How to draw eyes in three-quarter view: the far eye

Turn a head and the eye that goes wrong is the other one, the far eye. Drawn as a copy of the near eye, it looks pasted on, too big and too far from the nose. This guide measures both eyes on ten drawn heads at 22.5 and 45 degrees, and finds where the far eye ends up: in a narrow gap between the side of the nose and the far edge of the head.

The heads come from the free head rotation reference. On the pencil plates from the front, at 22.5 degrees and at 45 degrees, a script filled the white of each eye outward from beside the iris and took the two ends of that white shape. We drew every pair of ends back on its plate at four times the size and looked at it; where the fill leaked past a faint lid line or stopped short, we re-ran it with a stricter cut-off or set the end by hand. The plates share one frame and scale at every angle. These widths run from the white tip at one end of the eye to the other, which stops a little short of the corners, so we compare them only with each other. The same rule can give slightly different widths for the two front eyes of one head, so treat small differences as a tie. The numbers describe these drawings, not people's eyes; use them as a starting point and check against your own reference.

At 22.5 degrees, the far eye is a little narrower

At a slight turn the far eye is narrower than the near eye on all ten heads: about three quarters to nine tenths of its width, about six sevenths on a typical head. On six heads the drop is clear enough to measure: the heavy-jaw, minimal, soft-planes, full-lips, high-cheekbones and heavy-brow heads. On the hard-plane, gaunt-planes, deep-folds and square-jaw heads it's small enough to fall inside the error, though in the same direction.

The near eye hardly changes. Against the same head's front view it ranges from about five sixths as wide to about a tenth wider, about the full width on a typical head, and five heads are at or over their front width. So at 22.5 degrees, keep the near eye about as wide as from the front and take about a seventh off the far one.

At 45 degrees, the near eye loses about a tenth

At 45 degrees the near eye is narrower than from the front on all ten heads: a little under four fifths up to nearly its full front width, about nine tenths on a typical head. On six heads the drop is clear enough to measure. So the near eye shortens a little, by about a tenth, not by half.

At 45 degrees, the far eye fits between the nose and the far edge

The far eye now sits in a gap with two long lines on either side: the side of the nose on the inner side, and the far contour of the head at eye level on the outer side. We traced the side of the nose on the rows just below the eye, where nothing else crosses it, carried that line up to the iris row, and measured across to the last stroke on that row.

On the iris row the gap is a little over a third to a little over four fifths of the same head's eye width from the front, measured from the inner corner to where the lids meet. On a typical head it's a little under three fifths of an eye. The narrowest gap belongs to the gaunt-planes head at a little over a third, then the square-jaw and heavy-jaw heads at a little over two fifths. Six heads sit from a little over half to seven tenths, too close to rank: hard-plane, soft-planes, minimal, heavy-brow, full-lips and high-cheekbones. The widest is deep-folds at a little over four fifths.

On the iris row the far eye fills that gap. Its outer end is the last stroke, with nothing drawn beyond it, and on nine heads its inner corner is at the side of the nose; on the deep-folds head a small strip of skin shows between them. Above the iris row the two lines slant apart, the side of the nose leaning in toward the brow and the contour leaning out. On the hard-plane, gaunt-planes, heavy-jaw and square-jaw heads the upper lid runs out to both lines up there, so along its upper lid the far eye is wider than the gap on the iris row. On the other six the eye stays inside the gap.

We couldn't measure the far eye's own white at 45 degrees. The lids, the side of the nose and the outline cross each other there, and three ways of reading it failed, so the gap on the iris row is the number we give. Set against the near eye it works out at a little under two thirds of the near eye's width on a typical head, from a little under half to about nine tenths. That comes from two ratios measured in different ways, so allow about a tenth of the near eye's width either way.

At 67.5 degrees, a wedge

Turn further and the gap closes. On the 67.5 degree plates, as read for the nose guide, a thin wedge of the far eye's lids shows past the bridge of the nose on eight heads, with the iris as well on the deep-folds head; on the gaunt-planes and minimal heads we couldn't tell lid strokes from brow strokes. The nose in three-quarter view follows the nose through the same angles.

Order of work

1. Draw the near eye about as wide as from the front at 22.5 degrees, about a tenth narrower at 45.
2. At 22.5 degrees, draw the far eye about a seventh narrower than the near one.
3. At 45 degrees, draw the side of the nose first, then the far edge of the head at eye level.
4. Fit the far eye between them: inner corner at the side of the nose, outer end at the far edge, about two thirds of the near eye's width on the iris row. On a head whose lids tilt, let the upper lid run wider along the two slanting lines.
5. At 67.5 degrees, leave a wedge of the far eye past the bridge, or none.

Common mistakes

• Copying the near eye for the far one. Even at 22.5 degrees the far eye is narrower on all ten, clearly so on six.
• A strip of skin between the far eye and the nose at 45 degrees. On nine heads the inner corner is at the side of the nose.
• Skin beyond the far eye at 45 degrees. On these plates its outer end is the last stroke on the row.
• Halving the near eye at 45 degrees. It loses about a tenth of its front width.

Related guides

How to draw eyes at different angles builds the eye as a ball in a socket, how to draw the iris measures the iris at these same angles, and how to draw the head in three-quarter view places the rest of the face at 45 degrees.

A short exercise

Draw the gaunt-planes head and the deep-folds head at 45 degrees, the same size. Draw the side of the nose and the far edge first on each, leaving a gap on the iris row about a third of a front eye wide on the gaunt-planes head and a little over four fifths on the deep-folds head. Fit the far eye into each gap, then compare both drawings with the plates.

The gaunt-planes head is Study Pack 02 in Volume 1 and the deep-folds head Study Pack 05 in Volume 2.

This guide is one step in how to draw the head at any angle, which puts all the head guides in order.