How to Draw Different Eyes
(and Why Yours Might All Look the Same!)

Are you struggling to figure out how to draw different eyes — so they don’t all end up looking the same?

Ten eye drawings: five generic-looking eye drawings and five realistic eye drawings that each resemble different individuals. Text overlay reads: “How to Draw Different Eyes – Why your eye drawings don’t look like your model.”

No matter who you're drawing — or what angle or pose you attempt — your eye drawings somehow all resemble the same generic person?

You're not alone! This is one of the most common frustrations I hear from students, and I struggled with it too when I first started drawing eyes. But there's a specific reason this happens — and once you understand it, you’ll know exactly what to focus on to fix it.

In this video, you'll learn:

✏️ Why your eye drawings keep looking the same
✏️ Which part of the drawing process to focus on, to fix it
✏️ And how to make your drawings look like the actual person and pose you’re observing

M O R E E Y E
D R A W I N G R E S O U R C E S:

Or, transform your eye drawings in my in-depth course:
The Eye Drawing Intensive

Transform your eye drawings in the Eye Drawing Intensive

Watch the video below: How to Draw Different Eyes
(and why your eye drawings all look the same!)

This lesson is from my free Draw Better Eyes Toolkit, which will help you troubleshoot and improve your eye drawings with 6 short video lessons, and an Eye Drawing Rescue Checklist. You can get the toolkit for free below:

Start here: Free Draw Better Eyes Toolkit

Fix the most common mistakes making your eye drawings look flat and unrealistic with 6 short video lessons and the Eye Drawing Rescue Checklist. Get the Toolkit here!

Prefer to read? The article version is below:
(But the video is more detailed - I recommend it!)

How to Draw Different Eyes
and why yours might all look the same!

In drawing, specific shapes create likeness, or resemblance. Specific shapes make our drawings look specifically like the model that we’re drawing:

What happens when our shapes are inaccurate?

Best case scenario, if your shapes are a little bit off - your eyes might still look realistic, but they won’t look like the individual you’re drawing. They won’t resemble their unique eyes.

Unlike some other drawing subjects, portrait drawing is not forgiving.

For example, if your proportions and shapes are slightly off when drawing a still life like this flower …

Two realistic flower drawings side by side — one with accurate proportions, the other slightly off. A photo reference is shown above.

It’s still believable and realistic, right? It’s not the specific flower that you were drawing, but without seeing the reference photo, you can't even tell! No problem.

But, what happens if our shapes or proportions are slightly off in a portrait drawing?

Two portrait drawing side by side - one with correct proportions and one with slightly incorrect proportions.

Yikes.

Suddenly we have a (mildly horrifying) caricature of our model.

With advanced subjects like the figure and portrait, we can’t get away with much!

We must learn to observe, analyze and draw the shapes of our subject sensitively.

Look how distinctly unique all of these eye shapes are:

Photos of four different people’s eyes showing the unique shape and angle of each eye opening — essential details to observe for realistic eye drawing. Text overlay reads: “Look how distinctly unique all of these eye shapes are!”

To draw realistic eyes that look recognizably like those of our model, we must pay attention to:

the tilt of the eye
the widths and heights of the eye, and
where specific angle changes occur

I’ve used straight lines in the image above, to point out the distinct angle changes in each eye shape. Using straight lines is an important point – we’ll come back to this!

The opening of the eye isn’t the only shape we need to pay close attention to.

For example, the pupil and iris aren’t perfect circles. Their contours often have subtle angle changes, and their shapes shift depending on one’s expression and tilt of their head:

An image showing the same woman’s eyes in different poses, with illustrations highlighting subtle shape changes. Demonstrates how observing these shifts is essential for drawing accurate eye poses.

In fact, every form of the eye is unique to each individual. This might seem overwhelming at first, but once you know what to look for and how to anticipate those shifting forms, capturing someone’s likeness becomes one of the most rewarding parts of drawing eyes - and portraits overall.

In this video and article, we’ll focus on the shape of the opening of the eye – this is the eye shape I usually suggest that you start your drawings with.

How to Draw Different Eyes: Step 1

Now that you’re seeing how unique every eye shape is, how do you draw it specifically rather than generically? Try following these steps:

Step 1) Start your eye drawings by indicating the tilt of the eye.

An image of an eye reference photo and a drawing of the first step of drawing an eye. Text overlay says: How to draw different eyes - step 1. Start your eye drawings by indicating the tilt of the eye.

Watch the video at the top of the page for more details about this step!

Notice that each eye below is at a particular angle. If we don’t establish the angle of the eye early on in our drawing, it will be very difficult to create later.

Photos of four eye reference photos for drawing, with lines indicating the tilt of each unique eye. Text overlays says: Notice that each eye here is at a particular angle.

When drawing an eye, often the first line I draw indicates the tilt of the opening of the eye, or of the eye in general.

I visualize this first angled line extending from approximately one corner of the eye to the other, and then I mimic its angle on my drawing using angle-sighting.

Next, let’s notice what’s included in this shape between the eyelids:

An eye reference photo showing 6 visible anatomical elements of the eye that are important to draw in this eye pose. Text overlay reads: lacrimal caruncle, plica semilunaris, iris, pupil, cornea, sclera. Learn essential eye anatomy in the Eye Drawing Intensive at The Drawing Source.

Learn essential eye anatomy in Module 1 of the Eye Drawing Intensive!

Parts of the eye visible in this pose:

The sclera
The white of the eye
The pupil
The iris and
The cornea (this is the transparent cover on top of the iris - not extremely visible here)
The 2 forms in the inner corner of the eye: the lacrimal caruncle, and
the plica semilunaris.

We study anatomy so that we know what to look for. For example, students often don’t leave enough space for these 2 forms in the inner corner of the eye, because they don’t notice that they’re there, or that the 2 corners of the eye are very different. That’s a little bonus mistake for you to avoid!

Often we can’t see what we don’t know to look for.

We’ll cover essential eye anatomy needed to draw believable eyes in the first module of the Eye Drawing Intensive. It’s so much fun to learn and it will transform the way you see eyes.

How to Draw Different Eyes: Step 2

Step 2) is to analyze the widths and heights of this shape.

Where is it the tallest? Where is it the widest?

An eye reference photo with the inner eye shape highlighter. Text overlays says: how to draw different eyes step 2. Analyze the widths and heights of the inner eye shape. Where is it the tallest? Where is it the widest? Indicate these proportions on your drawing.

Watch the video at the top of the page for more details about this step!

An easy way to determine this is to imagine this shape fitting perfectly into a rectangle, where the rectangle touches the highest point, lowest point, right-most point and left most point of the shape. (Watch the video at the top of the page for examples of this!)

Now we have 4 boundaries, or high points, of this shape, as well as the overall height and width. Let’s mark the high points, because they will be important later.

Notice that the highest and lowest points are at an angle to each other.

Once you’ve found the general height and width, indicate it lightly on your drawing to give this shape boundaries.

How to Draw Different Eyes: Step 3

Step 3) Find the major angle changes in this shape.

Watch the video at the top of the page for more details about this step!

Finding angle changes is a skill that takes practice. Here are a few tips and ways to go about it.

We have already found the high points, or boundaries, of this shape.

Conveniently, there are usually major angle changes at these high points. Can you see them? At each one of these points, the line changes direction, that’s what an angle change is.

Next, can you see any other angle changes? They might be more subtle than the first ones. (Watch the video to see me point out the more subtle angle changes!)

If you’re not quite seeing the angle changes, that’s okay. Try asking yourself: how would I draw this eye, using only straight lines, and as few lines as possible?

No curving lines! This is important, because it will force you to decide where to end one line and where to start another one, and you will likely start and end your lines at angle changes.

Curving your lines too early often results in generic shapes and generic drawings that all look the same.

So, how would you draw this eye using as few lines as possible?

I started with a shape that looks like the one above. Then I made it more specific by subdividing it with more angle changes.

This is an excellent starting point because we have identified:

the tilt of the eye,
the widths and heights of the eye, and
where the specific angle changes are.

This is already not a generic shape.

Step 4) is to find and draw the even more subtle angle changes in this shape – and only then start curving some lines (see the video for this step).

I don’t do that until much later in the process, once I’ve added more information to my drawing. I guide you through this in my Eye Drawing Intensive, which is where these students transformed their eye drawing:

Student eye drawing transformations from the Eye Drawing Intensive course at The Drawing Source

You can learn more about the Eye Drawing Intensive here.

How to Draw Different Eyes: A Summary

Now you know that: if your drawing doesn’t look like the specific person you’re drawing, you’re probably not drawing your shapes specifically enough.

To improve the accuracy of the shapes in your block-ins, don't miss my Bargue Drawing Level 1 course!

There you'll learn how to see and draw complex shapes accurately, and 10 ways to check the accuracy of your drawing. You can access Bargue Drawing Level 1 in my Drawing Decoded membership here.

To draw a shape specifically and precisely, we must notice and draw:

Its tilt
Its heights and widths (these will vary at different parts of the shape)
Where its specific angle changes are

Tip: To help you draw a shape precisely, don’t curve lines too early – use straight lines for as long as possible. This will make you indicate specific angle changes.

Now, there’s a lot of information when we look at an eye. How do we know which shapes to actually include in our drawing? I teach this, and provide a convenient checklist for you to use, in the Eye Drawing Intensive, which you can explore here.

There we'll also learn how the shapes and forms of the eye appear from different angles and in different poses, so that you can learn to anticipate these shifting shapes, and draw them specifically, realistically, with convincing likeness and resemblance.

The issue of likeness arises in the block-in stage: the early line drawing that acts as your blueprint for shading. If your proportions and shapes are off here, no amount of shading will fix them.

A hand erasing part of an eye drawing in its block-in or line drawing stage. Text overlay reads: The Block-In. If your proportions and shapes are off here, no amount of shading will fix them.

So, the goal is to make your shapes and proportions as accurate as possible by the end of this stage. Then, in the next step of the eye drawing process – we’ll fill in our shadow shapes with a flat, even value to check their accuracy even more closely.

You can learn about that next step — and the rest of the eye drawing process — in my free video and downloadable guide on How to Draw Realistic Eyes Step by Step.

Watch this video next: How to Draw an Eye in 6 Steps

A hand adding finishing touches to a beautifully shaded, realistic eye drawing in pencil. An infographic shows how to draw an eye in 6 steps. Text overlays reads 6-Step eye drawing roadmap. Video at The Drawing Source

You’ll learn:

The 6 steps of the eye drawing process are,
How they build on one another, and
The key priorities to focus on in each one.

Plus, download a free 6-Step Eye Drawing Roadmap guide!

Or, if you're ready to transform your eye drawings - so you can confidently and consistently draw realistic eyes that are the expressive jewel of your portrait drawings - I invite you to explore the Eye Drawing Intensive here.