[johnny dude]

Um, hello.
Here's one way to do an eye...I do not believe you should use this as a reference for every eye you draw, this is just a simple way of doing a slightly realistic way. You should not take this as an extremely realistic way of drawing an eye, for that is not what it is. This is just a step by step way that I usually do eyes that has been made with use of basic realistic foundation. I made this with a simple knowledge of eyes which I have studied and observed from real eyes. I suggest you do the same if you wish to truly draw eyes realistically.

Start with the basic shape of the eyeball. Eyes are just round balls of stuff that have been crammed into hollow holes. So it's good to start with the basic shape, the sphere. You can do what i did and draw a cross over it and put the pupil at the center of it.

Layer the eyelid over the eyeball and add the tear-duct. Eyelids can range from seemingly no eyelid, to a very thick lid. The eyelid surrounds the eyeball rather snugly, covering the top and bottom of the eye. The tear-duct is in the inside corner of the eye and can be slightly sharp or more rounded. Realistically, it is very small. In more cartoonish styles it can be drawn very large.

Add eyelashes and the pupil. Eyelashes curl outward and are the thickest on the top lid furthest away from the tear-duct. Eyelashes do not grow from the eyeball, but more the eyelid. The bottom eyelashes peek out from the lower lid, as you can in this picture. For the pupil, it can vary in size and placement depending on light and what the subject is looking at. In brightly lit rooms, the pupils will contract (smaller), in dark rooms they will expand (enlarge).

Final details. Here I added a more defined lower and upper lid, added shading on the white of the eye plus pupil, and added the eyebrow.

That's all I did for the sketched one.

Lining the eye. For a more realistic approach, I use thin, almost wispy lines. Using more thick lines will result in a more cartoon-y style. (if that is what you want then by all means go ahead)

Add the the white of the eye, the iris color and the tear-duct. The tear-duct is always a red, pink or an orangish brown color.

Color the shade of the iris.It can really be personal preference what color you use to shade with, for this picture I decided to use a dark green to make a more blue-green iris.

Add a lighter color and blend. I added a light blue shade over the center part of the iris then used the smudge tool to blend the outside.

Zoom in and add more details.If you look at a real eye then you can probably see there are usually small lines of different color in the iris. You can especially see them in this. See all those little squiggles? All eyes have them. They are not very noticeable from afar, but are very easy to spot when close up. I zoomed in and added very light streaks. You can't really see them too well, but it still is rather important for adding depth to an eye.

Final details. I colored in the eyelashes black, added a light blue shading to the top of the eye white, and added the eye "shines" in the iris and pupil(In some situations there will be no eye shines). The eye shines come from a light source, let's say a computer screen, light bulb or sunshine. I also shaded the tear duct slightly with a dark red color to give it a more realistic touch. After that I colored the skin and remembered to add a dark brown shade to where shade hits around the eyeball (corner of the eye, below brow, below bottom eyelid etc...) I very simply colored in the eyebrow and finished.

Tah-dah, here is a very simplistic, slightly realistic way of drawing an eyeball. Lol.

Here are some of my favorite eye tutorials and references from deviantart:
By Ryky
By ConceptCookie
By markcrilley
By Kaspiian

um yeah
if you have any questions then just ask and I'll try to help haha

i think this is the longest post i have ever made...I think I might make more step by steps/tutorials if that's what people like. I don't know. Just have fun lol.

[johnny dude]

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