How to Draw a Bald Eagle Head With Pencil Narrated

Art painting
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1 Video View·May 16, 2026
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Hello my friends and welcome to another Tuesday of tutorial!
I am Leonardo Pereznieto, and today we will draw the head of a bald eagle.
I start by taking some measurements from my reference photo.
That's the width and height of the head, and the size of the beak.
And we sketch the general shape of the beak and of the head.
Let me check its height, the beak's height.
And then go over the head.
Very good!
I'm sketching very lightly at the beginning so that the lines don't get in our way
and can be corrected.
Here is the upper part of the beak and the eye.
Actually, the eye goes a little bit further forward.
I erase it and measure it to make sure it's correct.
It is quite circular, but the upper part is covered by a bony protrusion.
that protects it.
That gives it somewhat of an aggressive appearance, which is part of its personality.
So much for my measuring, I move my eye forward a little bit more.
Ok, this time it looks right.
You can measure as much as you want, but in the end, it needs to look good.
I think the eye is the ultimate judge.
Let's leave a small white reflection and fill in the pupil.
For this, I switch to a very soft lead, a 4B.
When sketching, I use an HB pencil, which has medium hardness.
And to complete the eye, it has somewhat angled features on the front and back.
Like this.
The upper part is darker because it's catching some shadow.
Regarding the photo references, there are many websites.
Where can you get royalty-free pictures?
Some are free, and some you have to pay for.
But it is always a good practice to base your art on pictures.
that you own yourself or that you have the right to use.
Or even better, you can draw from life or from your imagination.
But even then, it would be helpful to have some reference photos.
As I mentioned earlier, the part that is just above the eye
is slightly protruding, and therefore casts a shadow
on what is beneath it.
And we begin setting the tone for the beak.
For this, I use a hard lead, a 3H.
I'm trying to make this quite even because the beak is smooth.
And we wipe it with a chamois so that it becomes even smoother.
Then we reinforce some shadows.
I place a clean sheet of paper under my hand so I don't make a mess.
Now that it's finally coming out right, and that it miraculously looks clean.
And we begin the feathers with very light strokes.
With a hard lead, it is hardly visible.
Then with a tortillion I smudge this, but at the same time
Give some shade and some shape to the feathers.
I should fill in the background at this point because the white head
On the white background, it doesn't show at all.
So I'm back to the 4B lead, the soft one, for a darker background.
And little by little, I fill it in.
For the background, I don't want a flat, even surface.
I want some texture, but without a specific shape.
And now that we have this contrast, we see that we need to reinforce many shadows.
Like the opening of the beak and the nostril.
Regarding these small feathers, I'm adding some subtle shadows.
slightly protruding under some of them, to show that these are sticking out.
Around the eye, the eagle has tiny feathers.
We make them like this with small lines.
And we can erase some lights with a fine eraser.
The list of materials I am using is in the description under the video.
I want to give you two heads-up notices.
The first one is that in the next tutorial, I will be giving away a beautiful fountain pen.
So don't miss it!
And the other one is that I will go back to showing the most liked fan art.
in the Fine Art-Tips mobile app.
From the drawings you upload to it.
We made some updates to the app, so if it's not working for you, please delete it.
and download the new one.
Good!
We do the final touches and it's ready!
I will upload a longer version of this tutorial to my Patreon account.
If you enjoyed it, please give it a LIKE!
Share it with your friends and subscribe to Fine Art-Tips.
And I will see you on Tuesday.
