How to shade eyes tutorial
How to shade eyes tutorial
How to shade a face: Ultimate tutorial
I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say this:
Shading is so damn hard!
I’ve been drawing for most of my life and it still gets to me sometimes.
Shading is what makes a drawing look realistic and triggers that “WOW” reaction. It’s also a tedious process, and that’s why it’s so difficult to teach.
So in this monster of a tutorial I will show you how to shade a face with pencil from beginning to end using a ton of images, explanations and tips.
This tutorial is so long that it’s the equivalent of a 40 page book!
If you haven’t read the in-depth shading guide, please click here before you continue on. I’m not going to talk a lot about shading techniques in this post because it’s already covered there.
Tired of reading shallow and confusing tutorials?
Do you have trouble following shading tutorials online because they usually skip from step ‘A’ all the way to step ‘G’ with little to no explanation? Do you have difficulties making your drawings pop or look realistic, eventually giving up in frustration?
For this tutorial, I recorded the full drawing process by scanning 213 high quality images which took over 35 hours in total just to scan! From that, I carefully selected a group of images for each step which clearly shows the intricate stages and layers of my shading process. Each step is backed up by clear explanations, shading tips and techniques.
You can immediately apply these techniques to your own artwork and watch your portraits come to life.
Each step is packed with a ton of image examples. Most steps contain a clickable slideshow of 3-9 images so you can view them at your own pace, and easily observe the subtle changes from one image to the next. You can also zoom in and out of each slideshow image to analyze the details further.
The GIF below is a preview of only a few images you can expect to see in this tutorial.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or intermediate… if you have the patience and dedication to sit through this entire tutorial, I PROMISE you will walk away with a handful of value.
This is going to be a very detailed and lengthy post where each step covers a specific area of the face such as eyes, nose, mouth, chin, etc. You can skip to any area by using the links below, but please do not skip the first 2 sections!
From step 3 onward, each step is broken down to multiple sub-steps so you can easily follow along with what I’m doing.
NEW: There’s a downloadable template of the unshaded face so you can print it out and follow along without having to re-draw the face every time. Thanks Dale Fisher for the great idea! Also, included is a PDF version for offline viewing.
⬇️ Downloads:
Click here to download a template of the face (it will open in a new tab). There are 4 versions to choose from. To print only 1 from the PDF, navigate to “pages” and type the page number you would like to print.
Here’s a PDF (offline version) of the tutorial. Please keep in mind that the tutorial is best viewed online because the changes between each step are quite subtle and best viewed with the slideshows which are not supported in PDF.
Quick Navigation:
Step 1: Lighting the Face
Step 2: Preliminary Outlines + Shadow Lining
Step 3: Shading Eyes
Step 4: Shading the Nose
Step 5: Shading the Mouth
Step 6: Shading the Forehead
Step 7: Shading Cheeks and Smile Lines
Step 8: Shading Jawline and Chin
Step 9: Shading Neck and Ears
Tools I used
How to Shade a Face Step 1: Lighting the Face
If you read my shading tutorial, you will need to apply your knowledge of light and your practice with planes in this section.
Proper proportions aside, it is highly important that you figure out the lighting situation for the scene before you shade the face to identify patterns of light and be able to apply the right amount of value where appropriate.
To do that, you can create a planar head/face of your subject, add a light source and shade the individual planes using solid tones or gradients relative to the direction and intensity of the light(s). You can take this a little bit further by adding cast shadows as well.
Step 2: Preliminary Outlines + Shadow Lining
Image 1: I used a blunt HB pencil to draw the outlines for the face. Keep your under layer as faint as possible. I had to draw mine 3x darker because the scanned image showed up blank.
Image 2: For the sake of making this tutorial look more interesting, I went ahead and shaded the background, clothes and hair. Usually when I draw, I work on these things last. Which I also recommend you do because it’s hard to fix something if you get the head proportions/angle wrong.
Image 3: This part is optional, but will help guide you if you often catch yourself getting lost in the details while shading. I came up with this technique a while back where I outline major shadows using the primary shading technique I want to use for the entire drawing. I’m going to call this ‘Shadow Lining’ for now.
If you’re using the hatching technique to shade your face, hatch along major shadows. Pay attention to your hatching angles and make sure they are the same!
If you’re using circulism, draw a row of faint circles… you get the point 🙂
Use the shadow lining technique instead of regular outlines to keep your shading smooth. As you work your way through the tutorial, you’ll notice that the shadow lines blend perfectly into my shading even after a single layer of graphite.
I’m going to shade this face using the hatching technique, which I highly recommend for you if you’re a beginner. It allows you to cover more ground in a short period of time compared to circulism and because of that, it allows you to spot mistakes fast instead of getting caught up in the little details right from the get go.
One more thing before we move on to step 3! You’re going to see a pattern come up over and over again. Let me tell you what it is so you can watch out for it.
Pattern: For this tutorial specifically, I laid down one solid layer of light graphite to begin (HB). On the second layer I either darkened the area with another solid layer or began adding details (4B). On subsequent layers, when confident, I darkened the shading significantly and added more details (4B or 6B). Once I’m done with an area, I look back at previously drawn sections and compare everything to see if the lighting makes sense across the board.
I also refer back to my planar head to make sure the light patterns are consistent.
Step 3: Shading the Eyes
It’s up to you where you want to start shading the face. I love starting with the eyes because they are the main focal points of a face.
Area Between the Eyes and Eyebrows
Image 1: Starting with the brow area directly under the eyebrows, I used a blunt HB pencil to shade a flat and light solid layer of graphite.
Image 2: I then followed up with a slightly darker layer using 4B graphite. This layer establishes the lightest mid-tone that will appear on both sides.
Image 3: On my third layer, I added more pressure, bringing out the shadows around the eyelid creases, nose bridge and eye sockets. In step 1, I established that the left side of the face would be in shadow, so I shaded the right side much lighter than the left.
Tip: The darker you shade the nose bridge, the more prominent/tall the nose will be. Keep the bridge fairly light until you actually start to shade the nose.
Upper Eyelid
Image 1: First, I made the eyelid creases darker so that later on when I shade the eyelid, the creases will not disappear. The darker the crease, the deeper it will look.
Then I put down my first layer of HB graphite across each eyelid.
Image 2: I then shaded both eyelids using the contour shading technique. It would have been difficult to shade a smooth gradient in such a narrow space using the hatching technique. The light is coming from the top right side, so for the left eyelid, I used a 4B and for the right, I used an HB pencil.
Tip: When you introduce a new shading technique into a drawing, make sure your pencil is blunt and your shading is tight, so the shading doesn’t look noticeably different.
Lower Eyelid and Under Eye Circles
Image 1: You’ll notice that I didn’t shade the whole area under the eyes. The areas that I didn’t shade are areas I want to highlight or shade later when I get to the nose or cheeks (HB).
Image 2: Using a 4B, and the contouring technique, I slowly built up shadows to indicate subtle under eye circles. Notice how I didn’t use a thick, dark curve to represent the circles, but instead layered various tones to do so.
Tip: When dealing with curvy areas, use the contour shading technique to make the curve look more natural.
If you’re wondering why I didn’t show you how to shade inside the eye, that’s because it’s already been covered here.
Step 4: Shading the Nose
There’s an added difficulty to this step because we’ve already established values for the eyes. This is the first time that the shading for two major facial features are converging with each other.
Just so I don’t lose you, the first and second parts cover the dark side, third part covers the light side and the last part brings the two of them together.
Dark Side #1: Nose Bridge
Image 1: Starting on the shadow side of the nose, I put down my first layer of HB graphite to match the shading in closest proximity to the nose bridge. This layer gradually blends into the shading around the eye and seamlessly along the brow bone.
Tip: It’s important that you do not change the angle of your hatching when you move from one area of your drawing to another. Always check that your hatching angle is consistent with the rest of the drawing.
Image 2: Using a 4B, I darkened the area of the bridge closest to the terminator (if you’re confused, please please read the shading tutorial!). The darker the bridge, the taller the nose will look.
Dark Side #2: Bottom of Nose
Image 1: Still working on the shadow side, except this time I’m shading the bottom portion of the nose. In Step 1, I outlined major shadows using the shadow lining technique, and this area is one of them. I shaded within the boundary of the outline with an HB and then filled the nostrils using a layer of 4B and when confident, a 6B. If I don’t darken the nostrils now, the outlines may disappear after the next layer.
Image 2: I smoothed out the boundary between the nostrils and skin by using a 4B to make the transition between light and dark a little less abrupt. In step 1, I knew that I would have to incorporate reflected light coming from the bottom left of the scene, so you’ll notice that some edges on the left side of the nose are lighter than others.
Light Side #1: Nose Bridge
Image 1-2: Once the shadow sides were as dark as I needed them to be, I crossed over to the other side of the terminator and added the mid-tones and left some space for highlights. Don’t worry about the nose bridge looking highly angular at this point. This layer is just to establish the lightest mid-tones.
Image 1-2: To soften the edge of the bridge, I shaded along the terminator, easing up on my pressure as I shaded into the highlights. The darkest values on the light side remain lighter than the darkest values on the shadow side.
I didn’t smooth out the terminator along the tip of the nose. The abrupt change from light to shadow, suggests a sharp edge.
Tip: When shading into a lighter area, lift your pencil at the end of the stroke so the transition from dark to light is smooth and natural.
Step 5: Shading the Mouth
Just like the eyelid, you can shade the lips using the contour shading technique. You can go horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
Lips
Image 1: The lightest value on the lips will be light grey, so my first layer is a solid light grey (HB). I made sure to reference the nose and eyes to see if I’m shading too dark.
Image 2: In this layer, I blocked out areas on the top lip where reflective light would hit.
I did the same for the bottom lip. The main light source is coming from the top right, so the left side will be darker than the right (4B).
Image 3: After outlining each tooth, I used the sharpest edge of a 0.5mm 4B mechanical pencil to go over the outlines of the inner mouth and around each tooth so that when I shade the inside the mouth, there is a clear boundary for me to work within. I shaded inside the mouth with a 6B pencil, making sure to leave some areas light for the tongue.
The teeth were shaded with a 4B pencil. Around the edges where each tooth touches the other, the value was increased slightly to hint a curve on the surface of each tooth.
For the lips, I used a 4B to draw wrinkles and shaded around them using the contour shading technique (vertically). The main light source is coming from the top right, so the bottom lip is lighter than the top.
For the base of the bottom lip, I did some horizontal contouring.
In areas where lighting appeared inconsistent, I used a pointy kneaded eraser to lift away the appropriate amount of graphite.
Tip: Make sure your outlines don’t show through. If they do, erase them as you go.
Left Upper Lip
The area above the mouth can be broken down into 3 major planes. Since the light is coming from the top right, the right plane will be the lightest, middle plane darker and the left plane darkest.
Image 1: I laid down a flat layer of light graphite and instead of shading over the nostril, I went around it (HB).
Image 2: If you look very carefully, you’ll notice that this second layer of graphite does not fully cover the first. I shaded from left to right, starting from the corner of the lip this time. In image 1, the plane seems to be flat and facing us directly. In image 2, the plane starts to angle away.
Image 3: This would not be complete without a cast shadow! The light casts a short, diffused shadow from the nose onto the upper lip. Even though it’s diffused light, the cast shadow’s edges are harder at the base of the nose and become softer the further away it reaches.
Philtrum
Image 1: I shaded the philtrum, leaving a narrow white space directly above the lip (HB). This indicates a soft, round edge around the lip which will later continue down the right side.
Image 2: The philtrum is deep but it’s angles are no steeper than the left upper lip, so the dark areas within the philtrum are shaded with similar tones (4B).
Image 3: I darkened the philtrum some more and went over previous areas to add touch ups (4B).
Tip: When you’re working in sections, always step back and check that your shading makes sense as a whole. Are there surfaces facing the same direction that have completely different tones? Does the lighting pattern match your planar drawing?
Right Upper Lip
Image 1: The right side of the face is facing the light, so my base layer is the lightest shade of gray (HB).
Image 2: I didn’t want to shade this section too dark, so I used an HB to shade the mid-tones as well. I made sure to soften out the terminator along the philtrum so the facial features would maintain soft.
Lower Lip & Chin Crease
Image 1: I carefully blended a solid layer of graphite into the previous sections while trying not to shade over the lips (HB).
Image 2: I kept the right side lighter, but added some darker tones to the corner of the mouth since the corner recedes into the face (4B).
Image 3: Using the contouring technique, I drew a crease under the lip. This crease has hard edges, making it look unnatural (4B).
Image 4: Using a 4B and a light sweeping motion I softened out the edges of the crease to blend it in. I then took a step back and examined the whole mouth, added touch ups and softened edges where needed.
Step 6: Shading the Forehead
In step 2, I drew two shadow lines on the forehead, splitting it into three major sections/planes.
For each plane, I used the same general pattern as mentioned in the beginning of the tutorial. I started shading from the left plane to right forehead plane, darkest to lightest, while constantly referring to the values of previously shaded facial features. I softened the edge of each plane so you can still clearly see the transition from dark to light without the forehead looking blocky.
Something to pay attention to here is when you’re shading near the hairline, remember to add some soft diffused shadows. This will make the transition between hair and skin look a lot more natural.
I also added cast shadows under prominent groups of hair. These cast shadows appear darkest with more defined edges when the hair is touching the skin directly and become softer and lighter as the hair moves away. A good example is the curl of hair in column 1, row 3.
Tip: Don’t forget to redraw hairs that have disappeared after you’ve shaded the forehead.
Step 7: Shading Cheeks and Smile Lines
Image 1-2: When you’re clicking between image 1 and 2, you’ll see just how useful it is to outline shadows using the shadow lining technique! I highly recommend you use it!
Image 3-4: In these first few layers, I’m just blending the base layer for both cheeks into the surrounding facial features. The left cheek is slightly darker than the right one, but they both become darker as the skin curves around the sides of the face (HB and 4B)
Image 5: I took a step back to look at the face as a whole and darkened the eyes which gave it more depth (4B)
Image 6: I added a short and subtle smile line to the right cheek using a blunt HB.
Tip: If you draw smile lines using actual “lines”, you will add years to the subject’s face. Keep your smile lines short, shallow, light and edges soft in order to maintain a youthful look. For big toothy smiles, increase the value, but keep the crease generally light. It’s a good idea to draw smile lines one or two shades lighter than you want them to be. Don’t get tricked by your brain to over exaggerate such features.
Step 8: Shading the Jawline and Chin
Keep the boundary between the background/hair and face clean so that when you shade, the jawline is clearly defined. Don’t forget to add any reflected lighting around the outer edges of the face.
Left Jaw
Image 1: The left jaw is one of the darkest areas on the face, as it is facing almost opposite the direction of light, so instead of starting with a light layer of HB graphite, I went ahead and shaded a medium gray tone using a 4B. I used the contouring technique to shade along the jaw, leaving a narrow strip of raw paper along the edge to indicate some reflected light.
Image 2: Using a 4B, I blended the jaw and cheek together to reduce the harsh edge. I then darkened the jaw, making sure to darken areas along the terminator the most.
Image 3: I added touch ups using a 4B. This layer eliminated a lot of the grainy white dots. Using a layer of HB graphite, I increased the value of the reflection so it would be more consistent with the general value range found on the left side of the face.
Tip: If you want to make your drawing even more smooth, use the sharpest edge on a thin mechanical pencil to fill in major white dots. You can follow this up with blending too.
Chin
Like the middle forehead plane, the chin in located in the middle between the light and dark side. So I made sure to shade the middle part of the chin with medium light grays – a balance between the main values found on the dark and light sides of the face.
Image 1-2: Chins are sometimes really hard to shade, so I shaded around the chin and left the center for last (HB and 4B).
Image 3: The right side of the chin is hit with more light, so I put down a layer of graphite on the left side (HB).
Image 4: I blended all the edges on the left/dark side of the chin using a 4B and for the right/light side, I used an HB.
Tip: If you find your shading in close resemblance to stubble, your shading may be too rough. You can refer to this tutorial for tips on how to shade smoothly.
Right Jaw
Image 1: I darkened the jawline using blunt strokes so I can easily blend it later (4B).
Image 2: Using a mix of hatching and contouring, I blended the jawline upwards into the cheek (HB).
Step 9: Shading the Neck and Ears
The neck isn’t technically a part of the face, but I’ll add it in here just for kicks.
Image 1: With an HB pencil, I shaded a solid layer of graphite across the entire neck while making sure not to shade over the jawline, clothes or hair. This value is similar to those found on the right side of the face.
With a 4B, I added a darker layer of graphite along areas of the neck that are facing away from the light. The reason why there’s a light patch on the left side is because that area of skin is being pushed by the shirt’s neckline, making it bulge out and angle towards the light.
Image 2: I also shaded the far right side of the neck to give it some roundness and also because the hair is blocking some light from reaching this area.
I’ve also added cast shadows from the jaw, ear and hair over the collar bone (4B)
Image 3: Some subtle wrinkles have been added to the neck using an HB pencil. If you’ve practiced the contour line exercise in my previous tutorial, these wrinkle lines are similar to contouring in that they wrap around the unique shape of the neck. They’re not randomly drawn.
Image 4: After I was satisfied with the placement of all the shadows, I darkened the cast shadows under the jaw and ear using a 6B with fairly light pressure. These are the darkest cast shadows so far. I did not use the 6B to shade around the edges of each cast shadow because I wanted them to fade out gradually.
Image 5: I darkened the entire neck except for the highlights using a 4B. This layer got rid of many white dots, making the shading a lot smoother.
Image 6+: Using an HB, I went over the lightest areas so they are slightly darker than the average value on the right side of the face. There were clear boundaries between areas of light and dark, so I softened out all the edges.
The ear is hiding behind a lot of hair, so even though it is located on the right side of the face, it’s going to be much darker. The ear canal is not visible, so the darkest value inside the ear is medium gray instead of black or dark gray. After shading the ear, I made sure to touch up on the hairs because some of them were no longer visible.
I then took a big step back to look at the drawing as a whole and added or removed graphite in areas to keep the drawing consistent with the patterns of light. If you’re wondering how to shade a more realistic face with smoother skin textures, practice using the circulism shading technique. Although, if you’re new to portrait drawing, circulsim can be a little intimidating.
You’ve reached the end! What a long tutorial! It’s not my usual tutorial layout, so I hope it wasn’t confusing. If you have any questions, think I left something out or need clarification regarding any of the steps or techniques on how to shade a face, please let me know in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this tutorial, please leave a short review in the comments below. Thank you! 🙂
Darlene created RFA In 2013 with the goal of sharing simple yet detailed drawing tutorials with other artists on the world wide web. She is a self taught pencil portrait artist and Youtuber.
How to shade & pencil shading techniques
You guys asked for it, so here it is: the most requested tutorial to date: How to Shade + Shading Techniques! 🙂
Shading is the process of applying varying levels of darkness to create the illusion of form and depth.
Aside from practicing proper shading and blending techniques, a good understanding of light, planes and contours are crucial for turning a flat line drawing into a realistic portrait that conveys the illusion of form, bringing your drawing to life.
Below is a breakdown of what you can expect to learn from this shading tutorial.
You can click on the links below to quickly jump to any section of the tutorial. However, I highly suggest you read all the way through!
Part 1: Understanding Pencil Grades
⦁ Intro to Graphite Pencils
⦁ Shading with One Pencil
⦁ Shading with a Variety of Pencils
⦁ Black and White
Part 2: Pencil Shading Techniques
⦁ Hatching
⦁ Cross Hatching
⦁ Circulism
⦁ Contour Shading
Part 3: Pencil Shading Tips & Tricks
⦁ How to Shade Smoothly
⦁ Increase your Range of Motion
⦁ Use the Right Amount of Pressure
⦁ Value Consistency
Part 4: Understanding Light
⦁ The Light and Dark Side
⦁ Cast Shadow and Occlusion Shadow
Part 5: Intro to Planes
Part 6: Representing Form
⦁ Abrupt vs Gradual Shading Transitions
⦁ Is Your Drawing Too Flat?
⦁ Bumps and Ridges
Part 7: Shading Practice
⦁ Shading Exercises and Printable Worksheets
Specific shading tutorials:
Understanding Pencil Grades
To achieve a realistic drawing that communicates form and depth, your drawing will need to have a wide range of values. Invest in a set of high quality pencils with a range of grades that fit your specific drawing needs.
A typical full set of pencils will range from 9H (hardest) to 9B (softest). Having a full set is not necessary for portrait drawing. The range you need depends on the type of drawings you do.
What are the best pencils for sketching and shading?
Hard pencils produce clean, sharp and light lines which are great for sketching, architectural drawings, product sketches, etc. The harder the pencil, the more difficult it is to blend or smudge.
Be careful when shading or outlining with sharp, hard pencils because they can leave deep indents in your paper which are very difficult to cover up.
Soft pencils produce dull and dark lines which are easy to blend. Soft pencils deposit more graphite with less effort, making it easy to fill in space, blend, shade and add texture to your drawing. They are the best pencils for shading and drawing portraits!
The pencil grades I use the most for portrait drawing are: HB, 4B, 6B and 8B from Derwent. You can click here to check it out on Amazon.
The best shading pencils should be free of impurities.
You can tell how hard or soft a pencil is by looking at the combination of letters and numbers printed on the end of each pencil.
H: Hard
F: Fine Point
HB: Hard Black
B: Black
Black and White
Black: With graphite pencils, you won’t get a deep black. However, you can achieve it with charcoal. They are actually very commonly used together with amazing results.
White: You may have seen artists use correctional fluid (whiteout), paint or white pencil crayon to bring out strong highlights in their drawing. This gives the drawing a very impactful look and can enhance the level realism. Here’s an example.
Shading with One Pencil
If your tool belt currently consists of a single HB pencil, your portraits are probably lacking depth.
The HB pencil (aka #2 pencil) is absolutely great for drawing preliminary outlines and shading light areas because it doesn’t require much effort to produce faint lines. However, you’ll need to apply a lot of pressure when it comes to shading dark shadows. All this effort can damage your paper, resulting in a drawing that doesn’t translate well from multiple viewing angles. Not to mention, it will be impossible to erase.
Here’s an exaggerated example on thin sketch paper.
If you prefer to use only one pencil, I suggest using a 2B, 3B or 4B. They’re flexible enough to reach both ends of the value scale without much effort. If your drawings are usually light, go for a 2B. My favorite is 4B.
Shading with a Variety of Pencils
When shading with a variety of pencil grades, each pencil should only cover a small range of values.
For the drawing below, I used HB, 4B and 6B.
HB: Preliminary outlines, some highlights, first layer of shading, eye-whites.
4B: Mid-tones, light shadows, detailing, hair, first layer of shading for clothes, background.
6B: Darkest shadows, hair, clothes, dark areas of background, pupils, inside the mouth and nostrils.
Using multiple pencil grades makes the job easy because there is less effort required to achieve a lighter or darker shade. For example, it would have been difficult to shade the background using an HB and even more difficult to shade highlights using a 6B.
If you need help selecting the best pencil grades for a portrait, create a value scale using your own graphite pencils, compare the values to your reference image directly and select the range of pencils that closely match the values you need.
The range of values can vary greatly from one portrait to another due to lighting or skin color. The 2 faces below have very different highlights, mid-tones and shadows.
For the face on the left, I would shade my drawing with an HB for outlines and eye-whites, a 4B for the rest of the face and maybe a 6B for the pupils.
For the face on the right, I would use an HB for outlines and highlights, 4B for my first layer of shading, 5B for the second layer and light shadows, 6B for darker shadows and eye detailing, and finally a 9B for the darkest shadows.
Portrait Pencil Shading Techniques
Below are a few portrait pencil shading techniques for beginners and experienced artists alike.
Hatching
This shading technique consists of a series of lines that go in one general direction. You can increase the value by applying more pressure and or using a softer grade of pencil.
This is my favorite and most used technique, especially for speed drawings! It’s a huge time saver.
When using this technique, always angle your pencil more towards the paper so your strokes are nice and thick. This allows you to minimize gaps, making it easier to blend.
Cross Hatching
The cross hatching technique consists of overlapping lines coming from multiple directions.
I use this technique to convey wrinkled or highly textured skin as well as some types of fabrics.
Circulism
Circulism is my second favorite shading technique. It’s great for creating realistic skin textures. The idea is to draw many circles that overlap each other, building tone with each added layer.
This technique requires a lot of patience!
When using this technique to draw skin with fine wrinkles, use a sharp tip. For smooth skin, angle your pencil more so you get slightly blunt circles which are much easier to blend, giving the skin a softer appearance.
Contour Shading
This technique is similar to hatching or cross hatching, except you’re curving the lines to follow the contour of the form you are shading. Contour lines can be drawn vertically, horizontally and even diagonally. This is a great shading technique to practice giving form to your line drawings. With a sharp pencil tip, it’s great for shading fine wrinkles.
In the image below, I used all of the realistic shading techniques above to convey wrinkly skin. For the first few layers, I used circulism, then I used the other three shading techniques to achieve various textures found in wrinkly skin.
Tip: When drawing wrinkly or rough skin, avoid blending your graphite.
Pencil Shading Tips and Tricks
How to Shade Smoothly
There are a few factors involved in achieving a smooth pencil shade.
1.) Good Pressure Control
Maintain consistent pressure for each individual stroke.
If you’re shading into a lighter area, though, it helps to reduce the amount of pressure at the end of the stroke so you get a nice gradient instead of an abrupt change in value.
2.) Tight Strokes
To get a smooth shade, you’ll want thick strokes which are close together. Move your hand high up on the pencil and away from the tip. The more you angle the side of your lead towards the paper, the thicker your strokes will be. The thicker, the better! These strokes can be easily blended.
Tip: If you re-positioned your hand on the pencil for any reason while shading, scribble on a scrap piece of paper until you regain the same stroke thickness before you continue with your drawing in case you catch a sharp edge.
Avoid holding your pencil like you would if you were writing, especially if you just sharpened your pencil. The lines are more difficult to blend and it requires more time and effort to keep your strokes tight, not to mention cover more ground. A drawing shaded like this will look very scratchy.
This position can, however work very well for shading areas of the skin with fine lines/wrinkles.
3.) Shadow Lining
This is a method I came up with a while back where I only use a specific shading technique to outline areas of light and shadow before I shade. I don’t want to explain it using 3 paragraphs every time I refer to it, so I’m going to call it shadow lining from now on. I think it’s a car detailing term but it fits, so I’ll just use it.
For example: If I’m shading a face using the circulism method, I will also use circulism to outline shadows and highlights on the face. If you don’t outline your shadows or highlights, then this method may not apply to you (It’s very effective for drawing hairlines though).
Here’s an example from my face shading tutorial using the hatching technique.
Shadow Lining is a great way to plan out your shading without having your outlines show through in your final drawing.
4.) Reduce White Dots
The more textured the paper, the more white dots you will get across your drawing. This can make your drawing look very grainy.
You can reduce white dots by:
5.) Remove Black Dots
Again, if you’re using a highly textured paper, you might get some black dots across your drawing. If you’re shading skin, these dots can look like stubble (it’s even worse when paired with white dots). If you’re going to use a blending tool on your drawing, remove the dots first!
Create a pointy end on your kneaded eraser to dab each of the dots away. Dab lightly! It’s tedious but well worth it.
6.) Blend
Before you blend, make sure that your strokes are tight, the shading is even and there aren’t too many white and black dots. Blending smooths out your shading, but it’s not a miracle solution for lazy people. If your shading is sloppy to begin with, blending isn’t going to help.
Increase your Range of Motion
Are you frustrated by inconsistent, short, choppy strokes? Improve the quality of your strokes and increase your stroke length by harnessing the power of your elbow and shoulder.
Use an overhand grip on your pencil paired with movement from your elbow and shoulder to create longer and straighter lines. This will give you a much wider range of motion compared to using just your wrist or finger joints. To shade darker, press your index finger down on the pencil’s tip.
You can also hold your pencil with a regular grip which would give you more precision, but it’s not as good for shading large spaces where you need the shading to be smooth.
Use the Right Amount of Pressure
Your pencil grip and wrist movement should be generally loose, except when shading the darkest values and doing detailing work. Use light to medium pressure and switch to a softer pencil when the one you are using cannot go any darker.
Value Consistency
Does the overall shading of your portrait lack balance? Make sure your lighting is consistent across the entire portrait by keeping track of how dark you shade each area of the portrait. You can do this by referencing back to one main value. For me, the main value is the darkest or lightest value already established in the portrait.
Create a value scale to use for cross referencing if needed.
Understanding Light
When shading, you are essentially reproducing the value of light as it interacts with a form. Understanding light is crucial in order to create a convincing portrait.
I’m going to use a sphere with one main light source as an example because the light is more predictable.
In the image on the right, the light source is coming from the top left. The area facing the light is the light side and the area facing away from the light is the shadow side.
The transition zone is referred to as the terminator.
The Light Side & the Shadow Side
The side facing the light consists of the core light, highlight and mid-tones.
The side facing away from the light consists of the core shadow and reflected light.
Cast Shadow and Occlusion Shadow
A cast shadow appears when a form blocks light from reaching the surface of another form. The edges of a cast shadow can appear soft or hard depending on the intensity and distance of the light source. In direct sunlight the edges will appear hard, while in diffused light such as a cloudy day, edges will be soft.
The longer a cast shadow gets, the lighter and softer it becomes due to reflected light from the environment around it.
The area immediately below the sphere is called an occlusion shadow and is usually the darkest area as it is least affected by reflected light.
Tip: You can find the direction of the light source in a scene if you trace the edges of the cast shadow against the form it is cast from.
Can you label the values on the nose sculpture below?
Intro to Planes
The hardest part of shading hands down is being able to add the right amount of value in the right spots.
The surface of a cube is much easier for someone to shade realistically compared to a sphere because you can clearly see which sides of the object are facing the light and which ones are facing away. These flat surfaces are called planes.
Planes angled towards the light directly are the lightest. As the planes start angling away from the light, they receive less and less light, hence appearing darker.
Before shading a portrait, it’s good practice to simplify what you see by breaking areas of the face into planes so your brain can process the information better. This allows you to find patterns of light more easily and can also improve your overall drawing accuracy.
Representing Form
Is your shading incorrectly representing the form you intended to draw?
Before you shade anything, analyze your subject until you understand it’s contours instead of trying to figure it out as you draw. It really helps to observe your subject from multiple angles. Once you familiarize yourself with your subject, decide on how you will shade before you actually shade.
Here are a few things to keep in mind before and while you shade:
Abrupt vs Gradual Shading Transitions
If you want to convey a round edge, avoid abrupt shading transitions. The more gradual your shading is, the more smooth your edge becomes.
Is Your Drawing Too Flat?
It’s common for beginners to leave large areas of their portraits (such as cheeks) white. Areas that remain white or are shaded with a solid tone indicate that they are facing the same direction. Have a look at the center forehead plane in the three images below.
The center plane in the first image is shaded with a solid tone, making it appear flat. The following two images introduce a range of very subtle tones, giving the surface slight bumps.
The addition of these values are subtle, but do their job in transforming a flat surface into a more shapely one. Also take a close look at the right forehead plane. The shading is even more subtle, but still does not come across as flat.
Bumps and Ridges
Sometimes, we may have the tendency to over represent or exaggerate subtle forms such as eye bags, pimples and smile lines. Instead of defining a form using an outline or line, practice representing these forms using gradients.
Shading Practice
Download the printable worksheets below and follow the instructions carefully. If you don’t have a printer, that’s okay. Follow along using your sketchbook!
If you want to practice shading on simple objects, grab a bright lamp, a set of geometric shapes and set up a scene!
Exercise #1: Pressure Control
For the exercises below, try to implement the shading tips and techniques mentioned in Part 2 of the tutorial. You can apply different shading techniques to the exercises too (cross hatching, circulism, etc).
1.a) Without lifting your pencil or taking any breaks, draw tight lines back and forth from one end of your sketch book to the other. Gradually increase your pressure as you go. Your goal is to get a smooth gradient.
1.b) Do it again, but this time, go from dark to light.
1.c) Shade a solid tone without lifting your pencil.
1.d) Shade a solid tone from one end of your sketchbook to the other. Lift your pencil every now and then and rotate it slightly before you continue shading. Don’t forget to scribble on a scrap piece of paper to test your pencil’s sharpness before you continue! Your goal is to make it look as though you never lifted the pencil at all.
1.e) Pick out a few different pencil grades such as HB, 2B, 4B and 6B. Shade in order from hardest to softest pencil and go from left to right. Your goal is to blend the values together seamlessly so you get something that looks like image 1.a).
1.f) Layering: Use an HB pencil to shade an even layer of graphite across the page. Split the area into 4 spaces labeling them 3, 2 and 1. Add a darker layer of graphite over your first layer from left to right and ease up on the pressure as you approach 1. Do the same thing except this time stopping at 2. Then the same thing for 3.
At this point, you may notice some inconsistencies. Make corrections by adding a few more layers where needed.
1.g) Select a few different pencil grades and shade a series of rectangles. Use only your pencil to blend each of the values together.
Exercise #2: Stretch and Compress Values
2.a) Draw a series of wide to narrow boxes. Shade each one using vertical strokes. Follow this pattern using one or multiple pencils: Shadow, Mid-tone, Highlight, Mid-tone, Shadow.
Exercise #3: Analyzing Contours
3a.) Add contour lines to each of the shapes below.
3b.) Make up your own shapes and add contour lines to them. Once you’re done, decide where the light is coming from and shade them in.
3c.) Select 3 very different faces from a magazine and draw vertical and horizontal contour lines across each face.
Exercise #4: Edges, Light and Shadow
4.a) Determine the direction of the light and shade vertically along each jagged line. Around sharp edges, tighten your terminator and loosen it around smoother edges. If you really want a challenge, give each image cast shadows as well.
Exercise #5: Planes
5a.) Select any 3 objects around you and simplify them using geometric shapes. Shade them once you’re done.
5b.) Find 3 faces in a magazine and use a pen to outline major planes.
5c.) Draw planar faces and shade them by coming up with as many lighting arrangements as you can think of.
Exercise #6: Elbow and Shoulder
6a.) Shade the 2 shapes using an overhand grip while moving your elbow and shoulder. Make sure to scribble on a separate sheet of paper before you begin to increase the thickness of your lines. Make sure that each stroke you make reaches the full length of each shape. Only lift your pencil once you get from one end to the other.
This is my longest tutorial to date, consisting of more than 3,400 words! I tried to cover as much as I could in this tutorial. If there’s something you’d like me to add, please let me know!
If you enjoyed the tutorial, share it with all your friends using the share buttons below!
What tutorials would you like to see next? Let me know in the comments below!
Darlene created RFA In 2013 with the goal of sharing simple yet detailed drawing tutorials with other artists on the world wide web. She is a self taught pencil portrait artist and Youtuber.
How to Draw Eyes: Step by Step Realistic Eye Drawing Tutorial
Drawing eyes can be frustrating. After all, they are one of the most complex body parts.
Upper lid, lower lid, eyeball. Add skin, some texture, highlights, shadows… Not to mention that muddle happening in the iris, right? Even if you finally master the skill of eye drawing, you still have to add eyelashes and eyebrows, and that’s a whole nother kettle of fish.
Don’t worry – I am here to help you with all the issues you may encounter while creating a detailed eye sketch.
How do you draw eyes – most important tips
How to draw a realistic eye
Realistic drawing isn’t THAT hard. It doesn’t even take as much practice as one would think.
What you actually need to become a realism artist is patience. Realism is not about skill – it’s about attention to detail. If you take your time to notice all the tiniest shapes and all different shades, you’ll become a realism artist next month.
As it turns out, the ability to see details and shapes in our surroundings varies between people. That’s the beauty of us humans – we’re all different.
My solution to this is giving you the easiest way to start (or continue) your drawing journey. In this tutorial, I am going to use a photo reference and a grid. It’s not cheating and it definitely DOES NOT make you a bad artist.
Seeking instructions for a specific part of the eye? Skip to one of these steps:
New print set!
THE WHOLE OF THE MOON | curated set
Before you start drawing
Three quick things you need to do before we get to drawing:
Choose a reference photo
Here is the reference picture I’ll be using. I chose this one because the eye in it is wide open and you can see the entire iris which makes explaining some steps easier. If you want, you can choose your own photo and follow my directions.
Apply the grid (if you choose to use it)
I divided my picture into smaller parts in Photoshop. You can do the same in MS Paint. Or check out a free app that’ll do that for you – download one from here.
If you’re adding the grid to your own photo, don’t use too many lines. We don’t want the picture to be unreadable. If you have problems with the sketch later, cut a problematic square with an additional line.
If you’re drawing with me, open this image in a new tab so you’re able to return to it whenever you need without scrolling back to this part.
Collect all the necessary tools
Here is a list of tools I used:
If you’re here to practice, feel free to use your sketchbook. If you’re creating a legitimate drawing I recommend working with better quality paper. I use Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper for most of my drawings. It’s very popular among pencil artists. And affordable!
My favorite pencils are Faber Castell Goldfaber 1221. What I like about them the most is that I have around 50 of them and not a single one ever broke. I keep dropping them, they keep keeping their leads in 😉
That’s the one I use most often. I could create a whole drawing with it, but I think it’s smarter to use softer pencils mentioned above for shading. So we’ll use a mechanical pencil for details.
For blending, of course.
Another tool I use to blend. It works wonders with bright shades, where the stump could cause too much smudging. I use a makeup brush instead of a paintbrush because it’s softer.
The most important thing in every pencil artist’s toolset. Use it for erasing, shading, highlighting, you name it. This eraser can be molded into any shape. It picks graphite off the paper, in layers, without leaving any mess. I recommend getting a couple of those, as you’ll use them often and they’ll get dirty pretty quick.
I have both. Pencil eraser for its convenience and pen eraser for the finest lines.
Now, to the actual tutorial!
How to draw eyes step by step
Sketch a simple eye outline
Sketch out all the basic shapes. Then, with lighter strokes, mark the outline of more prominent shadows you’re able to notice at this point.
I started with the pupil and continued adding shapes around it.
How to sketch eyes using grid – proper order
Hover your mouse over the picture or tap it to see the numbers.
Remember that the pupil and the iris should be circles. Be sure to look at them from a slightly different angle and see if they’re more or less round. Another thing to have in mind is that the pupil should be right in the center of the iris.
Now, with every eye comes a spot of reflected light. The shape of it is defined by the light source, like a lamp or a window (in our case it’s a window). It’s common to notice multiple highlights in your model’s eye. I usually choose to ignore them – one bigger spot is enough – it makes the eye pop and keeps the drawing clean. You’ll achieve the best results if the reflection cuts into the pupil, so it’s half there and half on the iris.
As far as waterlines are concerned, keep in mind that they get thinner closer to the inner eye corner. Visibility of the upper waterline depends on the angle from which we look at the eye.
Last but not least: be careful with lines that span across multiple squares. After you’ve drawn the contour in each square, look at the whole line again and smooth it out.
Pro tip: When drawing using a grid, always remember to check what that grid has made you do. Draw in particular squares separately to ensure good proportions. Then look at the whole picture and check if the shapes look decent, if they connect smoothly and whether or not you need to move things around a little.
Fill the pupil
First, you may want to roll your kneaded eraser on the drawing a couple of times to make the sketch less visible. I left it as is so you can see it better.
The darkness of the pupil will define the contrast of our drawing. Fill it in properly, using a soft pencil (at least 4B). Add layers until you achieve a shade the closest to black.
If the highlight on your eye spills onto the pupil, keep that area white! It will be impossible to erase it later without any graphite residue showing.
Accentuate the iris
In the next couple of steps, I’m going to show you how to draw an iris.
First, fill in the whole iris. Tilt your pencil slightly to keep the strokes soft, like on the right side of the picture below.
Leave the light reflection white. It’s the second factor defining the contrast. Make it the brightest element of your eye drawing.
Using a much darker shade, define an outline of the iris. Make that line pretty thick.
If you’re drawing a different eye, in which the lids cover some part of the iris, leave that part unfilled.
Blend the iris
Use a blending stump to smooth the inside of the iris. I like to blend in the opposite direction to that of the pencil strokes. The truth is I usually end up blending all over the place, so don’t think of it as a rule.
The last step here is smudging that dark circle on the outside of the iris we’ve made before. Use the tip of a stump to do that, keeping it slightly tilted.
Pro tip: Using your stumps’ tips is the quickest way to ruin them. However, I do own that one stump that’s already had enough and I can damage it a little bit more. So should you.
First, dilute the dark circle towards the pupil. Then, smooth out the outer edge. If you look at any eye, you’ll notice that the border between the iris and the sclera is soft rather than sharp.
Fill the iris with some basic lines
If you feel like it’s too much, that’s okay. Even without these details, your drawing will look impressive. All these odds and sods may also be redundant if you’re creating a portrait or a whole person sketch, where you won’t be able to see such tiny details anyway. If so, feel free to skip to step number 9.
Otherwise, draw a wiggly circle around the pupil. This ring usually separates different colors, shades or structures in the iris.
Next, add a couple of straight lines around the pupil. They should start right in the center of the pupil and end at the iris edge (hover over the image). Make sure the distance between them is irregular – the whole iris is quite a mess and we want to make it as disordered as possible.
Pro tip: Use a pencil that’s a bit worn out so the lines have some thickness.
Add dark spots and more lines
Condense the lines: toss in some shorter ones – beginning or ending at the wiggly inner circle.
Add a few double lines that look like orange vesicles (or teardrops). You can fill them in or not.
Finally, fill in a couple of areas created by the net of lines.
(Hover over the image to see what I mean)
Erase bright spots
Can you see all the brighter parts? We’re going to rub them out. How cool is that? It’s my favorite part of a drawing process – actually drawing with an eraser.
Pro tip: Use an eraser in the form of a pencil, or an eraser pen, to rub out little details precisely.
As you can see, I erased a part of a wiggly ring, as well as some lines and larger areas. A lot of them, actually. Do whatever you want here. I insist. Have some fun. It’s really satisfying to let go while erasing!
Add even more detail
It’s time to have some fun again.
Add more “orange vesicles”, black or white. Erase some more lines. This time make them even whiter. Feel free to connect a couple of lines so they create little veiny structures.
Fix the contrast and add more depth by darkening some areas.
Finish with erasing the big white light reflection properly, making sure it’s clean and has sharp edges (it has to be the whitest part of the eye drawing)
Fill in the darker half of the sclera
Good news – we’re back to simpler things!The iris parts the eye in the middle. One of the halves is usually darker than the other, depending on the direction of light.
I like to draw whatever’s on the left first because I’m right-handed and I don’t want to smudge my drawing. That’s why we’re starting with the darker, left part – it’s not some important rule established by Da Vinci, no.
Tilt the pencil and fill in the sclera.
The light source is on the right, so the left corner will obviously be darker.
Blend it and refine the dark edges
Take your stump and blend what you’ve just drawn. Begin with the brighter parts and continue towards the dark corner. This way you avoid dragging graphite residue to the areas that don’t need it.
Keep in mind that you’re currently shading a ball. Think of how the shadows and lights behave on round objects. If you find it hard to imagine, I highly recommend reading this article on how to shade. It’ll help you understand how light behaves.
Don’t forget to refine the outline of the eye, where the lids cast a small shadow on the eyeball. Blend it too, especially the lower one. The upper one is not a big deal at this moment – later we’ll be covering it with more shadow.
Draw the eye corner elements
This is an easy step – just draw what you see in your picture. Usually, the eye corner is just a triangle, sometimes it’s divided into two chunks.
Blend it and add some white spots with an eraser, so that it looks wet.
Fill in the second half of the sclera
Fill this part with light pressure. Add a bit more shadow in the corner (ball shading!).
As you can see in our picture, lashes can cast shadows on the eyeball. Include them in your eye drawing by throwing in a few darker lines with a worn out pencil.
Start them at the upper edge of the eye outline. Make their length irregular, so the shadow looks realistic. Remembering the three-dimensional shape of the eye, curve these strokes slightly in line with the roundness of the eyeball (hover your mouse over the image)
Blend it with a clean stump
Blend what you’ve just drawn with a clean stump. Do not use the one you smudged the darker part with!
The cast shadows should be blended in the same manner as they were drawn – with strokes starting at the upper lid. Make sure to lower the pressure on a stump as you go away from the lid, so the transition from a shadow to a white-ish sclera is smooth.
Correct the outline
Draw a dark line separating the upper lid from the eyeball connecting it with the one we’ve made in step 10.
Then, do the same at the bottom lid but with a lighter tone – there’s more light reaching this part of the eye.
Use an eraser to break that bottom line with some white, just like I did. The eye is wet and it usually reflects some light there.
Correct the contrast in the eye
Last step before we proceed to draw the eyelids:
Look at your picture from a distance and see if it needs any fixes. Add more shadows/highlights where you think the drawing could use more contrast.
I made the shadows on the left side more prominent to increase depth on my drawing. I also added a shadow below the upper lid. If you hover over the image, you should see a photo from step 14 overlaying the current progress – use that to see the changes I applied.
Shade eyelid rims
Let’s begin with erasing the outer line on the lower rim almost completely with a kneaded eraser. Leaving it visible is the number one mistake in realistic eye drawing. After you’ve done that fill it with a light shade.
Next, fill the upper rim with a darker tone than the lower one. The transition between both shades in the outer corner isn’t very smooth – as soon as the light hits the lower lid it becomes brighter than the upper one.
You can probably see that I also added some delicate strokes below the lower rim.
Pro tip: Before I blend a border between two shades, I like to have both of them drawn – adding the second shade later may result in some strokes going outside that border and ruining the already smooth area of the shade number one.
Blend the rims
Smooth out both lines, starting with a brighter one. Add some tone variation on the lower rim, like a bit of reflection in the outer corner.
Shade the upper lid and a brow ridge
First step here – erase the gridlines that cover the upper lid area. I didn’t and you can see them showing from under the graphite layer. It’s usually possible to blend them with the rest of the image, but sometimes they do stay visible. So don’t follow my example here. Erase the hell out of them.
Next, refine the crease line – make it really dark and rather thick.
Fill the whole area the way I did. Start in the inner corner and finish at the line connecting the crease with the brow. Remember to wear out 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 with the area above the crease-brow line. Follow my sketch along with the shadows you can see in the original picture.
Let’s also begin shading the crease. You should add a gradual dark shade below the crease on the left and above it on the right. Look at the picture to see where the switch actually happens.
Blend the area above the eye
Blend everything with a stump and a brush if you have one.
Pro tip: Using a soft brush (preferably a makeup brush) can help you achieve better results than a blending stump, especially with bright shades.
Cross the eyebrow line a bit, so that in the next steps you’re able to smooth the transition between these areas.
Refine shadows and highlights
Simply look at your drawing and decide whether it needs more contrast. I drew more shadows in the crease area (added one under the crease on the right side and darkened the rest of them)
I also used my kneaded eraser to create a highlight on top of the brow ridge.
Shade the space between the eye and the nose
Just like in step 19, let’s erase the gridlines first.
Then, cover the whole area evenly.
Add another layer to darken the shadow next to the base of the nose.
Connect it with the upper lid
This is the first part that actually contains the edge of our eye drawing. While blending it, don’t forget to fade it out properly to the left side.
Another thing to remember is to cross the eyebrow outline again.
Connect this part of the skin with the one we’ve drawn previously so the shading is even throughout the whole upper lid.
Add layers below the eye
Again, erase unnecessary gridlines.
Add a few dots on the lower rim line, so that you can still see where it should be, even after you blend the lower lid area. Don’t worry about their visibility – we’ll grow eyelashes out of them later!
Fill the remaining skin with gentle strokes. Continue adding layers in the areas that need more shade. Play with some cross-hatching here o ensure better coverage – change the direction of strokes in each layer by 90 degrees.
Blend the lower lid
Blend everything. As always, begin with lighter tones.
I used a brush to blend the fair skin at the bottom of the drawing and stumps for all the darker shades.
Add more depth
Per usual, look at your eye drawing and see if you should enhance the contrast, aka darken the shadows.
You can also draw a couple of wrinkles in this step. Use gentle strokes to make the finest of lines.
Smooth everything out
If you’ve added new layers, use a stump to blend them into the rest of the drawing.
Transitions between shades of the skin should be subtle and soft, so caress them with your brush. Take that same brush – now you have some graphite residue on it – and blend out the edges of your drawing.
Introduce skin texture with highlights
This is another step you can skip if you’re creating a less realistic piece. If so, jump to step 30.
See all those tiny wrinkles in the eye corner? It’s drawing with eraser time again!
I used my eraser pen for that – it’s super thin and does a great job with lines.
First, draw some lines and spots in the eye corner, then move to the skin on the lower lid.
This texture may look complicated, but I created it by simply stroking the area in one direction first, and adding some random lines later (preferably in the opposite direction). The goal is to create a pattern that kinda looks like skin cells – a net of tiny lozenges and triangles.
While I had the eraser in my hand, I also added some highlights around the waterline and on the eyeball.
Add a pop of contrast
Considering that all the wrinkles and texture are indentations in the skin, you should pair each highlight with a shadow. Do it with a worn out pencil or with a tip of a blending stump.
The light source is on the upper right, so all the notches should have a shadow on top or on the right.
I overlayed this picture with the one from the previous step to help you see the changes I applied.
Add veins
While we’re at the details, let’s add some veins on the eyeball.
Draw a few irregular lines varying in shade. They have to be really thin, so use a rather sharp pencil. Just don’t push it too hard. We want them to be subtle so they don’t overshadow the iris. It’s an eye drawing, not a cardiovascular system drawing, wink, wink.
Fill the brow
Erase the rest of the grid.
Shade the forehead (tilt the pencil, cross-hatch)
Next, fill the eyebrow with hairs. We’ll blend them next, so you don’t have to be precise yet. Sharp pencil, bold strokes. To see the direction of the hairs better hover over the image.
If you’re using a different reference picture where the brow is brighter, you may want to make your strokes softer. Even a subtle change in the shape or color of the brow can change the face entirely.
Blend for (almost) the last time
Blend the skin on the forehead first. As you can see, I was a little too sloppy with my cross-hatching, and now the strokes are pretty visible. Feel free to do a better job than I did 🙂 I managed to fix it later with a brush but why go to so much trouble.
Next, blend the eyebrow so that it’s smooth but still has some texture. That’s a trick I use to create enough thickness without having to draw every single hair.
If you’re drawing a thinner or brighter eyebrow, your blending should be more gentle than the one I did on my eye drawing.
Draw eyebrow hair
Now we’re going to have more fun with the hair.
Start with the left side of the brow. Notice that these hairs grow almost upwards. They turn to the side above the inner corner of the eye. At the end they turn downwards where they also become shorter than the ones we drew in the middle.
Sculpt the brow bone
By sculpting I mean… adding more shadows, yes! Above the eyebrow, as well as below it. To do that, I dabbed my brush in a patch of graphite residue I made on another piece of paper and transferred it onto my drawing.
Per usual, hover your mouse over the image to see the changes I applied.
You should be able to see that I also added a subtle layer of graphite on the skin texture/wrinkles under the eye to make them softer.
Add lashes
Where you start is crucial to the eyelashes drawing process. They should always grow from the outer line of the lid rim, never from the middle of it!
Look at how the shape of the lashes changes on the eye outline. You may want to look at this eyelashes drawing tutorial to understand that part of an eye drawing better.
Placing them irregularly is a key to draw realistic eyelashes.
Don’t forget to add a couple of reflections – use a pen eraser to add some white strokes in the lashes.
Apply more skin texture
As a final touch, let’s add more skin texture.
Do it with a tip of a blending stump (darker spots) and a pen eraser (white spots). Just bump them into the surface of your eye drawing. This way you’ll create pores and tiny skin reflections. Just be gentle with the dark spots, if you make them too dark, the skin will end up looking dirty.
Et voilà! Your realistic eye drawing is done!
I hope you enjoyed my step by step eye drawing tutorial
That was my guide on how to draw eyes from a quick eye sketch to a realistic eye drawing.
If you feel like something was too complicated or not explained clearly enough, leave a comment – I want to make these lessons as helpful and fun as possible.
Do you have any questions about how to draw eyes? What other tutorials would you like to see here? Let me know!
Nothing would make me happier than seeing your finished drawing made with this guide. Don’t hesitate to attach your masterpiece to a comment!
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How to Draw Closed Eyes
Here’s a quick and easy way to draw closed eyes for beginners. I came up with this method by combining a few of my other ones, which turned out very well. You guys have been requesting me to draw a pair of opened eyes for a while now. So I’m going to work on that one next!
Tools I used in this tutorial:
Video Tutorial
I created a video to go along with the version you’re reading. You can check it out below! It contains a bunch of extra tips and tricks, which I think you’ll find useful! If you have the time, please leave a comment to let me know what you’d like to see me do differently in a future video, what you liked/disliked or other constructive feedback would also be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!
Please Read! The purpose of the video is not to produce a polished piece, but to show you the steps and techniques in a quick and easy manner. Click here to watch it on YouTube!
Back to the written tutorial…
Note: Up until step 6, use only an HB pencil with very light pressure so that your guidelines and mistakes don’t show through in your final artwork. Drawing lightly is also better for erasing. In the examples below, I’m using more pressure so you can clearly see what I’m doing.
Step 1: Determine Eye Size
Determine the size you’ll want for one eye and use 2 ticks to mark the boundaries for that eye.
Use a ruler to draw a horizontal line through the ticks and across the right side of the page.
Then measure the first space and multiply it by 3. You should now end up with 3 equal spaces going across your sketchbook horizontally.
Step 2: Draw Circles
Draw a circle for each eye. Make sure each circle fits within the boundaries.
Step 3: Determine the Angle for Each Eye
Determine the angle you want the eyes to slant and draw a line through each circle, making sure the angles are similar. Watch the video for a tip on how you can do this.
Step 4: Draw the Eye Shapes
Draw the inner and outer corners of each eye where the slanted line intersects with the circle. The inner corner of each eye should be deeper and darker than the outer corner or tail of the eye.
When you draw the tail crease, allow your lines to gradually become lighter instead of having a hard edge.
Finally, draw a set of curves to form the eyelids.
Step 5: Draw the Shape for Each Eyebrow
Use my shadow-lining technique to draw a set of eyebrows. I like to draw the eyebrows just above the circles and slightly wider than each eye. In the video, I show you a technique to make the eyebrows match as well as where to draw the arc.
We’ll detail the eyebrows later. Let’s move on to the next step!
Step 6: Shading
Before you shade, make sure the guidelines you drew from step 1-3 are only slightly visible. You can use your kneaded eraser to roll a layer of graphite off those areas.
Let’s start by shading the top eyelids. Use the side of your pencil to shade a shape similar to an almond. The circle around each eye can help you see if your shading on the right eye is similar to the left eye.
If you want to draw details like dark under eye circles, you can use the circles as a guide. Watch the video for an example.
Add some light shading for the bridge of the nose.
Once you’re done, erase what remains of each circle.
Step 7: Shade the Rest of the Face
Shade the rest of the face. You can use these two tutorials to learn more about shading:
Step 8: Draw the Eyebrows
Here, I switched to my 4B 0.5mm lead. Starting at the lower part of each eyebrow, draw upward strokes. Make sure to lift your pencil up at the end of every stroke to make the hairs look more realistic. For a super detailed tutorial on this, check out this tutorial.
At the upper portion of each eyebrow, draw downward strokes. Add some hairs going down the middle if it still looks bare.
This step is very subtle, but also very important. Use an HB pencil to shade directly underneath each eyebrow. Make sure the transition is gradual. Now the eyebrows look like they belong, instead of just pasted onto the skin.
Step 9: Add Wrinkles to Eyelids
This step is optional… but it’s super fun, so why not do it too?
This one’s more of a crease than a wrinkle. When the eyes open, a crease forms on the eyelid. Use an H pencil and the lightest amount of pressure to draw two creases. The darker you draw them, the deeper they will appear.
Draw a row of curved diagonal lines along the edge of each eyelid. This area of the skin is very thin – wrinkling up when the skin is tugged. You’ll want to use an H pencil for this as well.
Depending on where the light is coming from in your drawing, blend the opposite side of each diagonal line drawn. For example: in this drawing, the light is coming from the top, so the side of each wrinkle that faces the light will be left alone, while the side facing away from the light will need to be blended.
Unless you’re drawing this on a large scale, avoid using a blending stump because the tip will not be thin enough for this job. Instead, use an H and HB pencil to create a nice gradient along each wrinkle.
Using a kneaded eraser, go over areas of each wrinkle that are facing the light and dab it gently with the pinched end of your kneaded eraser to lift a thin line of graphite. The highlights should appear brighter and the wrinkles should become more apparent and shapely.
Step 10: Draw the Eyelashes
To start, draw 3 eyelashes for each eye. One on the far left, far right and another in the middle. The lashes should fan out, angling away from each other.
If you want to be really careful, draw the eyelashes lightly with an H or HB pencil to start. Once you’re okay with the placement, curvature and length, etc… go over it with a darker pencil like a 4B. Here, I used a 0.5mm 4B lead.
Take your time to fill the spaces in between.
It’s okay that some eyelashes touch. It’s actually more natural looking when they form triangle shapes or even cross over each other.
Finally, use an HB or 2B pencil to shade directly under the top eyelid to create a light cast shadow coming from the eyelashes.
This is the first time I’ve done a written tutorial + video tutorial and I want to know what you guys think! Do you like videos in accompaniment to my usual stuff? Does it clear things up for you or would you rather see the video tutorial done another way?
Your feedback is always appreciated and will help me improve upon the tutorials further 🙂
I’m going to work on creating videos for past tutorials as well. So if you haven’t subscribed to me on YouTube, click here. Youtube won’t notify you when I post new videos unless you hit the bell icon beside the subscribe button as well, so don’t forget to click that too.
Darlene created RFA In 2013 with the goal of sharing simple yet detailed drawing tutorials with other artists on the world wide web. She is a self taught pencil portrait artist and Youtuber.