More realistic anime styles tend to show eyelids while the more simplified don’t After you draw all the major shapes of the eyes draw the inner details of the eyes. If you are going to draw both eyes then you should draw both at the same time. Draw each step for each eye before moving on to the next step. Draw the overall shape of the eye.
Anime eyes of younger male characters are often drawn very similar to or exactly the same as those of female characters. This tutorial will focus on drawing the eyes of a young adult male character (age of about 20-30). For drawing female anime eyes you see:
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.
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...
Make the eyes about 1/6th the height of the head and 1/4th the width of the head, if you’re drawing one. That way, they’ll look big and exaggerated.
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.
To draw the eyelashes, start at the outer corner of the eye, and draw a few upward-curving lines coming off of the upper lash line. The eyelashes should span about 1/4th of the upper lash line. Make each line about 1/15th the length of the upper lash line itself. Then, thicken the lines with your pencil so they’re bold like the rest of the upper lash line.
Sketch the upper and lower lash lines. First, draw a horizontal line with a slight curve. Then, draw a line with a slight upward curve coming down off one end of the first line (the end that will be the outer corner of the eye) at a 45-degree angle. Make this line about 1/3 the length of the first line you drew. At this point, the upper lash line will have a C-shape, and you’ll be able to see the outer corner of the eye. To draw the lower lash line, draw a short, horizontal line with a slight curve centered under the upper lash line.
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.
Make a smaller circle near the bottom of the oval on the opposite side. For example, if you drew the first circle on the top-right side of the oval, draw the smaller circle on the bottom-left side. Draw the circle so it’s about 1/2 the size of the first circle. This circle will also look like reflected light when you shade in your drawing.
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.
These placement guidelines can also change based on style. If you are going for a very realistic look you may want to place the eyes further up as you would with real eyes.
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).
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.
We also discovered that anime eye drawings simplify real world anatomy in specific ways. I found seven ways actually, you may find more, but the basic seven simplifications in anime eyes are as follows.
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)
You only need to know eight (8) anatomy terms of the eye, most, if not all, of which you probably already know. This knowledge in this case is required mainly for purposes of placement and understanding the rest of the article.
With that said, here are seven common elements present in most anime drawings of eyes.
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.
Using the rough line for the lower eyelid as a guide, sketch a thicker eyelid line. This should be thinner than the upper eyelid. You may add other details like lashes when you are doing a particularly flirty character. With the lower eyelid shorter and less defined than the upper eyelid, your rough eye should have a V silhouette. Note that the lower eyelid is pointy in either ends.
The upper anime eyelid is basically a parabolic line, or simply a line curving upwards . Do start with faint guideline as what’s shown below. I marked the line red because it is barely visible.
For lower eyelid, sketch a slightly curved guideline under the thicker upper eyelid. This rough line should stretch from the end of the right eyelid all the way to the left. Again with the line too faint, I marked it red.
Hence off with the flowery stuff like extra eyelashes. At the same bishonen eyes could be more feminine than shonen eyes. If you want you might give it double eyelids. Hence we may end up with something like below.
Baylee Jay shows you five different ways you can draw anime and manga eyes. In this tutorial, Baylee will walk you through the way she draws those beautiful looking anime manga eyes.
What is pretty obvious in anime and manga art is that their eyes are big and wide. However, in mature anime drawings, the eye, as well as the shape of the head, do follow the rules of realistic human anatomy. In this article, I’ve tried to cover as many aspects as possible when it comes to drawing manga eyes.
You will get to see how the artist creates eight different manga eyes, and while we can debate whether there is enough variation to justify the eight “different” styles, it’s still cool to see the drawing process nevertheless.
The artist shows you four different styles of anime eyes for you to try and draw. Moe-moe, kind, cool, and emotionless is the four different styles you can learn from this art tutorial.
The drawing tutorial is pretty simple but has some very cool tips, and it’s interesting to see the drawing process for a pair of eyes in an angle.
While the video does not have a voice-over, it does have text from which you can follow the drawing process. What I like about the video is that the artist shows you step-by-step how to draw manga eyes.
While the process is always the same, there are still details and rules that apply in each different scenario.
Going down from the bottom portion of the head draw the neck. As this is a somewhat stylized anime character the neck should be fairly thin in relation to the head.
Inside each eye draw the pupil with a pair of highlights. You can also show a bit of the eyelids by drawing a small curved line just little bit above (closer to the inner end) each eye. Next fill in the eyelashes with black or pencil shading and add some hints of individual lashes.
To finish the drawing you can add bit of shading and a bit of gradient around the blush lines.
Some shading inside each clump of ear fluff with the tips of the shadows shaped similar to the hair/fur clumps
Draw the clumps right over top of the outline of the ears and head. You can then erase the bottom parts of the ears (ares where they are covered up) but leave the outline of the head to help you place the rest of the hair.
To place the eyes divine the head in half vertically by drawing a straight line and place them just a tiny bit below it.
In this case the fox girl will have a light smile. To make the mouth look a little more animal like draw the smile with show curves that are broken up in the middle.