How to draw eye sockets: the hollow the eye sits in

When eyes look pasted onto a face, the socket is usually what's missing. The eye sits in a hollow in the skull, under the brow and beside the bridge of the nose, and that hollow is wider than the eye. Drawing the hollow before the lids gives the eye a place to sit.

The figures come from two heads in the free head rotation reference, both drawn bald and without eyebrow hair, so the socket shows plainly: the hard-plane head, drawn as flat facets, and the deep-folds head, an older face drawn with soft folds. The comparisons are shares of one feature against another on the same head, read from enlarged crops of the 1024 px plates. They describe these two drawings. Eyebrow hair, a softer brow or a different light would move the shading, so measure your own reference the same way.

The parts of a socket

On the skull the socket is a deep opening, shown in how to draw a skull at different angles; its size and shape from the front are measured in how to draw a skull from the front. On a face, four sides frame the eye:

The roof, the underside of the brow ridge, a plane that faces down and back into the socket.
The outer edge, where the socket turns out into the temple.
The lower edge, the top of the cheekbone, where the socket turns forward into the cheek.
The inner wall, the stretch between the eye and the bridge of the nose. It faces outward, toward the eye's own side of the head.

The eye and its lids sit back inside all four.

From the front

The hard-plane head at 0 degrees. The shading around each eye runs about three quarters wider than the eye, darkest between the eye and the nose.

The socket is wider than the eye. On the hard-plane head the hatching around the eye, from the outer edge across the roof to the side of the nose, runs about three quarters wider than the eye opening from corner to corner. Both corners of the eye sit well inside it.
The inner wall is the darkest side. These plates are shaded as if lit from above. On the hard-plane head the inner wall is clearly the darkest part of both sockets, and the roof, the outer edge and the lids are all lighter. On the deep-folds head it is darker than the shading under the brow by only a few levels. The inner wall faces sideways and sits deep, so a light from above barely reaches it.
The lower edge is drawn lightly. On the hard-plane head the cheek under the eye is left white, and only a couple of short strokes under the outer half of the lower lid mark the edge. The long straight line just under both eyes is a construction line, not part of the socket. On the deep-folds head the socket is drawn as a ring of light curves around the whole eye, with a second curve under the lower lid where the skin has loosened into a small pouch.

This front plate is seen slightly from below, which shows a little more of the roof than a level view would.

The deep-folds head at 0 degrees. The socket reads as a ring of curves around the eye, and the lower edge is implied by the curves under the lid.

The hard-plane head turns each side of the socket into a flat plane with an edge, and the deep-folds head uses curves and a little tone. Both keep the inner wall darkest from the front.

At three-quarter view

The hard-plane head at 45 degrees. The near socket's inner wall is now a broad, dark plane; the far brow corner makes the outline at eye level.

Turning the head to a three-quarter view changes which sides of each socket you can see.

The near inner wall opens up. It faces toward you now. On the hard-plane head at 45 degrees, the dark wall between the near eye and the nose is nearly as wide as the near eye itself, about four fifths of it.
The far inner wall disappears. It faces away, and the bridge of the nose covers it. The edge of the bridge runs down past the far eye's inner corner on both heads.
The far eye shortens. It measures roughly two-thirds of the near eye's width on both heads: a little more on the hard-plane head and a little less on the deep-folds head.
The far brow makes the outline. At eye level the outermost point on that side is the far brow corner, and the far eye's outer corner sits just inside it. On the deep-folds head the hatching under that far brow is the darkest patch in either socket.

The deep-folds head at 45 degrees. Curves under both eyes trace the lower edges, and the bridge line runs past the far eye's inner corner.

In profile

The hard-plane head at 90 degrees. The brow and the bridge make the outline, and the eye stays behind it.

In profile the brow and the bridge of the nose form the front outline, and the eye stays inside it. On the hard-plane head the white of the eye starts behind the front of the brow by about half the distance the nose tip stands in front of it. The hatched shape between the eye and the bridge reaches back about a quarter of that distance, and even that stays behind the deepest point of the bridge. Below the eye the outline belongs to the nose, sloping forward to its tip.

The deep-folds head isn't used here because its profile plate is drawn with the head tipped, which would skew a side measurement.

Common mistakes

No socket at all. The eye drawn on a flat face looks stuck on. Put in the roof and the inner wall before the lids.
A socket the size of the eye. Leave shaded hollow showing on both sides of it.
Even darkness all the way round. Keep the darkest value at the inner wall, with a light from above.
The far eye on the outline at three-quarter view. It sits inside the far brow corner, with the nose covering its inner wall.
The eye on the front outline in profile. It sits behind both the brow and the bridge.

A short exercise

Open the hard-plane head at 0 degrees and draw only the two sockets as flat planes: the roof, the inner wall beside the nose, the outer edge and the lower edge. Shade the inner walls darkest. Then draw the eyes into them, checking that each socket is wider than its eye.

Turn to 45 degrees and draw the same planes again. Make the near inner wall a broad dark plane, cover the far one with the nose, and tuck the far eye behind the brow corner. At 90 degrees, draw the brow and bridge as the outline first, then place the eye behind them. Finish by drawing the deep-folds head at 0 and 45 degrees with curves instead of planes, and compare where its darkest values fall with yours.

The eye inside the socket is drawn turn by turn in how to draw eyes at different angles, and the roof of the socket is covered in how to draw a brow ridge. The lower edge leads into how to draw cheekbones, and the folds under the deep-folds head's eyes are part of how to draw an older face. The hard-plane head is Study Pack 01 in Volume 1, and the deep-folds head is 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.