Intro
Greetings to all ! This is my very first tip on this app and I’m happy to present it to you before 2025. Today I’m gonna show you in my best ways, how to to draw simple eyes design.
Now, I’m gonna be real, this is essentially MY style I’m showing. So sorry if it’s not really anime’ish but I’m showing the simple basic of the eye concept. And one thing I want to mention :
‼️ All images and GIF (except the eyes and my oc) that’s presented in this tip belong to their respective owners, I do not claim ownership or meaning harm by showing them.
Now without further ado, let’s get started.
Before drawing…
Before starting drawing , we always have to know how the actual thing looks. No matter if it’s a head, a flower, a cloud, a body or even a building, or if you are doing it in 2D or 3D. Even the smallest and simplest thing always have to be registered in our head to know how and/or by what we start. And even if you know the basics of even ALL of it, it’s always a good idea to have some sort of guide or reference.
That’s why before starting drawing an eye, we’re going to look at a reference of a real human eye.
Human Eye
Before drawing, let’s look at a real human eye to see what is in which place.
For example :
Sclera : The white part of the eye and around the cornea.
Cornea : The round area containing the iris and pupil.
Iris : The coloured part of the eye (blue, black, brown like the image, green etc…) which contains the pupil.
Pupil : The black dot at the enter of the iris.
Highlight : A bright reflection where the light is hitting the eye (mostly on the iris). It is faintly noticeable in real life, except if we get a closer look. However, in anime and cartoons, it’s always there and noticeable.
On the edge of the eyelids, there are also short curved hairs, called eyelashes.
Alright ! Now that we know what an eye contains, we can start drawing one !
Drawing apps ?
For obvious reasons, I drew everything in CSP, otherwise known as Clip Studio Paint (Ex version). But the process is done for every other drawing surfaces or softwares, as well as paper. So like always use whatever you are comfortable with.
Okay, let’s start with the first eye.
- Simple
Eye 1
The first one is a very simple eye design that a lot of characters can have as a “default” design for example.
On the left, I did the line worked which I marked by the red line where the highlight and the sclera should be. (It’s an anime technique where we put color separation lines before coloring. But can skip it this step). I flipped it in case you want the highlight on the opposite side.
Here we have a very simple eye design of a black eye with a simple highlight on it. That type of eye is something you will often see in some ghibli films. Like those right below
I love this design, it’s simple, good for beginners and it works.
Eye 2
The second one is a little variant of the first one.
This eye is also a simple one that is used in alot of cartoons. Here, I indicated where the shadow part is by the blue line. The green line represents a more of a saturated color.
I also did the same with only the black color instead of blue.
Eye 3
Now for the 3rd eye
This type of eye is also pretty common, since it’s used in alot of animated series and stuff.
Here, we have the darker color on top, the base color in the middle and the lighter color on the bottom. The highlight there is merging with the sclera. Also, the line on the top of the cornea is thicker.
This eye is the one I almost always use for my characters. I love it cuz it’s simple and works pretty good.
I sometimes either put the darker color on top and the lighter color down, or I inverse. The two ways works very well.
- Slightly Advanced
Eye 4
For this eye, this is actually the eye of my main character (based on me). I did a close up like this and for this tutorial, I re-drawed it to show you how it is.
So in this eye, the lower half of the iris, the light brown, have on each side a half crescent which is filled with the base color (normal brown). With a more lighter color (marked by the green line), half a circle is drawn over the bottom of the iris, and also slightly on the bottom of the pupil, making it slightly lighter. And instead of one, we have this time 2 rounded highlights.
This eye is pretty good if you want a more advanced design without complicating it too much. You can of course fill the lower half entirely without the half-crescents and put only one highlight.
Play a bit with the colors and that could be interesting.
Eye 5
Let’s look at more ways of making the highlight.
So as you may or may not noticed, this eye is actually a Sailor Moon’s eye design.
You see this ?
It proves that you don’t always have to let the highlight be a formal circle. Circles can be boring sometimes. Use your imagination ! The details you add can make the eye more cutter and give a special significance to your character and their personality. And the highlights are one of the key for it.
Instead of a flat boring circle, you can push it further and add more other shapes, like thick stripes or a thin and prolonged seeming like droplet. Ok for having the pupil, but covering it with a highlight can be also interesting, especially if it’s a big oval.
Eye 6
So this type of eye is a bit particular because sometimes, these are considered as “dull eyes” or “emotionless eyes”.
Without a single trace of highlight, all the colors are blended together. The green line also means where a gradient should be added.
This eye design is not only pretty cool, but is also kind of a trope mostly in anime. Because they are very often drawn without any highlight, and mostly without the pupil, they are considered as “Empty Eyes” like I said.
They are essentially drawn when the character is hurt, broken, depressed, tired (mentally), traumatised, in a state of shock (in a bad way) or completely dead inside. Sometimes, also when they go into villain mode, or often yandere (in this case, it’s more of a red or pink color (Except if your character is originally with red/pink))
Like these examples below
(Example : My character)
This is my oc, Alicia. She’s literally based on myself (The skin, hair and eyes color palette). And you might noticed that she has the same eyes design as Eye 3. Because like I said, I love and I’m more comfortable with this design.
Now, let’s take her as example for dull eyes.
As you can see here, with all the colors blended together and her eyes wide, Alicia looks like she’s in a state of shock. Like if she’s seeing something horrific or if she’s having a bad flashback.
Now what happens if you do the Dull Eyes slightly reddish/pinkish ?
Not my best drawing, but here we can see that Alicia is really fond on someone. And when I say “really”, I mean too much.
Little tip : If you draw these eyes half-lidded on your character, they might look like they’re about to approach their loved one in an odd way.
If you draw these eyes in default (normal and not half-lidded) on your character, they might look hypnotised.
If you draw these eyes by widening them on your character, they might look like they’re going crazy.
Eye 7
So we have more of a cartoony design of an eye.
So in here, that type of eye is simple looking. Simple highlights, color positions, eyelashes and all. But the cornea is small.
This style of eyes is often use when your character is surprised , shocked or startled. But in a funny cartoony way.
That’s what we call Gag face.
You can also remove the sclera, it’ll be interesting.
- More advanced
Eye 8
Now, let’s put the things to another level by viewing this eye.
There is so much things to say about this one.
There, the darker green line is generally used for “secondary shadows”. Here, I used it to mark that the pupil would be in a darker another color. Like I said, feel free to play around with the colors instead of using formal colors.
Instead of a black pupil, we can use a slightly darker, but also light shade of color. Like here, I used a slightly dark purple.
I also made the lower half of the eye kinda similar to Eye 4, but with a little crescent in a slightly lighter color added at the bottom.
In addition to the two highlight, you can also add a little highlights near the pupil. It works too.
But you can not only make changes to the eye, but also on the eyelashes. Like here, you might noticed that I’ve putted it in a real darker shade of purple so that it matches with the eye.
Again, playing around the colors can give more depths to your drawing.
Eye 9
This eye is pretty unique
With this eye, we have a thicker line for the shape of the cornea, which is again matching with the eye’s color palette. Okay for having a pupil, but changing it color to the base can make it more unique, especially if it’s a real bright color like yellow or even white. We also traced a darker shade around it to give it more depths.
The blue line separates the lighter part of the iris from the darker part where the little gradient is. The gradient on top is purposely slightly darker to make it match with the thick lines of the cornea.
This type of design is pretty unique and can work on close-up shots.
Eye 10
This eye design must be my second favourite !
For this eye, there are many details.
Like for example, we made the pupil a lighter color than the base color. At the buttom, we can add other shapes in the reflected light. Here, there lighter toned oval-like shapes, but it can work for circles, stripes or other shapes.
Again, the line around the cornea is thick and at the top, we have a darker shade of color (in here, dark green) followed by a lighter shade of color.
I find this design really cute and can work really nicely.
Eye 11
Lastly, we have another example with my character’s color palette.
Sure, we can have different shades and colors or the pupil, but how about having no pupil ? It doesn’t always mean the eyes are dull, especially with the highlights.
Here, the base color is taking half of eye. The place where the pupil is supposed to be is instead already filled with the base color. The reflected light indicated by the red line also have a darker outline, making it slightly more pronounced.
Gag faces
Sure, eyes are very important in annimation, and we must how know how to really well detail them.
But there are some cases where we don’t have to detail them so much, or even not at all.
In Gag faces and expressions.
A gag character in anime is a comedic figure to generate humor through exaggerated traits, silly behavior, and absurd situations, often serving as comic relief with catchphrases, slapstick humor, or quirky antics. It don’t AND has to make sense.
Surprise
For example, to express a brief moment of surprise or startle, we can make the eyes wide with tiny and squinted corneas, with the mouth wide open to her cheeks, and eyebrows raised. Some red stripes presented as blushes can add another significance, as if the character is embarrassed.
Awkward
To express a situation of awkwardness, you can make the eyes of your character in a half-lidded manner, but with the eyes tiny (I suggest the eyes can be in a black color). The mouth can be real further from the eyes, as if the jaw is falling down. And a make her sweatdrop would make her look as if she’s seeing something cringe.
Shocked
To make the character shocked or scared, what’s better than the iconic round white eyes ? We can also make her mouth opened way past her chin.
The little beads of sweat can make it look like she was expecting something cool, but instead got the complete opposite. See my point ?
Conclusion
Eyes are one of the most important things in the animation industry, and is often the first thing people see.
They are all detailed differently. Some can have a shades of colors, others can have more than one highlight, some can have different shapes of pupil or some may even have no pupils at all.
Eyes themselves can express different type of emotions. See how a single highlight can make a big difference ? Many highlights can make it cute, wavy shapes can make it look like the character is at the verge of crying, sparkles can show admiration etc..
The most important thing to do, is to find which eye you are the most comfortable with to draw, and with time, try to play a bit with the shapes and color, and try to update it.
Also, don’t hesitate to add additional details you may forgot. Like me, where I completely forgot for most of the eyes to add a little shadow under the upper eyelid, except Eye 9, 10 and 11.
I hope that tip has been quite useful for you ! I’m leaving you the video of the eyes’ timelapse.
Been a pleasure filling my gallery with fictional eyes for this tip ! ✨
See you in the next CSP tip !
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