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Eyes

Welcome to Eye tutorial. Eyes are one of the more distinquishing characteristics of comics, and are one of the most pronounced features of the face. Eyes are also essential for expression ^_- So let's begin!

Say hello to the eyeball! the eye consists of 3 parts, the white of the eye, the iris and the pupil. The Iris is the colored part of the eye and the part the we have the most fun drawing because it's so beautiful. The pupil is the "black" part of the eye. But it's not Really black, it's actually a hole that allows light enter. As you probobly know, the pupil changes in size depending on the amount of light present. The pupil is larger and hides more of the iris when there is very little light. when there's an abundance of light, the pupil gets very small to block out the excess light.

While the eye appears to be a sphere, it's actually sligltly eliptical because of the lense. i'm not going to go anymore indepth on how the eyeball works and is shaped because we won't need it for the rest of the tutorial. However, it is important to kind of keep in the back of your mind.

The eyelid forms to the shape of the eye and acts as a sheild. It's a coomon mistake for people to think that the lid is thin and flat. In actuality it's quite thick. If we remove the eyelashes, one can see the ridge formed by the edge of the lid. A shadow is cast on the eye from the lid. On the inner corner of the eye, a small piece of m pinkish skin is visable.

The bottom lid is much like the top, one big difference is that the bottom lid is Much less pronounced. Because the eyelashes on the bottom lid are along the outer edge of the lid, the ridge is more visable. If you look in the mirror you should be able to see the different parts mentioned. You'll also notice that the pupil isn't really centered, it is slightly "up" from the center. The lightest part of the iris is the lower center.

Now lets see how the eye works with the skull! There are 4 major parts of the skull that influence the eye (there are more than 4, but we're only going to need the 4). This skull is VERY stylized! I drew the skull to look more like the more common proportions of the comic face.

The Superciliary Crest forms the brow ridge. Crest refers to ridge or border of the bone and super (or superior) means upper or toward the crown of the head. If you close your eye and gently feel around where your eyelid and eyebrow are you will be able to feel this crest.
The Orbit is the eyesocket.
The Zygomatic Process is the protrusion that gives the orbit it's outer rim. We'll discuss the Zygomatic bone more when we get to the nose and cheekbones. A process is a projection that can be grasped with fingers. If you feel around the outside of the eye you'll be able to feel this bone. While you can't grasp it on your back because of the placement of the eye and the presence of muscle and skin, if you were holding a skull you could pinch this projection with your fingers.
And lastly, the Temporal fossa is formed by the side wall and the roof of the skull. This hollow side is the fossa. We'll discuss the temporals more when we get to the face/head. A fossa is a shallow depression. In life the temporal fossa is filled by jaw muscle so it's not as apparent, but you can still feel the drpression about a half inch (give or take) from the outer corner of the eye

Ahh scary!! O_o The skull looks kind of freaky with just the eye's in place ^_^ The eyeballs sit in the orbit, but they don't fill it up completely. The rest of the orbit is filled out by muscle

When I overlayed a fleshed out eye over the skull, it becomes more apparent how the lids form the whole eye area.

If you notice, the eyebrow is located on the Superciliary Crest. We'll continue to flesh out this skull through the rest of the face tutorials.
Now on to the less-techincal stuff! WooHoo! ^_^