Pen & Ink Drawing Tutorials _ How to draw realistic animal eyes

So in this tutorial , I'm gonna um just walk you guys through um uh how you could go about drawing the eyes of different animals .

I just had sketched out like six here and uh it should be enough to give you a good idea of how to proceed if you want to , you know , draw other eyes as well .

But um you know , just to give you some little ideas on how you can proceed with that .

I think this one is the eye of a cat .

This one is a chameleon .

I think this one is an owl .

Uh I'm not sure if this is a rhi rhinoceros uh something like that .

Um This is a net , uh a frog and um I think this is like a , a chimpanzee or a gorilla or something like that .

All right .

But essentially the um principles is pretty much the same .

Um So I'm gonna go and start with this one .

Now .

Uh The main thing I'll point out is that it may be a good idea to um uh use different um points when you're doing them because there are certain areas that's gonna be solid black and you know , it may save you a lot of time if you already have a , you know , pen with a larger point like this one is a , uh , 0.8 .

Um , yes , I may go from using a 0.8 to a point three or five and a 0.1 just 33 sizes really a small , large and , um , and a medium , right ?

So here I'm just pretty much just outlining it .

And around here is where you have , you know , the fur around the eyes , right ?

So I'm just gonna start filling in the um the solid black areas , right ?

You know , they um that in um I guess around it , all you have to do is just , you know , um to create that sense of pressure here , just , you know , using kind of , it would be around where the other is right now .

I'm just trying to build up the little surrounding areas .

Actually , this is not that much a big deal .

It's just kind of fun to do .

So that's why I'm filling it in just to give the eyes some context .

Now , what I'll do is in these little areas , you find that well , when you observe the um the eyes of like cats and so on , there's not so much as a bold line , but it seems like at the edges , it fades into where , you know , the , the , the white or the yellow of the eyes or whatever the color is .

So in this area .

I'm just gonna use little , little dots because lines may be a little bit too much .

So it may be a better idea to just use sniffles because they're light enough to create a sense of gradation from the , the dark to the light without making any strong marks .

Because , you know , when you're doing eyes , it's really important that you be as , as delicate as possible .

And that's , that's what I'm trying to do here now around the pupil , what you find is like a , a kind of like flares going out .

So I'm just gonna use dots like , so see , it's almost like you have something like this going on , see .

So instead of um it's almost like I'm drawing that using dots and this is using my 0.1 see .

So I'm touching along the edge of the shape , you know , and there it is and that kind of creates that effect , you know , I'm doing this pretty fast as well .

So , you know , if you're , you're doing it , hopefully you'd be doing it a little bit slower and um taking your time .

Yeah .

And I think that's about it , you know , because as I said , you really don't want to overdo it and you wanna keep it as , as delicate as possible , but just enough to create that , you know , that illusion , I think that's pretty good .

So I'm , I'm switching to my , the medium point , this is my 0.5 .

So now I'm just gonna sketch it in .

So this is like the um the eyebrow or the Brew ridge , see just sketching that in .

And uh that part is pretty bare and hard and then the , you know , hair is actually around it like that .

So I'm just building up a little context so the eye will kind of fit in and not just , you know , I'm not trying to just draw it isolated .

So I usually , you know , as you say , just outline everything and then go in and um lay in the deep values with a larger point just to save time .

So this is the shadow here right under uh the eyebrow because it's facing downwards .

And this is pretty much just , you know , I'm thinking of it just like a cylinder like so , so that's the shadow era like that .

All right .

So it's , you know , it , it seems a little complicated , but that's a simple um shape I have in my mind as I'm laying in the values , as I said with , you know , almost everything that I draw .

I always think of it in terms of um simple shapes .

I'm gonna switch to uh my 0.3 medium point , start cheating in the um the Irish .

See , I'm just using little lines like groups of lines like that .

And if he knows right here , all you're seeing is really just I just have um in my mind is just , I just have think something like this .

I'm trying to sketch it .

So you can see the type of form I'm using .

That's all I'm picturing and you just have little , I'm just shading the lower side .

So it's almost like you have a , um , cylinder like , so , and you're just doing that .

So that's pretty much what I'm doing .

Um , over and over here may not seem like it , but that's really what I'm doing .

Yeah .

And that , that pretty much creates that actually , I'll turn this over a little bit more .

So I'll create some texture right here .

This is the um the brow ridge .

See , I'm just giving it some texture by using these little short choppy lines and then there is here .

All right .

I think that pretty much gives the idea .

Um And that's , that's pretty much it , as I said , you know , with the eyes , you're trying not to overdo it .

And at the end of the day , you want the , the form to be clear .

All right .

Um Which one about the frog ?

So this is the frog's eye .

This one is pretty easy , big round form .

Of course , I'm thinking of this as a , as a sphere , spherical form .

The more you think of these , whatever you're drawing in simpler terms , it makes it so much easier to draw and less intimidating .

You know , when you look at the actual thing and you think of it as the actual thing , it's , it's can be daunting .

But once you start imagining it like , oh , that's just a , a ball .

Oh , that's just a cube .

It becomes a lot simpler and a lot less intimidating texture or make it a little more interesting .

I can pretty much do the same thing that I did here .

Just gonna do it a little bit different just to make it a little bit more interesting .

So I'm just circling the diamond like that with just dotted lines .

That's all I'm doing .

What's that ?

See , I'm picturing this as a tube , see going around the eyeball .

So you can just experiment with different textures , you know , and create a different uh type of effect .

What I'm doing here is I have like , you know , that little round shape like that and I'm just doing simple lines like this .

That's what I'm doing here .

And as it gets closer to where the um you know , the eyes fit into the , the orbit , I'm making the lines closer and darker and as they go towards the eyeball , they're , they're getting a little bit lighter and , and uh more spaced out .

So it creates a sense of volume , you know , from light , from dark to light .

All right .

Um I thought this one would be pretty fun .

This is uh a chameleon and you know , it has the ability to , to rotate and , you know , look forwards and backwards and so on .

So they're basically a little like a layer of um of like little scales .

So I'm just gonna outline everything here .

So I'm thinking of this like a cone , right ?

Something like that .

And you have a little , that's the pinnacle .

So it's almost like it's like that .

All right .

And then there's rings , there are rings around it like , so that's what I'm envisioning .

OK ?

And as it goes around , it's also um you know , this is going also going from light to dark , from dark to light , OK ?

And on top of that , you have the little little rings going around it .

So I'm thinking of them at the same time , like they're a little , you know , tubes curving around and then there are little circles also , right ?

That goes on top of it .

So it , it's , you know , you're just creating texture .

So it's , it's kind of fun .

So , um , basically , I'm gonna make these little shapes darker in the areas where there's , you know , shadow and in these areas where it's lighter , I'm gonna make them lighter .

I'm gonna switch to my medium point and I'm just gonna strengthen where the eye is where the , the pupil .

So now I'm just going in pretty much and um , darkening the areas to distinguish , you know , light areas from shadow areas and so on can even put some little shading in there .

I'm just using light lines just to indicate very lightly that this area is in , in shadow .

And I'm , I'm trying what I'm doing here , I'm making the , the line not be straight but seem to go through , it's following the texture .

It has to reflect the texture as well .

They're not just curved lines like that .

It's more like , like , so going through the little scales and , you know , it's just pretty simple .

It doesn't have as much detail or uh or fine textures as like the chameleon does or the um the monkey .

So with this , it's just a matter of outlining the shape .

Yeah , once we got that done , we can just start going in and um as I said , feeling in the dark , um the areas that are fully black .

All right .

So I'm just gonna go in and start filling in .

So notice I'm also leaving out that little highlight so you could actually um leave some areas , you know , showing the cross hash marks , it's really up to you .

Um I think it sometimes makes it a little bit more interesting .

Um So I'm just gonna leave a part of it showing the hatch marks kind of capture that type type of a transparent look that it normally has .

Now I'm just gonna fill in the areas around it .

See , I'm just using very light lines and that just helps to create a sense of light and shadow that it's kind of curving over , it's all that distance and then that's it .

Um Now for this one , it's , I think it's more like a a Rhino's eye .

So it's , it's really scary and hard the material or the , the , the type of tissue around the eyes and the eyes are pretty small , kind of like , embedded around all this armor .

But again , it's , it's pretty much the same principle .

Yeah .

And that's , um , pretty much it .

I would just be repeating the same thing over and over and , uh , essentially I'm just repeating these , these overlapping forms if you will over and over and that's it .

Um , you know , and I think that that pretty much give us a good idea of how to go about um doing it .

Um It's , it's essentially just trying to not overwhelm yourself with what you see and just use enough to create the illusion that the eye is seeing that thing , right ?

Um And that's essentially what drawing is all about .

You're trying to simplify reality enough to create the illusion of reality , right ?

You're not trying to recreate exactly what you see , but the enough of an illusion to fool the eye that it's seeing that thing .

So it's important that you try to use simple forms like here , for example , as I said , all I'm doing is just using these , these forms .

I'm just thinking of it like a little cylinder , all right .

And I'm just , I'm , I'm pretending as if they're next to each other like that .

And then there's another one next to it and then there's another one next to it and so on and so on .

But of course , this is the very basic idea .

But if you notice I make them irregular .

So 1 may be crossing over like this , 1 may be crossing over like this , you know , they're not as perfect .

So that , that is what creates the illusion , right ?

You don't obviously just look at it and say , oh , that's a cylinder .

I make it irregular .

Like for example , you don't see a straight line , I kind of make the line a little bit irregular .

So you can't necessarily see that I'm using a simple form , but that's what's really , you know , behind the whole thing .