes useful and remember to understand the three-dimensional form, make minor adjustments to create variety, draw the eyes simultaneously, practice, experiment and most importantly, have fun. If you try this method, please tag me on Instagram whether you ask me for feedback on your drawings or to just say hi, I'd love to hear from you. And once again, please utilize the description box below. There's information in there to accompany your learning such as the free downloadable worksheet that I have created and other tutorial links. Use those to your advantage. If you have any additional tips and tricks on how to draw eyes, comment them down below. And if you also have other videos you'd like to see, let me know. Of course, please give this video a like and subscribe, share this video to fellow artists and thank you so much for watching. I wish you the best of luck with your art journey and I will see you in my next video.