Have you noticed that the manga characters that you read often are very expressive and that at a glance you can deduce what character they have? This, in a way, is due to his eyes.

Knowing how to design different types of eyes is essential when drawing manga to be more transmissive and for the reader to immediately receive information about the character they are seeing without the need for explanations. For this reason, we have designed this tutorial in which you will learn to draw different types of eyes taking into account the character of the character you want to create.

 

How about we start?

Tips for characterizing characters through the eyes

To characterize characters through their eyes, it is important to take into account the size (both of the eye, the pupil and the iris), its shape (straight lines, geometric lines, curves,...) and brightness. To do this, keep in mind the following tips:

 

SIZE: The larger the character's eye, the more expressive, transmissive, and open they will be, while the smaller, the more distant, introverted, cold, or expressionless.

SHAPE: The curved shapes invite a kind, sweet, good-natured and outgoing character, while the straight and angular lines express a strong, aggressive, serious, calculating character...

Within this section you also have to take into account the direction of the eyes. Eyes in which the fall is on the outside, evoke shyness, nostalgia, melancholy or even sadness, while those who have that fall on the inside are more fierce and passionate. The upright, however, express neutrality or lack of emotion.

SHINE: It serves to give emotion and humanity to the character. If he is kind, expressive, sweet, cheerful,... this will be reflected in the brightness of his eyes, if, on the contrary, he lacks it or is very small, he will transmit a distant, unemotional, communicative or emotionless character.

Types of eyes according to the character of the character

In the following points we have included different personalities or adjectives that can be associated with the same type of eye, adding several examples in each section. However, you do not have to stick to the ones that we show you in this guide, but with this base you can create endless possibilities that best suit your style.

1- Kind/ Kind/ Sweet

The best thing for this case is to draw round and very large eyes to accentuate its kind and compassionate character. It is also important to highlight the sparkle in her eyes to convey warmth and sweetness.

2- Outgoing/ Open/ Energetic/ Casual/ Friendly/ Funny

They are similar to the previous case (1), however, being an energetic and funny type of character, they do not require as many details. His eyes are slanted and the central part is lower than the outer one. While in the previous case the iris tends to be wider, in this case it is smaller and simpler.

3- Simple / Simple / Not very intelligent

It is used for characters with a very flat mind, which is why its simplicity is characterized through simple lines and without many details that reflect their little predisposition to think.

4- Shy character / Introvert

It is characterized by drooping eyes on the outside and its gaze avoids all eye contact. The introverted character tends to be not very expressive and communicative, so their eyes and pupils should not be very large. The brightness of your eyes should also not be accentuated.

5- Battle-hardened / Strong character / Aggressive / Tough

The adjective that defines this character is determination and that is what you have to try to convey with your gaze. Your eyes should be straight, especially at the top. They have a tendency to lower their heads slightly and look up -unlike the haughty person (6)- with an intimidating or imposing expression. His pupil and iris are smaller and dimly bright.

6- Wealthy/ Haughty/ Ambitious/ Selfish

They must transmit coldness, therefore they tend to straightness and angularity without many details. This type of eye should not be very large and is characterized by small pupils and irises. If you want to accentuate his character, we recommend that you also leave both the inside of his iris and the eyelashes white or that the eye is a small, very fine vertical line. Contrary to the brave person (5), these characters tend to observe with their heads held high and looking down.

7- Effeminate

Effeminate characters tend to have drooping eyelids on the sides and accentuated lashes on the lower lid. Depending on whether your character is extroverted or introverted, you can modify its size to taste.

8- Cold/ Distant/ Calculating/ Enigmatic

It is characterized by slanted, small and geometric eyes. The pupil and iris are small and normally lack brightness in the eyes. Like the haughty person (6), you can leave his iris blank to accentuate his coldness.

Tip: To finish characterizing the characters, don't forget that sometimes we can help ourselves through accessories (such as glasses, monocles, eye patches, etc...) or even cover one of their eyes with hair, to accentuate any of the his features.

9- Malo / Perverso / Cruel

Although it coincides in some points with the previous one (8), we must accentuate its features even more. While the look of the calculating character (8) is cold or neutral, the bad character will have a perverse or diabolical expression, this is achieved with slanted eyes by lowering the level of the eyes in the inner part and raising it at the ends. The more geometric and straight their eyes are, the more evil they will be. In case you want to add tabs, these should be straight, simple and not very populated.

10- Crazy / Psychopath

His eyes, unlike the cold and calculating (8), are very large and expressive, however the pupil and iris are white, very small and dull to express his inhumanity and/or lack of emotions.

11- Special powers / Superhuman / Supernatural

For this type of eye, we recommend that you break the mold and try to create a style that is not associated with a normal human, so that at a glance readers can understand that it is a special or unique character.

What did you think of our tutorial? As a farewell, we want to share with you different characters from our manga so that you can see firsthand how easy it is to characterize a character taking into account the advice in this guide. Are you able to determine which character each character has with the naked eye? ;)

Thanks for reading and until next time!