Down but not out!

Between this flu thing going around and my back being out I just haven't been up to drawing these past couple of weeks but I am getting better and should be able to finish this eye tutorial pretty soon.

Then I will be starting my large Abe Lincoln portrait which will be a very long term project.  I will post updates to that and more tutorials here as time permits.

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Drawing a Realistic Eye Tutorial Part 2 - Shape and Shading

This is the second part of the eye tutorial that deals with adding shape to your drawing with shading.  This video will show how much of an impact adding shading to your drawing will have.  Shading is what gives your image depth and character.  Plus it is essential for drawing something that has a realistic three dimensional look to it.

I have exaggerated some of the shading to some extent to make an example but for the most part this is a pretty good example for you to see.  There are no new techniques to speak of here so I will not be adding captions in the video to describe what I am doing.

I used pretty much all of my mechanical pencils (from 6H to B - both .3mm and .5mm) so I won't list them.  When drawing, I don't believe that it is important which lead you use as long as you get the desired tone.  Some people can use an HB lead and get very dark results while others need to use  4B to get the same tone. 

Another thing to consider is using a soft lead and using a very light touch will give you a very grainy look.   This is because you will not be pushing the graphite deep into the tooth of the paper so the white will show through.  Conversely, pushing hard on the pencil will produce a smoother look as you are driving the graphite deep into the paper.  For areas like skin it produces a more realistic look if you use a harder lead and press hard for a smooth texture.  In this tutorial I showed you how to draw a "rougher" texture to simulate the look of skin.  This can be a very personal choice as some like the look of a much smoother texture for their skin.  However, if you add some kind of texture it will have a more realistic look.  If you look at skin very closely you will see that it is actually has quite a bit of texture to it.  The problem with adding too much texture is that it can make the person you are drawing look older so be careful!

Here's a comparison of how much of a difference shading makes.

Next time I will actually draw the eye of this eye tutorial!