How to Draw a Realistic Female Eye

Co-authored by Renée Plevy and Jessica Gibson

Last Updated: September 26, 2024 Approved

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Drawing female eyes can be challenging because eye shapes and features are so unique. Fortunately, this means that as long as you follow basic guidelines, you can customize your drawing so it appears natural. Start by sketching the outline of the eye and eyebrow. Then, use a blending stump and kneaded eraser to shade in the eye while you make highlights. You can use a Q-tip to blend if you don't have a blending stump. With a little practice, even a beginning artist can create a realistic eye!

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Sketching the Outline of the Eye and Eyebrow

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1
Sketch the outline of the eye using a pencil. Take your sharp pencil and draw an oval or seed shape that's as large as you want the eye to be. You'll need to draw a small half-circle that extends near the inner eye. This will be the tear duct.^{[1]
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- If you can, try to draw from real life or have a reference photo handy to look at.
2
Draw the outline of the iris and pupil. Lightly draw a circle that takes up about 1/2 of the eyeball to create the iris. The circle should be slightly hidden by the eyelid, which will give the eye a sense of depth. Then, draw a much smaller circle near the center of the eye to make the pupil. If you have a hard time drawing circles, you can use a compass or trace something round to make the circle.^{[2]
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- The size of the pupil will depend on the lighting, so if you're drawing someone who's outside where there's lots of light, the pupil will be small. If you're drawing a woman's eye in low lighting, make the pupil larger.
- Press lightly so you can easily erase the pencil if you need to make corrections.
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3
Use curved lines to create long eyelashes above and below the eye. Make a flicking motion with your wrist as you quickly make lots of small strokes along the upper eyelid. If the woman is wearing mascara, you can make the eyelashes thicker or darker. Leave a small gap below the bottom eyelid and the eyelashes.^{[3]
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- Lower eyelashes usually aren't as full or as long as the upper eyelashes.
4
Draw a curved upper eyelid to give the eye depth. You can make the curved lid as close or as far from the eyelash line as you like. Keep in mind that some women don't have noticeable curves along the upper eyelid, so you may want to position it close to the eyelash line.^{[4]
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- There's no need to shade or fill in the upper eyelid at this point.
5
Sketch a faint outline of the eyebrow. Lightly outline the general shape of the woman's eyebrow so it's along the brow bone. It may be thick or narrow, arched, wispy, or defined, for instance. You can fill it in once you've finished drawing the rest of the eye.^{[5]
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- The brow bone is directly above the eye socket.
- The hairs at the fullest part of the eyebrow should be pointing up while the hairs at the middle of the brow should be drawn horizontally. Then, draw the hairs near the outer edge pointing down.

Part 2

Part 2 of 4:

Drawing a Detailed Iris

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1
Outline areas you'd like to leave light. If the woman's eye is reflecting light from a window or lamp, lightly outline the shape that's reflected. For example, you might draw a small square near one side of the iris if light is being reflected from a window.^{[6]
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- You can also make the highlighted shape a circle or oval.
2
Sketch around the middle ring of the iris. The eye will probably have an iris that is darker around the pupil and the outer edge. Take your pencil and lightly sketch around the middle of the iris's ring so you can leave this lighter than the edges.^{[7]
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- Don't sketch over the reflection you blocked off earlier.
3
Fill in the pupil and darken the outline of the iris. Completely darken the pupil so it's black. Then, press firmly as you draw along the outline and around the reflection you blocked off. You may want to use a darker pencil or go over the outline several times to make it appear dark.^{[8]
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- Remember not to draw or fill in the area of the iris that you're going to highlight.
4
Sketch spokes that radiate from the pupil across the highlighted part of the iris. Now you can fill in the lighter portion of the iris that you blocked off. Use your pencil to draw lines coming from the pupil out towards the edge of the iris. Try to use shorter, darker strokes right next to the pupil to make the iris look realistic.^{[9]
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- Leave a few bold strokes to make the iris appear defined. It shouldn't be a uniform smooth texture.
5
Use an eraser or blending stump to lighten the iris. If you find that you made the iris too dark, use the eraser on your pencil or a paper blending stump and lightly smudge the excess graphite off of the paper. Keep erasing or blending until you've lightened the iris as much as you like.^{[10]
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- If you're drawing a very dark iris, you may not need to go back and lighten any part of it.

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

Adding Finishing Details

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1
Darken the upper eyelash line. Create even more depth by drawing over the eyelash line where it meets the hairs. This is especially important if you want the eye to have eyeliner or heavy mascara.^{[11]
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- If you want the eye to have eyeliner on the lower eyelash line, darken that line as well.
2
Go back and fill in the eyebrow with lots of short hairs. Instead of drawing rows of hairs that start in neat lines, make hairs that overlap each other. To make the eyebrow look natural, sketch the hairs closest to the inner eye so they're pointing straight up. As you fill in the middle of the eyebrow, draw the hairs so they're curving from right to left or left to right, depending on which eye you're drawing. When you reach the narrow end of the eyebrow, make the small hairs point down.^{[12]
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- Keep adding hairs until you've filled in the brow and overlap them so they look natural.
3
Add light shading around the white of the eye. At this point, the white of the eye probably stands out. To make it look more realistic, use a blending stump that has a little graphite on it or take a pencil and lightly shade around the corners of the eye. You'll also need to blend a little where the white meets the iris.^{[13]
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- You can also go back and shade or darken the tear duct near the inner corner of the eye.
4
Shade the skin around the eye. Use a pencil or blending stump that has graphite to add depth to the skin under the eye. You'll also want to darken and blend the skin near the upper eyelid's crease.^{[14]
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- If you want to highlight the browbone, erase lightly or smudge it with a clean blending stump.

Part 4

Part 4 of 4:

Example

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Question

How do I make the eyelashes look more refined? I tried drawing them and they just looked messy.

Community Answer

Try to use short light strokes, and use a sharpened pencil for more definition and boldness.

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What if I'm a bad artist? I tried this and it didn't turn out well.

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Continue to practice as much as you can and eventually you will improve. There are also many drawing tutorials on YouTube that might help you. If this drawing is beyond your skill set, you might also want to start with something simpler and work your way up.

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How do I make the little lines in the pupil look real?

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Focus on every detail of a human eye, then try to draw it, or look at someone's eye for reference and try to copy what you see.

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Tips

Keep in mind that eyes can be different widths and angles. Try to draw a variety of female eyes to gain experience.

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People usually make the mistake of drawing faces in very unrealistic positions. Try looking at magazine and photograph references of people that have their faces at the same eye level as the camera, as this might help you.

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Make sure you do a lot of reading on human anatomy so you really get the gist of drawing the human form.

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Tips from our Readers

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Color the iris like you did they eyebrows, with short strokes starting from the center toward the pupil and ending towards the outside of the iris.
When you draw the lower lashes, make sure they don't actually touch the eye.
Try tracing a drawing of an eye to get a feel for the shape and size.

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