Hello Steemians,

I created this eye tutorial a while ago, I hope it can help someone; I like doing these because, as a self-taught artist myself, it was this exact way that I learned how to get better.

This will be the finished eye:

1. First, you want to draw the general outline of the eye and outline any highlights that you want to preserve the whiteness of the paper for:

2. Fill in the darker spots (shadows). I will put in the dark areas, then dab with a kneaded eraser to lift some graphite/charcoal up and do again. The goal is to layer the light and dark areas to create some texture/depth. Since the eye has a lot of "random" texture in it, this is a good way to accomplish that.

3. Blend it together with a brush (or people use q-tips), then use a kneaded eraser to pull some of it back out in random spots (or non-random highlight places). You're continuing to layer and create texture. Your mind should be focusing on the main shadows and highlights, don't even think of it as an "eye", but sections of light and dark.

4. Continue to work the eye and put in some values around it. I've added more distinct shadows on the lip above the eye, in the corner of the eye, and in the eye itself.

5. The whites of the eye are rarely ever actually white, only portions of the white are - like where there is a highlight. Otherwise, there is almost always some kind of shadow cast across the eye - even though it may be a very faint shadow. Generally there is some almost pure white on the edges of the eye, either at the bottom lip or the corners where there is moisture and the light is reflecting off of it.

6. The goal of creating a good eye is first and foremost to have your proportions correct, and to create a lot of contrast between values. You want to have dark shadows and near white highlights. The highlights represent moisture. This is the finished eye:

I was just messing around with the rest of the drawing, but this is the eye in the context of the rest of the drawing:

I hope this helps, if you have any questions or comments, please ask away!

If you'd like to see more like this, please follow! Video tutorials are on the horizon :)