Eyes are the window of the soul, they say. That means that if you get them wrong, you can ruin your whole drawing with just that tiny detail.

 

But today I'm here to help you fix that!

In case you’d like to watch the video explanation, you can do so on my Youtube channel! 👇

 

 

When drawing the eyes of a character, your goal should always be to represent their personality through that single element. Whether they're a villain, or they're friendly, innocent, young, old…

 

And for that, we just need to use shape language! 🟢🔺🟨

Silhouette of the eye

Realistic eyes have this sort of trapezoid-like silhouette, they're very angular. Shapes like these often give a mature or serious vibe to the character.

On the other hand, if we want to portray a younger character, someone that's more feminine, sweet, or innocent, it's best to use rounder silhouettes that will allow us to make the iris and/or pupil bigger. That will give the character an adorable puppy look.

You can even try to mix these shapes to create different effects or more complex characters.

Example: Someone with menacing vibes that’s actually a nice person, or someone that looks adorable but is twisted on the inside!

Once the overall silhouette of the eye is decided we can proceed with the next step.

Anime Eyes Features

Anime eyes are super varied nowadays, but they have some common features;

 

-The eyelashes are gonna be simplified.

 

We're not going to draw every single one of those tiny hundred hairs we have on our eyelids. Usually, the more you add, the more feminine the character will look like.

-Then we'll add a cat-like eyeliner at the edge.

 

The more pointy you make this, the more mature or even menacing the gaze of the character will be.

The size and direction of the eyeliner can change the overall silhouette of the eye, keep that in mind!

-You also may add the bottom eyelid.

 

I'd suggest doing this for neutral or mature characters, but not for kids, because the more you define the eye limits, the more age you're putting onto the character.

-And NEVER draw the tear duct (if you want it to look anime, of course!).

Next step is to work on the iris!

The 3 key elements of the Iris

If you've watched a few anime shows you've certainly noticed that each one has a different coloring style for the iris, sometimes, even characters from the same show have different iris styles!

 

So what do we do? How do we color them?

 

Just follow this simple plan! 👇

Focus on:

- the main shadow section

- the main light or highlight

- and the pupil!

I can't give you a scientific formula to organize these 3 elements because you are the artist here, and the choice is yours in the end.

 

What you have to take from this advice though is to plan from the beginning the proportions of all these elements.

 

- Try making the shadow space larger, or smaller.

- Try playing with the size of the pupil and the placement of the highlight

- See how each adjustment affects the drawing until you find the exact combination that best represents the character's gaze.

Once you have that rough idea ready, you can go wild with the coloring!

The importance of coloring

The final gaze of your character will depend on how you combine a certain eye shape with a certain coloring. That's why the possibilities are endless! But that is also why you should not be afraid of trying things.

(You can watch me color all of these samples in the video linked at the top of this tutorial)

Watch a lot of shows, a lot of artists, and study their style, and just imitate what you see.

 

By trying different styles and techniques, you can discover your artistic preferences. And you can take things that you like from each style, and make your own mix.

 

(I for example like the kawaii style where the iris is a black mass with just a few color accents at the bottom. On the other hand, trying something ultra realistic with lots of color blending and reflections feels a bit strange to me for some reason, so I avoid that type of coloring on my art)

If you want your character's personality to be easy to read, you'll want to go for some of the most stereotypical combinations, like a round or square-like shape with lots of sparkles and vibrant colors to represent a friendly, cute, or confident character.

 

But if you want your character to be somewhat mysterious, then you can pick more unique combinations! Like a very angular shape with sparkle-like coloring, or maybe big round eyes with desaturated colors and no pupils or no highlights!

Need a recap? (TLDR version)

1- Focus on the overall eye shape. Certain shapes work best for certain character personalities or ages.

2- Plan the proportions and placements of these 3 elements: main shadow section, pupil, and highlight.

3- And lastly, color that rough idea to your heart's content. Get super creative and add lots of detail, or keep it simple.

For a more extensive guide...

You can check out my tutorial series “How to draw Eyes” on Patreon!

 

In which I'll show you everything about the eye structure so you can better draw them on the face, my coloring process in much more detail, and ideas to personalize them and discover your own eye style! 👇

Follow me on Instagram and Youtube for more art tips and beautiful illustrations every week!

If you learned something with this tutorial, don’t forget to Like! ♥♥♥