On a profile head, the eyes will fall about
halfway down the face, this is the same place the eyes
would fall if you were looking at the face straight on.
The thing that the Egyptians seemed to struggle with -
proportion and perspective, changes when you turn your
head. The Egyptians drew the same eye for profile and
for straight on, this isn't correct. Just as if you held
a coin between your index finger and thumb and looked at
the face, then turned it to look at the side, you don't
see the same thing. This applies with the eye. It's
fairly easy to draw an eye in profile. You'll only be
drawing one eye, if you see both eyes it's not a true
profile. An eye in profile doesn't seem to be as
expressive as an eye seen from the front. This is mostly
because you really don't see much of the eye from the
side, it's mostly the skin around the eye that you see.
The eye in profile can minimally be drawn with three
lines: the eyeball, the upper lid, and the lower lid.
It's pretty much a triangle with the eye side being a
curve. Take a look at these eyes:
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Do you see the three basic lines? You can bypass your
logical mind telling you how draw an eye if you break
down the eye you're drawing into at least the three
lines. But when you draw an eye in profile, don't just
draw one of THESE eyes you see here, draw the one that
you are looking at. No two eyes look the same. No - not
even the two eyes on the same head!
Numbers 1-3 are well drawn and most realistic. The
eyeball line isn't usually flat, the upper lid sticks
out further than the lower lid. Do you see that? Number
four shows the bottom lid further out than the top; it
doesn't look right, does it?
Number five illustrates a point with the lashes. Don't
draw individual lashes, rather, draw them "clumped".
Since you're seeing the lashes from the side, it's
almost like you're seeing one big lash, so draw one big
lash. Like in these drawings, the lash will be thicker
away from the eye than closer. Look at the eye you're
drawing, men have eyelashes, too. Just because you're
drawing a dude doesn't mean he hasn't got eyelashes.
Just don't draw them too long, he's likely to inflict
pain if he thinks you drew his lashes too long.
One last point: Crows feet. The little wrinkles at the
outside corner of the eye. They might be there even if
she claims she hasn't got any. Even babies have crows
feet, look for yourself. You may want to draw them in
lightly, though.
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Have someone sit for you so
you can draw their eye |
 Your
Assignment: Draw some eyes in profile. Just the eye,
not the rest of the face. You could do what I did here
and draw the contour of the nose just to make the eye
look more "eye-like". Look for pictures of people in
profile, or better yet, get someone to sit for you. Draw
their one eye, and then have them spin around so you can
draw the other one. Draw several eyes on one piece of
paper, and just do lines like I did, don't bother with
shadows yet. You may want to start with the top lid then
draw the curved line for the eyeball, then draw the
bottom lid. When these three lines are drawn, thicken up
the ends of the lid lines to make eyelashes. Then if you
see them, draw in the "crows feet" wrinkles at the
corner of the eye. Try and draw several different eyes
belonging to several different people. |
