How do you draw eyes in pencil?
A Step-by-Step Eye Drawing Learning Path

How do you draw eyes that are realistic, expressive, and unique to the person you’re drawing? This page is a comprehensive, step-by-step eye drawing learning path designed to guide you through the full process — from start to finish.

Below, you’ll find a curated path for learning how to draw eyes, with carefully structured video tutorials, downloadable resources, eye reference photos, troubleshooting checklists, and eye drawing transformations for inspiration — all presented in an intentional order.

Drawing realistic eyes is one of the most rewarding parts of portrait drawing — but without a clear guide, it can also feel like one of the most challenging.

Eyes are complex. We have likeness, anatomy, shading, expression, eyelashes, and other details to consider. Small inaccuracies can make an eye drawing look flat or generic, while a well-drawn eye can bring an entire portrait to life.

This Eye Drawing Learning Path is here to guide you — step by step — through the process of learning to draw eyes realistically, so you always know what to focus on next.

It will show you:

• The order in which to study the free eye-related lessons on this site
• Where to find deeper, fully guided instruction when you're ready
• What the complete eye drawing learning path looks like inside the Eye Drawing Intensive (expanded visual learning path coming soon)
  
  

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How Do You Draw Eyes?
A Learning Path for Realistic Eye Drawings

Step 1: Understand the Overall Eye Drawing Process

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In drawing, we work 'from general to specific'. We start with larger, more general information (whether it’s proportions or value relationships) and work progressively toward smaller, more specific information and detail.

We can approach the learning process similarly. Before diving into anatomy of the eye or shading, it’s helpful to understand the overall eye drawing process as a whole.

This first video simplifies eye drawing into 6 key steps, giving you a clear idea of where you’re going, and how each stage fits together.

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Step 2: See What's Possible - Student Eye Drawing Transformations

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Before you dive into drawing, take a moment to meet some of the artists who’ve been right where you are, by exploring my students’ eye drawing transformations.

If you’ve ever doubted whether you can learn to draw realistic eyes — especially if you’ve tried before without the results you wanted — their stories will reassure you that this is possible, even if your starting point feels far from where you want to be.

Don't miss Tepor’s transformation — his second drawing came from the same tutorial you're about to follow.

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Step 3: Learn to See What's Actually There

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When drawing an eye, it’s easy to copy the lines you see without understanding the structures creating them. This often leads to:

❌ Lines that don’t start or end in the right place
❌ Entire forms being missed altogether (they're small - this happens all the time!)
❌ Eyes that look flat or disconnected — instead of dimensional and alive

To draw an intentional, accurate block-in — the initial line drawing that acts as a blueprint for shading — we need to learn to see what's actually there. And that starts with understanding essential eye anatomy. 

This doesn’t have to be intimidating. I’ve distilled the essentials into a focused workshop on the anatomy of the eye, designed specifically for portrait artists.

In this workshop, you’ll learn:

✔️ A recipe for a successful block-in (with a printable checklist)
✔️ The 11 key parts of the eye you must know to draw realistic, believable eyes
✔️ What to include — and what to leave out — of your eye block-in
✔️ How the forms of the eye change at different angles, using interactive 3D eye models you can rotate inside the course

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Step 4: Start Your First Eye Drawing - One Step at a Time

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You’ve seen the full process, you know what to look for, and you know you can do this. Let’s start blocking in your first eye drawing — one step at a time.

This doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. But to learn — we have to draw.

In this step-by-step tutorial, I’ll guide you through your first full pencil drawing of a realistic eye. You’ll download the reference photo and infographic, and follow along with me through each stage — from the initial block-in to the final details.

This is the same tutorial Tepor followed just before his incredible transformation you saw in Step 2 — the second drawing in his before-and-after came directly from this lesson.

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Step 5: Zoom In on Specific Eye Drawing Steps

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Now that you understand the big picture, you can start refining the smaller pieces. As you draw the eye in the tutorial above, explore the detailed guides below. Each one focuses on a specific step of the eye drawing process, so you can deepen your understanding and sharpen your skills as you go.

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Step 5A) Learn to Draw Realistic Eyebrows

Once you’ve studied the form of the eye itself, let’s look just above it — at a feature that shapes both likeness and expression: the eyebrow.

In this step-by-step eyebrow drawing tutorial you'll discover:

• 3 keys for drawing convincing eyebrows
• How to 'see' eyebrows to draw them effectively
• The full eyebrow drawing process

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Step 5B) Learn to Draw Realistic Eyelashes

Now that you’ve drawn the structure around the eye, let’s turn to one of the final details on the eye itself — the eyelashes.

When drawn intentionally, eyelashes can add character, depth, and a sense of life to your eye drawings.

In this two-part video series, you’ll learn:
• Part 1: 3 essential keys + the step-by-step eyelash drawing process
• Part 2: 8 top tips to draw the most realistic eyelashes

📌 Watch both videos for the full eyelash drawing method — they’re designed to work together!

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Step 6: Troubleshoot Common Eye Drawing Problems

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By now, you’ve practiced drawing a full eye, explored the key features in depth, and built a solid foundation. But what happens when something feels “off” in your eye drawing?

This step is about learning to troubleshoot your eye drawings, identify what’s holding your drawings back, and solving the problem — so your drawings can start to click.

Drawing is a problem-solving activity, so this is an essential skill to develop.

Then, explore the guides below as needed, to help you spot patterns, overcome plateaus, and keep growing:

At this point, you’ve learned how to identify common eye drawing problems and how to fix them — which is a huge step forward.

If you’d like to be guided through the entire process — from start to finish — the next step is a fully guided learning experience:

Dive Into a Fully Guided Learning Experience

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By now, you’ve likely noticed that the question “How do you draw eyes?” isn’t answered in a single lesson. It takes learning the right steps, in the right order — and practicing them intentionally.

While you can continue learning through individual tutorials and resources, the shortest and most direct path is to follow a fully guided, proven system where each step is intentionally designed for you.

That’s exactly what the Eye Drawing Intensive provides.

In the Intensive, you’ll be guided through the entire eye drawing process — and how to practice it — step by step. You’ll learn:

• Essential eye anatomy
• How to block in the eye accurately, in any pose
• How to construct the eye from the inside out
• How to shade values for believable realism
• How to draw and refine subtle edges for depth and dimension

Each module builds directly on the one before it. Every concept is paired with specific exercises, so you always know what to practice, how to practice, and what to focus on next — without guesswork or trial and error.

This is how students achieve the transformations you’ve seen: by following a focused, complete learning path with intention and support.

You can work through the course at your own pace, or choose the Plus version for personalized feedback on your eye drawings, so you always know exactly what to refine next.

The Eye Drawing Intensive is for artists who are ready to stop piecing things together — and instead be guided through a clear, structured path to drawing realistic eyes with confidence. Explore the Eye Drawing Intensive here.

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How Do You Draw Eyes?
Directory of Eye-Related Pages, Resources and Courses at The Drawing Source

6-Step Eye Drawing Roadmap (Video)
Student Eye Drawing Transformations: Before and After
Essential Eye Anatomy for Portrait Artists - Workshop
How to Draw Realistic Eyes: Step-by-Step Tutorial
How to Draw Eyebrows: Step-by-Step Tutorial
How to Draw Eyelashes: Step-by-Step Tutorial (Video)
8 Tips for Drawing More Realistic Eyelashes (Video)
Free Draw Better Eyes Toolkit: for Troubleshooting Your Eye Drawings
Why Your Eye Drawings All Look the Same (and how to fix them!)
Most Common Eye Drawing Mistakes: Part 1 (Video Series)
Most Common Eye Drawing Mistakes: Part 2 (Video Series)
Most Common Eye Drawing Mistakes: Part 3 (Video Series)
Eye Drawing Videos at The Drawing Source
The Eye Drawing Intensive Course

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