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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 right. 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 one curved side. 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 don't
draw one of THESE eyes, draw the one that you see. 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 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.
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