Method 2 of 4: Drawing a Female Anime Eye Download Article
For a serious looking anime character you can draw the eyes vertically narrower with the top eyelids and eyebrows lowering down towards the middle of the face. If you want a character have crazy or scared looking eyes draw them wide open with small irises and small pupils. Leave white space between the irises and the eyelids/eyelashes.
Beginner Guide to Drawing Anime & Manga
How do you draw an eye?
How to Draw an Anime Character Drawing Close Up
Place the top lash-line about halfway between the top and bottom of the head. The upper and lower lash lines should form a roughly triangular shape...
Peak the eyebrows in the middle to give the eyes a sad look. If you like, you can draw a small crease next to the inner end of each eyebrow for a l...
Anime is a shortened form of the English word “animation.” The term anime is used in Japan to distinguish animated cartoons from illustrated cartoo...
A basic understanding of the anatomy of the eye. Knowing common elements that make most eyes look like anime eyes. A step-by-step approach to drawing anime eyes while implementing these common elements. A quick note, before going further, I will use the term anime to mean both anime and manga for simplicity.
Degrees of realism and stylization. In anime and manga, eyes are drawn in various degrees of stylization. Human anatomy in anime is stylized often to the point of being unrealistic, yet still very recognizable as the anime counterpart of the real world person the artwork is describing. This is an important point.
A drop shadow from the upper eyelid covers the iris and the sclera one third or sometimes half of the way down. (Confused about what iris and sclera are? Scroll up to the anatomy section of this article, or click here to be taken there).
Upper eyelid crease. – The upper eyelid crease is a horizontal indent formed above the upper eyelid that appears in some people. Notably, it is prominently indicated in most anime eye drawings, and stylized into a curved line. It helps situate the anime eye drawing so it is a good idea to take notice of it.
– the iris is a ring shaped membrane, with an adjustable circular opening (pupil) in the center. The iris is what people talk about when they talk about eye color. (Some people confuse it with the pupil, so here is a tip to remember it better: eye color = iris color)
Highlights from at least 2 light sources. White or bright circles or ovals appearing in stylized anime eyes are representative of highlights on the surface of the eye. Note here that usually one highlight is dominant and is depicted larger, and the second subordinate and depicted smaller.
Fortunately, we all have a stylizer machine called the brain! In anime, there is a spectrum of on one end, very large anime looking eyes, and some on the other end, that are pretty realistic with some stylization flare. I tend to like something in the middle, although a lot depends on the artwork itself.
First, draw a downward curving line for the upper lash line. Add a curved tail at one end (draw it on the end that's going to be the outer corner of the eye), going down and back toward the other end of the line, so the upper lash line is C-shaped.
Variation: You can draw a bigger pupil if you want the eye to look bigger and wider. Just make the oval about 1/2 the size of the iris (instead of 1/4th) and overlap it with both of the small circles you drew before. The circles should be in front of the oval. ...
Make the top and bottom of the oval overlap with the lash lines so the top and bottom are hidden. Make the width at the widest part of the oval the same as the length of the lower lash line. This will be the iris of the eye. ...
Learn more... One of the most recognizable features of anime is the eyes. They’re big, they’re expressive, and they’re often exaggerated to show emotion. Anime eyes are only made up of a few basic shapes and they don’t have a lot of detail, so they’re actually pretty simple to draw.
For a sad look draw the eyes squinted. Draw the bottom eyelids in a slight upside down arch. Draw the outer edges of the eyebrows lower down with less of an arch than normal or even in an upside down arch.
For a normal expression draw the iris slightly covered by the top eyelid while just touching the bottom eyelid. Draw the eyebrows slightly above the eyes in a smooth curve. When drawing different expressions the eyebrow shape and positions and the positions of the pupils can be different. For drawing different kinds of eyebrows see: ...
For an angry look draw the eyebrows down in a kind of inward wave shape. Draw the top eyelids down in an inward slope and draw the pupils slightly rolled up.
For a surprised look draw the eyes wide open with the eyebrows raised. The wider you draw the eyes and the farther you raise the eyebrows the more surprised the character will look.
Placing Anime or Manga Eyes on the Head. Real eyes are located in the middle of the head. Anime eyes are often draw much farther down the head. A good guide for drawing anime eyes is to draw a horizontal line through the middle of the head as shown in the above example and to draw the eyes below that.
Draw the pupil in the middle of the iris. The positions of the reflections will depend on the the position of the viewer. There can be more than one reflection depending on how many light sources there are. In this case we have two. One for the main light source and one from a secondary light source.
One major difference between drawing realistic eye expressions is that in anime and manga the size of the pupil can be changed to create a more dramatic expression (really scared eye expression for example). Below is a breakdown of each expression.
Female anime eyes vertical placement. To place the eyes on the head vertically divide the head into two and draw them below the middle halfway point. Please note that real eyes are usually positioned directly on this line but in anime eyes tend to be drawn lower down on the head.
Female Anime Eye Specifics (Before You Start Drawing) Anime eyes are almost always drawn bigger and wider than real eyes. This is especially so for female characters who often have larger and wider eyes than their male counterparts.
The first place you want to add the eyelashes to is the outer corners of the eye. Generally eyelashes (real eyelashes) sort of fan out around the eyelids so you can draw anime eyelashes in a similar way. Next add some smaller eyelashes at the inner corner of the eye.
Though anime eyes are not that difficult to draw they do have a lot of variations based on different states, emotions and even personalities. For more on drawing all of these see the following tutorials:
The shape and color of the reflection can depend on the shape and color of the light source. Usually in anime you can simply leave the reflection white and give it a very generalized shape like a circle or an oval.
For placing anime eyes on the head draw a horizontal line through the middle of the head and draw the eyes below that line. Real eyes would be drawn directly on that line or even above it but anime eyes tend to be drawn lower down. If you are drawing squinted eyes you may want to draw them a little further down from the halfway line as the top ...
Anime eyes of older male characters tend to be drawn narrower than those of younger characters (bigger and wider eyes can make characters look younger). Anime eyes of younger male characters are often drawn very similar to or exactly the same as those of female characters.
Anime male eye reflection. The main reflection of the main light source. The shape of the reflection will be based on the shape of the light source (the sun or in indoor lighting for example) but generally you can just draw a round or oval shape.
Anime male eye iris. The pupils in anime are often drawn as ovals (though sometimes they can also be drawn round like real eyes). You can see that for this particular example much of the pupil is covered by the eyelids.
Anime male eye drop shadow. There will usually be a shadow at the top of the eyes or a reflection of the eyelashes making the top darker. You can indicate this area to shade it later.
Shade and color the eye. As mentioned earlier you can use the same color for the pupil and the shadow. Keep the reflections white unless the light source is of a particular color (for example a red sunrise).