How to draw surreal eyes with this how-to video and step-by-step drawing instructions. Simple drawing for kids and beginners.
Please see the drawing tutorial in the video below
You can refer to the simple step-by-step drawing guide below
Sketch all the basic shapes. Then, with lighter strokes, mark the outline of the more prominent shadows that you can notice at this point.
I started with the student and continued adding shapes around it.
How to sketch eyes with a grid – proper order
Pupil
Iris
Light reflection
General outline of the eye
Inner corner elements
wrinkle
Waterline (eyelid contour)
Shadows and wrinkles are more prominent
eyebrow
The line connecting the outer corner to the eyebrow
Hover over the image or tap it to see the numbers.
Remember that the pupil and iris should be round. Be sure to look at them from a slightly different angle and see if they are more or less round. Another thing to keep in mind is that the pupil should be right in the center of the iris.
Now, for each eye there is a reflected point of light. Its shape is determined by a light source, such as a lamp or a window (in our case, a window). You often notice many highlights in your model’s eyes. I usually choose to ignore them – a bigger point is enough – it makes the eyes pop and keeps the drawing clean. You’ll get the best results if the reflection cuts into the pupil, so it’s half there and half on the iris.
As for the waterline lines, keep in mind that they get thinner as they get closer to the inner corner of the eye. The visibility of the upper water level depends on the angle at which we look at the eye.
Last but not least: be careful with lines that span multiple squares. After you have drawn the outline in each square, look at the entire line again and flatten it.
Pro Tip: When drawing with a grid, always remember to check what the grid made you do. Draw specific squares separately to ensure good proportions. Then look at the whole picture and check if the shapes look good, they connect smoothly and you don’t need to move things around a bit.
First, you may want to roll your kneaded eraser over the drawing a few times to make the sketch less visible. I leave it as it is so you can see it better.
The student’s shadow will determine the contrast of our drawing. Fill in properly with a soft pencil (at least 4B). Add layers until you achieve the closest shadow to black.
If the highlighter on your eyes gets into your pupils, keep that area white! It won’t be possible to remove it later without any graphite residue showing up.
Highlight Iris
In the next few steps I will show you how to draw an iris.
First, fill in the entire iris. Tilt your pencil slightly to keep the strokes soft, like on the right side of the image below.
Leave white reflected light. It’s the second factor that determines contrast. Make it the brightest element in your eye drawing.
Using a much darker color, define the outline of the iris. Make that line pretty thick.
If you are drawing another eye, where the eyelid covers part of the iris, leave that part as is.
MIX IRIS
Before blending, make sure you have erased the grid lines around the iris. We need that area clean as we will not only blend the inside but also the outer edge of the iris. If we don’t delete these lines, they will still be visible and trying to remove them later will destroy our perfect blend.
Use a blending stump to smooth the inside of the iris. I like to blend in the opposite direction of the pencil strokes. The truth is that I usually blend everywhere, so don’t think of that as a rule.
The final step here is to blur the dark circle on the outside of the iris that we created earlier. Use the tip of the stump to do it, keeping it slightly tilted.
Pro Tip: Using stump tips is the fastest way to damage them. However, I own a stump that is enough and I can damage it a little more. So you should.
First, dilute the dark circle towards the pupil. Then smooth the outer edge. If you look into any eye, you will notice that the line between the iris and the sclera is softer than sharp.
FILLING IRISE WITH SOME BASIC LINES
If your goal is to create a surreal eye drawing, the next 4 steps are crucial – we will draw a detailed iris.
If you feel like it’s too much, that’s okay. Even without these details, your drawing will look very impressive. All these odds and sods can also be superfluous if you’re creating a portrait or a whole person sketch where you won’t be able to see such small details. If so, please skip to step 9.
If not, draw a wiggly circle around the student. This ring usually separates different colors, shades, or structures in the iris.
Next, add a few more lines around the pupil. They should start right in the middle of the pupil and end at the edge of the iris (hover over the image). Make sure the spacing between them is uneven – the whole iris is quite messy and we wanted to make it as small as possible
First step here – delete the grid lines covering the top cover area. I didn’t and you can see them show up from below the graphite layer. It is often possible to blend them with the rest of the image, but sometimes they still show up. So don’t follow my example here. Erase hell out of them.
Next, refine the wrinkle – make it really dark and quite thick.
Fill in the whole area the way I did. Start at the inner corner and end at the line connecting the crease to the eyebrow. Remember to sharpen and tilt your pencil for that.
Looking at our reference photo, you’ll see that you should make the left side a bit darker. Same goes for the area above the brow crease. Please follow my sketch along with the shadows you can see in the original photo.
Let’s also start shading the folds. You should add a gradual shadow below the left fold and above the right fold. Look at the image to see where the conversion actually happens.
REGIONAL COOPERATION ON THE BILLION
Mix everything with the stump and brush if you have one.
Pro tip: Using a soft brush (preferably a makeup brush) can help you achieve better results than the original brush for blending, especially with light colors.
Go beyond the brow line a bit so that in the next steps you can smoothly transition between these areas.
Tweaking Shadows and Highlights
Just look at your drawing and decide if it needs more contrast. I added a drop shadow in the crease area (add a drop shadow under the fold on the right side and darken the rest of them)
I also use my blended eraser to highlight the top of my brows.
CHECK THE SPACE BETWEEN EYES AND EYES
Then, cover the entire area evenly.
Add another layer to darken the shadow next to the base of the nose.
CONNECTION TO THE UPPER COVER
This is the first part that actually contains the edge of our eye drawing. While mixing it, don’t forget to fade it to the left side.
Another thing to remember is to re-line the brow line.
Connect this skin to the skin that we drew earlier so that the shadow falls evenly across the entire upper eyelid.
ADDING LAYERS BELOW EYE
Again, delete unnecessary grid lines.
Add a few dots on the lower lash line so you can still see where it is, even after you blend the lower lash area. Don’t worry about their visibility – we’ll grow eyelashes from them later!
Fill in the remaining skin with gentle strokes. Continue adding layers in areas that need more shade. Play with some slashes here to ensure better coverage – change the direction of the strokes in each layer by 90 degrees.
MIX THE BOTTOM LINE
Mix everything. As always, start with lighter tones.
I used the brush to blend the white skin at the bottom of the artboard and the original for all the darker shades.
MORE DEVELOPMENT
As a rule, look at your eye drawing and see if you should enhance the contrast, aka darken the shadows.
You can also draw some wrinkles in this step. Use gentle strokes to create the most beautiful lines.
Smooths EVERYTHING
If you added new layers, use the stump to blend them into the rest of the artboard.
The transitions between skin shades should be subtle and soft, so stroke them with your brush. Take that same brush – you now have some graphite residue on it – and blend the edges of your drawing.
INTRODUCTION OUTSTANDING SKIN TEXTURE
This is another step that you can skip if you are creating a less realistic work. If so, go to step 30.
See all those little wrinkles at the corners of your eyes? It is drawing with the eraser again!
I used my eraser to do that – it’s super thin and does a great job with lines.
First, draw some lines and spots at the corner of the eye, then move to the skin on the lower eyelid.
This texture might look complicated, but I created it by simply swiping the area in one direction first and adding some random lines afterwards (preferably in the opposite direction). The goal is to create a pattern that looks like skin cells – a grid of small rhombuses and triangles.
While holding the eraser in hand, I also added some highlights around the waterline and on the eyeballs.
MORE FUTURE POP
Considering that all wrinkles and textures are indentations in the skin, you should combine each highlight with a dark area. Do it with a worn pencil or with the tip of a blended stump.
The light source is on the top right, so all tracks should have shadows on the top or right.
I’ve overlaid this image with the photo from the previous step to help you see the changes I’ve applied.
MORE tendons
While we’re looking at the details, let’s add some veins on the eyeball.
Draw a few irregular lines that vary in shade. They should be very thin, so use a fairly sharp pencil. Just don’t push it too hard. We wanted them to be subtle so as not to overshadow the iris. It’s drawing the eyes, not drawing the cardiovascular system, winking, winking.
