How to Draw Eyes in Art

How to Draw Eyes in Art:

"The Eyes are the window to the sole" and therefore they need special attention.

They express what the subject is thinking, and being reflective in nature also give us challenges as artists.

Of course... one of the most crucial things you need to get right is that the eyes need to be positioned correctly on the subjects head.

And must be on the correct plane, meaning, if the head is turned away or tilted sideways - the eyes must be also aligned with the head.

And I have also got this wrong in many accounts of my art work through the years. And how frustrating it is too, not to say that it is the same when doing a piece of sculpture.

So, on how to draw eyes; marking out where the eyes need to be on the subjects head is a must.

Now, I bet if I asked you where the eyes are positioned on a head.

You would probably say on the near the top half of the head; And you would be wrong.

Don't worry.... you are not along in thinking this, we have all perceived this, even myself.

Because this is how we see people and, we just don't properly observe. And we also reflect these ideas, and follow these ideas when drawing our animals.

To answer this correctly: in how to draw the eyes on a person, they are actually in the middle of the head. Shock and Horror!.. Its just show we see another person, probably because of the hair partially falling across their face, as with a fringe.

Now we face a multitude of perplexities here... because with the animals, we have two different sections. We have the:

• Carnivore - being the hunter. Where the eyes are positioned in the front of the head for hunting.

• Herbivore or Pray- their eyes are positioned on the side of their heads. To keep a wide visual surveillance for approaching hunters.

Each different, and both, we will tackle in our lesson on how to draw eyes.

The Carnivore

You can see here by these two cat photos that the cat has eyes on the front of its head.

The eyes are placed this way for a specific purpose. Being a carnivore and a hunter.

This animal needs to run down its prey.

It has no need to have eyes on the side of its head, as it is a prey animal that needs to keep a visual all the time for hunters while eating grass.

You need to take note how the eyes are positioned when you draw your subject.

Now most animals eyes are usually brow in color. Yet there are exceptions, cats have eye colorations to name a few.... as well as many bird species.

I have drawn you an outline that you can use to get the basic shape of the cats eye. Keep sketching this till you get it right.

Because you will need to take special care with how big you draw the size of the eye to the size of your subjects head, my subscribers get more in depth tips on how to draw eyes, in my free newsletter "pet art newsletter" .

We all know that there are some animals which are mostly nocturnal, and their eyes are usually bigger in proportion to their heads for night vision.

So try and stick to the basic rules when drawing a subject in accordance to nature. You can always change this when doing cartoons and in "accentuated art" later.

The Herbivore in how to draw eyes

Grass eaters such as the horse have eyes on the sides of their heads, so that they have a wide field of vision, when, on the look out for predators. Note, on the photo of the front view of the horses head, where the eyes sit at the side. Quite different from the cats eyes above...

It may take a little time to get your positioning of the eyes on a prey animal right. As we perceive that all eyes are further to the front of the face, mainly because we are that way ourselves, so, we have become used to it.

It can be a bit trickier when you draw the front view of a prey animal

When drawing a side view of an animal is not so bad, as you are looking at the eye straight on.

I have drawn out a guide for you, when drawing eyes such as the horse. This rule also applies for most grass eating animals.

Wondering why you might struggle a bit when drawing eyes of prey animals straight on? well we have conditioned ourselves to thinking in that way, we see these animals, yet when it comes down to drawing them, our minds perceive differently.

How to Draw Eyes of the Horse

Just keep the rules in mind when you are drawing eyes.

I'm not going to say its easy, specially when it comes to achieving such detail as the reflective part of the eyes cornea right.

Take a good close look at different eyes, and eye shapes - see the detail.

In how to draw eyes, there are also corneas that are round and diamond in shape, and when the light is different - the lens of the eye also changes shape from small to large as it adjusts to the light situation.

Also the white speck of reflective light that is in the eye, is also something not to forget.

It's allot to take in? sure, you will need to study the eye in detail.

But I'm not saying that you have to get all the features of the eye right all at once.

As long as you get the basics of the eye: the shape, and size, is a good start.

Eyes are an art-form in themselves, if you want to go further and capture the patterns within in eyes to its reflective qualities. Practice, and be prepared to take time in learning to get it right.

I have not delved extensively into doing such perfect detail with eyes in my art subjects myself, though  plan to some time. When I see other artists capturing the eyes in all its glory. I think its wonderful, so don't worry.

As long as you get the shape right and some detail, you will be fine. Unless you are wanting to draw close-ups of a subject, and I do mean close-up.

Drawing is the basis of art. A bad painter cannot draw. But one who draws well can always paint.
Arshile Gorky

You don't need to go and get a diploma in eye drawing. Its your choice, you don't have to specialize in it.

Take a look again at the sketch of the eye up at the top of the page, now this is fine without going into too much detail. If you want to go further later on, great!

Just don't get scared off by drawing eyes. Just keep studying different faces of animals and their moods, because this will also show you how the eyes will reflect the mood of your subject in your art.

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