How to Draw a Semirealistic Eye

A tutorial by b1tterRabbit

If you're ready, let's start !

 Step 1 

1 Sketch - Be especially careful about the size and position of the ins Generally I cover the top of the iris with the lid, but let the bottom of the iris shows a sliver of the white of the eye below the bottom lid. Too large an iris will look alien, and too small will look scary think about what kind of charac-ter Vou want to portray!
Brushes info at the bottom. Did I mention there's a Youtube painting demonstration linked in the description?

 Step 2 

2 Basic skin tones - A desaturated base color - Mae saturated reds/oranges for the shadows - The deepest shadows are there the eyebrow meets the nose bridge and in the outer corner of the eye crease - Don't forget the shadow cast on the eyeball itself

 Step 3 

3. Refining skin - I like to add a lot of red/orange in the shadows - I begin refining away the stray sketch lines I don't want - I choose a cool ambient light from above, so I use pale cool colors for highlights on the browbone and the inner corner of the eyelid - For the inner corner and lower lid of the eye where mucus membrane shows I use a red/pink color

 Step 4 

4. Basic Iris - First I pin the location of the pupil and the dark outside edge of the ins Pay attention to the apparent gaze of the character in this steps - Then I lay in the basic colors, a blue-green in this case. I don't try to cover all the sclera color showing through, since I think that adds some interest - In this stage, I use strokes which radiate outwards from the pupil. You can experiment with random strokes instead, as that can look very good and interesting - Don't forget about the shadow the eye socket/lid casts on the eyeball and iris

 Step 5 

5. Light in the Iris - Using lightening blend modes such as vivid light or color dodge, I brush in the brightest parts using a soft brush. - Think about lighting direction: I imagine a stronger light coming from canvas left, which makes the right side of the iris seem to glow - Generally, it's fine to create lighting effects on the iris as if the iris is concave - I like to exaggerate the brightness of the eyes and really push the bright parts

Step 6 

6. Specular Highlights - Avoiding white, I instead choose a light color which is opposite to the cola of the eyes, so a very light, almost white peach in this case - The largest bright spot goes in the opposite side to the bright spot in the iris. If the iris is concave, the cornea over it is convex, which is why the highlights are reversed like this - I also add some lesser highlights in the mucous parts of the eye the lower eyelid, and the inner corner

Step 7 

7 Secondary Highlights -Add some low-opacity strokes of light colors using a hard brush. They don't show up too much, but I think they add a great deal of realism and apparent detail - I sometimes set the highlights to linear light, and then on a new layer set to a light blend mode (such as color dodge or vivid light) I use a soft brush to paint over the existing highlights to bring them out more

 Step 8 

 8 Eyebrow - I use a textured pencil brush to sketch in the darkest hairs first, then add some of the skintone in as highlight - I use soft brushes and erasers to blend the eyebrow into the skin - Finally, I add a few light and dark hairs as detail. Not the whole thing has to be detailed for it to look good 
 

Step 9

9 Eyelashes - I use a hard brush at low opacity - Draw eyelashes using swift flicks. They are curved, elegant shapes - Again, I use a dark color first, and then a thinner brush with a light color for highlights - You can use references for the direction of the lashes - I add some highlights in too, and darken the root of the eyelashes with a soft brush  
 

Final 

10. Final adjustments - I add some texture to the skin, aaand done!