Let’s get started: placing the eyes within the face frame.

First, we need to place the eyes in their correct place within the face! For that We’ll first draw a circle, ad add the chin part to it.

Then, we’ll divide it in two parts, horizontally. After that, we divide the face in three parts, on in the middle of the face, and one right below the original circle, like in the picture bellow.

 

And we’ll place the eyes in the middle of the upper horizontal line.

Remember that between the eyes you need to leave a gap equivalent to the size of a third eye. :D

Also remember to leave some space between the outer lines of the face (where you can find the ears) and the eyes!

Drawing eyes: side view

Some artists, specially when they’re starting, struggle with the position and shape of the eyes when they draw the eyes from a side view.

Eyes, when seen from the side do not look the same as seen from the front, right?

When you’re drawing eyes in a profile view, you can draw an imaginary diagonal line from the beginning of the eyebrow to, approximately, half the jaw bone line.

 

Then draw a triangle like this. This is the base for your eye.

We have to keep in mind that the eyes are a sphere, so we can draw a circle to help us drawing the rest of eye.

Different Angles

Remember that as the face move, so does the perspective of the eyes. Move and reshape the eyes accordingly and remember the eyelids are part of the eyes, too!

Eyes define the character.

Have you ever wondered why this or that manga character has different features? It’s not only to give each chara an unique design, but also to reflect their personality so you can guess in a single glance, how the character is. Are they gentle? Wild? Childish?

You can play with the facial features of your character to create a visual reference on their personality.

 

Gentle type

If you want to give your character a gentle air to them, eyes are one of the main features you would want to work on.

A gentle look starts with slightly droopy eyes and big iris, try to make the iris’ line thicker to give your character an even warmer look.

To increase the “gentle” feeling, try to make the character’s eyes slightly bigger than usual. But not too much!!

Play with the eyebrows and haircut to give your character an even friendlier look <3. Thick eyebrows give a candid touch to the eyes of your character!

Things like a light blush, long eyelids or a timid smile also help make your design look like the gentle type!

 

Wild Type

A Wild Type character shines strong. They outgoing, careless, friendly and don’t pay attention to minor matters. And that’s the look we want to give our character.

The eyes play a great part in this, and we would want to draw them wide and expressive, a little animal like, so slit pupils are a great option if we want to make a wild type character.

They need to look confident, but ready to jump at any moment, so I recommend you draw their iris a little detached from the eyelashes, barely touching the upper part of the eye.

Also, the shape of the eye needs to be a little diamond like, like an almond, not too round.

Eyebrows are also important, you can give them broad ones, but avoid thin eyebrows for wild type characters!

 

Evil Type

This character needs to look evil or crazy. Or both! The look we’re aiming for is that you automatically thing something’s not right with this type or character, so we need to give them a very little pupil and iris, the shape of the eye is almost triangular and white for the most part.

These characters need to look cunny. For the eyebrows, draw them as thin as you can, or none at all!

Make their faces look down and the eyes as if they were always looking up. Thin and angular features are perfect for this type of character.

 

Cool/Elegant Type

These characters need to look distant, calmed and delicate. As we need to achieve that noble look, we’ll be giving the character sharp eyes, as a cat’s. Iris fill a good part of the eye, too, as if they were looking to some distant point. Long lashes and thin eyebrows go well with this character type, but maybe you want to play a little bit with that and see what kind of effect you can come out with!

Props like glasses are also a great option :)

 

Child-like Type

Child-like type is all about the eyes. Big round eyes to give the character a childish look that make you want to hug them. The face changes a bit, too, rounder and all the facial features closer to the central point of the face.

Dreamy round eyes are essential for this character type. Try to make their eyes as expressive as possible!

 

 

Eyes and expressions

Eyes are our most important tool to give our character a personality and draw their facial expressions. In any given scene, if we only drew the eyes and nothing else, we would sill understand the whole situation perfectly.

It’s a good practice to draw different expressions for your character to complete their design.

Note how when we’re happy, out pupils widen, and sometimes, when we smile our eyes close a little.

When we want to draw our character shocked or startled, we draw their iris and pupil really small, but when they’re crying, the iris covers almost the whole eye!

If the character is moved, or about to cry, their eyes look shiny.

We’ll draw the eyes closed for smiles or if our character is winking, if the character is trying to remember something, they’ll look to the upper right corner of the panel.

The possibilities are endless!

These are some examples of different expressions, feel free to use them as inspiration or practice ^__^

 

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