Illustration

Eyes - A guide for every style

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HuesandRogues

Introduction

Hello! Are you calmly looking to draw better eyes, or pulling your hair strands in hopes it will magically look somewhat alive? Then I have a tutorial for you.

No matter what your artstyle is, or how much you know, I am sure you are going to learn or remember something useful today.

Artstyles

Let's start by reviewing some of the most known artstyles, and how eyes can change accordingly.

Most times, cartoon styles have the least detail. This is because, when making a series with so many episodes, you will want to have as little detail as possible to animate. Most cartoon characters start with a pretty detailed concept, which are then converted into an "easy-to-animate" character. A cartoon eye should work no matter the size on the canvas.

Anime eyes are by far the most talked about in the art community, since they are easily "editable" and just overall cute and/or edgy. Most animes are made on pretty large studios, so drawing it in every frame (12 fps) is very possible. Animes also go down in detail for background characters so we can focus on the so very shiny cute round eyes on the front. Go wild everyone!

Semi-realism are for those who most likely want to do realism, but are still getting dragged by their anime phase. They will also eventually accept their fate and draw the most immersive fantasy illustrations of the bunch. Here is where the artist has the most freedom to explore different ways to draw and find their unique style.

Realism is the big brother that artstyles look up to. They love references and to draw every single eyelash perfectly glued to its friend, also eyelash. We all had a phase where we drew eyes everywhere, but realism really takes the cake. They actually make it look like it's staring back at you.

By Sections

1- Lacrimal caruncle

2- Upper lashes

3- Lower lashes

4-Inner Shadow

5-Waterline(s)

6-Eye bag

7- Top crease

8- General Lacrimal reflection

9- Light reflection

10-Iris reflection

11-Pupil

12-Iris

13-Tear duct

Remember that you are the one who decides which parts you want and don't want to have, don't let examples hold you back!

Angle

As you know, eyes are not flat.

No matter which style you go for, as long as it is organic, it will have a curve to it. Eyes can change drastically depending on their own shape, but also angle. You should imagine a sphere mostly inserted to the skull, because that's essentially what it is. It only looks softer because of the skin around it, yet, you can still see the round shape, with shadows.

In cartoon and anime its less noticeable, but, you will still see a difference once they turn completely on their side.

In realism, you should draw the iris with some volume, as the eyeball itself is not completely round. The volume that you're looking for is the same you would expect from eye contact lenses.

Speaking of such, the pupil is not located at the surface of the eye, so remember to draw it on the back of the iris, when doing a side view of the eye. It might look unnatural to us at first, but that is how it actually looks in real life.

Shape

I find that the easiest way for me to create different eye shapes, is to use a diamond shape.

A neutral eye will look the same if you rotate it 180°.

A "shy" character will more often have sad or puppy eyes, which are shorter in length, and the inner side of their eyes will be higher than the outer one. Their iris is usually bigger.

A "serious" character will instead, have a higher outer side, while their inner corner closes in a small angle. This gives them them a angry or sly look. Their eyes are usually shorter in height, and their iris much smaller.

You can always play with these eye shapes to give the viewer the wrong impression of characters. Like having a cute doll like girl be a villain, or the opposite.

Emotions

Of course, with shapes, comes emotion. Even though you cannot change your eye shape permanently without surgery, it will still change temporarily with emotion.

Many anime watchers talk how the characters often lack emotion, and this is because its not portraited as much on the eyes, as it is on the mouth. Though, "the soul lies in the eyes".

No matter which expression you have, if its real, then you will feel a tension on your eyes or around them, or either the lack of it.

Anger pushes the inner side of the eyebrows against the eye, happiness brings the cheeks up against them, sadness over-relaxes the bottom of the eye while bringing the inner part up (not to be confused with crying, which tenses the whole eye shut), and surprise makes it alert, with nothing pushing against the eye.

Eyelashes

As you most probably know, eyelashes are not flat. They are made to protect your eye from water and impurities, just like your eyebrows. So, they curl up just enough to get the job done. Natural eyes will have eyelashes over the eyelid/water line. With make up, they become not only more visible and fuller, but also more curved, bringing them up to the middle of the eyelid.

Some people have natural dark eyelashes, some blond, white, fuller, disperse, and some people don't have eyelashes at all.

When drawing eyelashes from a side vies, you can make it seem more tridimensional by adding extra eyelashes on the eyeball outline, close to the others (as illustrated below).

Realistic lashes will also always be shorter and less full on the corners of the eyes, and "glue" to other eyelashes that are close.

Realistic Iris

I understand the struggle of drawing a realistic iris. while its more complicated in paper, there is a hack you can use to paint them digitally.

1. Paint the outline and pupil in black with the circle tools;

2. Choose the color of the iris and paint it a slightly darker version of that color;

3. With the circle tool, use the outline version to add lighter versions of that color alongside other colors close to it;

4. Close to the pupil and outline, add a darker shade. You can also use brown in case of a blue or green eye;

5. Use the finger smudge tool in a small size to blend the colors together in a straight motion from the pupil to the outline;

6. Repeat around the whole pupil until you're satisfied;

7. Add some dark colors or black with the airbrush tool close to the pupil and outline;

8. With color dodge on and airbrush tool, add a light to the middle of the iris.

Age

Age affects the whole body, including the eyes. Not only with wrinkles, but also in color, shape, liveliness.

Children have a lot of energy and look very alert. Their big open eyes are seen as cute, and they often have big eyelashes. Since their eyes are so open, they also reflect much more light than any other older eye would.

Contrary to that, elders often have darker eyes, from the grayness of the skin and sun freckles, to the shadow cast by their now heavy eyelid. Asian elders will also lose the elasticity of their eyelids and sometimes grow a double eyelid out of it. Elders also will have less eyelashes, the same way they have less hair overall.

Unsettling eyes

Often, as illustrators, animators, manga artists, etc., we like to draw creepy characters. Because of this, I selected a few eyes and why they seem creepy.

When drawing scary stuff, you're looking for something the human mind is not used to processing. Red iris, canine teeth, and others, are so overused as "terror" that we ended up getting used to it.

One of the secrets, is using too much information on the eye of a simple character; (2)

Or the lack of information on a detailed character; (3)

You can also add too little or too much emotion, which does not fit or explain their thoughts; (1 & 7)

Unnatural sizes and/or shapes; (5 & 8)

Lack of color or diseased color (6)

Or eyes of a different animal (4)

Humans hate to have unknown eyes on them, so one easy way to scare someone, is to make them feel watched.

Creative Extras

Don't forget creativity is everything for an artist. A quick way to make an eye feel special is to add more color gradients (and shadow), or to, in case of a non-human creature, making a non-human eye too.

Here are some quick ideas: