Actually this method is the easiest way to draw just about anything...
It can be summed up into one word - 'KISS', or rather an acronym the navy came up with back in the 60's that stands for 'keep it simple, stupid'.
The theory behind it is that a simple plan usually works out better than a complicated one.
And for some reason, eyes are really complicated to draw. Yes, they should be simple. But they're not. If they were, the eyes we drew wouldn't look like almonds...
Oh yeah, I'm as guilty of almond eyes as anyone. Check out these lovely head drawings I did, back before I knew how to draw them properly.
There's a lot wrong with them. But almonds for eyes? Not a good look.
So I'm going to show you the stupid simple method I've developed for drawing eyes, which I demonstrate step by step in my Heads & Faces Workshop (which you can get immediate access to right now through the How to Draw Comics Academy).
This should work for just about anyone, so get out your sketchbook and lets have a crack at it!
Step 1: Draw Basic Shapes For The Eye Opening And Eyebrow
We'll start out with a very basic shape for the eye and brow. So basic anyone could draw them. Seriously. I bet you won't even break a sweat.
Notice that these shapes each have only four corners. That's right, they're basically rectangles... rectangles that have been pushed out of shape.
The eye is a parallelogram and the eye brow, a trapezoid (but don't let those fancy shape names intimidate you).
Practice drawing these shapes a few times and once you feel like you've got a handle on them, move onto step 2.
Step 2: Sketch In The Shape of The Eyelashes
Now we'll add in a slightly more complicated, but still simple shape for the eyelashes.
This shape can be tricky to capture - but if we look at it closely, it's actually pretty easy to draw.
We've got an eye lash 'parallelogram' (aka slanted box) running along the top of the eye, another running along the outer eye, and one running along the bottom.
So really we've got a four sided eye lash shape running along each edge of the eye opening.
As for the eyebrow... well it pretty much stays the same except for one small tweak. Place an extra corner at the center of the bottom edge and drop it, just a bit.
That's it. Eye shape customizations completed. Lets move onto step 3.
Step 3: Draw the Pupil, Iris And Eyebrow Rendering
Add a pupil and an iris to the eye opening - along with a light reflection to create a shiny, wet appearance.
Things to look out for where drawing the pupil and iris - don't draw them right in the middle of the eye, instead place them closer to the top. The reason for this is because the top eyelid partially covers the upper eye.
Next, fill in the eyelashes with black, and add some extra strands to suggest a more hair-like appearance!
The trickiest part here is probably rendering the eyebrow hair. Some of the strands will sit closely together, while others are spread apart - but all should follow the direction of the eye brow's hair flow.
WARNING: avoid any uniform lines that are evenly spaced when it comes to drawing in those eyebrow furs! All hair should have a certain randomness to it, to capture a natural looking aesthetic.
Finely, describe the surrounding eye anatomy, such as the eye lids and socket with a few contours and some subtle rendering.
That's it.
The process is simple, but as always, practice it a few times to really master it.
Believe or not the other facial features, nose, mouth, ears, can also be drawn using a simple, easy to follow method as well - regardless of the view you're drawing them on.
And I cover all that and more in The Heads & Faces Workshop - and you'll get access to all the lessons inside this workshop when you join the How to Draw Comics Academy today. Click here now to find out more.
I hope you got loads of value out of this drawing tutorial and that you'll put it to good use! Until next time, keep drawing.
-Clayton
Tutorial by Clayton Barton
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