How to Draw Realistic Human Eyes

Reviewed by Jeanine Hattas Wilson

Last Updated: August 10, 2024

Do you enjoy drawing faces but have trouble making the eyes look realistic? Read on to learn how to draw a realistic human eye.

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It doesn't have to be too detailed or shaded yet.
I used 5B on mine, but you can use any type of pencil. You start of by drawing the out line of the iris - it's not quite a whole circle shape unless your drawing some one with a shocked face. when you're happy with that, make a start of drawing the pupil. Remember the pupil should be close to the centre of the eye, but the iris doesn't have to be at the centre of the eye. You can also draw a reflection of a window or light or something if you want to, but that is optional.

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Then you shade the edge of the iris really dark and then 1/3 of the way down, blend it slightly so the edge goes a bit lighter. Then if you've done a reflection, you need to shade darkly around that. Once you've done that, shade the top a bit more lightly and carry on until the corner so it looks a bit like a slanted triangle.
Change back to an ordinary pencil if you used a different one and underneath the shaded part under the reflection, do part of the iris. Don't do it in little section, draw it lightly in quick long strokes and go over them a few times. You may not be able to tell because of the picture quality but next to that you need to draw a smaller part of iris around the inside edge of it, but use the technique of moving the pencil in different directions - don't just shade up and down or side to side, make it look neat, but messy.
You only need to do it a little bit, quite small. After you've done that, you make the iris look like it's getting darker, by pressing a tiny bit harder and sketching in different directions. You need to make it longer than the bit you just shaded though. The image should be big enough to explain. Once you have done this, you go back to the part of the iris underneath the reflection and add a very small bit of the shading in different directions using a darker pencil.
At the top, right hand side of the iris you need to shade in darkly with a normal pencil, diagonally, so it looks like the iris is going around and not just colored otherwise it won't look so realistic. Then you need to shade around very lightly around the rest of the iris - shading in straight lines, but going around the pupil.
Draw really small rounded of lines along the bottom of the eye for the lashes at the bottom and longer lines at the top for the longer eyelashes. They should be the same height at the eyelid, but you can do them longer if you want. For a better look, add light shading to around the eyelid area, simple light sketches from left to right and on the left had corner of the eye.

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How do I draw the bottom eyelashes?

Community Answer

Make them go in the same direction and round them. Make sure they are smaller than the upper eyelashes.

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How do I make the top eyelashes?

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Start at the edge of the upper lid and make it as though you were drawing hair, but shorter and darker. You can make them any way you want, though.

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Can I also use water color pencils to draw an eye?

Community Answer

Yes. Just be sure to adjust certain techniques -- like how you blend -- for the change in medium.

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Just do what you think is best. If you think a certain area should be shaded because of the angle, then shade that area. And remember, it doesn't have to be perfect!

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Don't get distracted to much - e.g talking on phone because small things like that can put you off.

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Take your time, there's no point rushing because it'll end up looking messy.

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The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.

I like to watch videos of people drawing on YouTube. It really helps me to see other people drawing differently than I do and I learn new techniques.
Remember that around the pupil the iris is a little darker. I also like to lightly shade the white bit of the eye to make it look more realistic.
Concentrate and be patient with your hands! If you can't make a curve or straight line, though, I suggest using a protractor or ruler.
Don't be afraid to use your own drawing style as you're learning this.

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