The Eyes Have It (or at least they should)

Drawing eyes realistically can be a finicky business. A drawing can succeed or fail based on how well the artist captures the reality of the eyes. I spend a lot of time sketching eyes and dedicated a page of my sketchbook to working on some of the exercises in Giovanni Civardi's Complete Guide to Drawing which I discussed in my previous post.

Eyes aren't really that difficult, there's simply a lot going on with their construction. First, you have the round iris and pupil at center stage, but the shading on each is handled differently: the pupil is treated as flat whereas the iris can be treated as an inverted bowl. The fleshly parts around the eye have lots of nooks and crannies and here is where an excellent anatomy book can help tease out the various parts.

The mini-tutorial above shows the steps I've followed in creating the eyes in my sketchbook. None of the sketches are perfect (the irises aren't round, the symmetry is off, there are details overemphasized or underemphasized), but the main point is that practice makes perfect. The more you sketch something, the better able you are to recall those details when you draw it later.

I find eyes very satisfying to sketch. They're a good challenge and help keep your technical skills honed. I would highly recommend Giovanni Civardi's book Drawing Portraits to get you on your way to understanding the anatomy more clearly.

Sketching my way through a new book...

I've recently purchased a new drawing book entitled, Giovanni Civardi's Complete Guide to Drawing. My friend, Diane Wright had a copy and was impressed by the quality of the drawings. It was initially available on Amazon but they discontinued it after I attempted to purchase a copy. Nevertheless, I tracked down an excellent used copy from a bookstore in Washington and have been working my way through it over the last few days.

The sketches below were done based on the excellent drawings in the book and really helped me understand the structure and masses around the eyes, especially with regards to the fatty pads above the outside of the eye.

Civardi's approach is a bit different for me in that he starts with a loose sketch and then creates a faceted version (like you see in the lower-middle sketch below). I have always enjoyed this type of structural study but have approached it as a first step rather than a second, which after trying it does, in fact, work better. I'm looking forward to applying this technique to future drawings.

I'll be posting some of my other sketches from my sketchbook as I work my way through this book. I am impressed with the content so far. The book is made up of Civanni's six standalone books including:

• Drawing Techniques
• Drawing Portraits (the section I'm working through now)
• Drawing the Clothed Figure
• Drawing Hands and Feet
• Drawing Scenery, and
• Drawing Light and Shade

I can't make an official recommendation on whether to buy the book right now but I'll offer my critique of the book along with my evaluation once I'm able to complete it.