Exercise 0D: How to Draw Eyes

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Happy Halloween! No, the cat ears are real — I am a cat-girl you know!

We’re happy to write this lesson for our reader’s request: How to draw eyes! Since it’s halloween, let’s take a look at a juicy eye diagram to kick things off. Find the pupil, cornea and the iris, because we’ll talk about these more.

Yum :9

The first thing to think of in drawing eyes: They call it an eyeball for a reason. You don’t see the whole eye, but you have to think of this ball, or sphere, to understand the eye!

Now’s a good time to review How to Draw a Sphere in 3d if you haven’t yet!

Let’s rotate the eye around a little bit first.
The pupil in the drawing is the smallest dark circle in the middle of the eye. It’s dark because there aren’t any light sources inside the ball of the eye. It’s really a hole!
The iris is the next circle out, which is usually black, brown, green, or blue in real life. In manga it could be any color! There’s a little sparkle in the upper left corner where the light hits it.
Covering both the pupil and iris is the cornea. It’s a shiny shell that protects the pupil and iris, but lets light through so you can still see!

As we rotate the eye to the right, you can see how the light bounces off the cornea, and then some light shines through and makes the iris a little lighter.

And, now we can see how the eyeball is wrapped and covered by the upper and lower eyelids. As the eye turns around, the pupil and iris can be thought of as details on a sphere. As the sphere turns, think how perspective would affect it’s shape!

So that’s the anatomical and kinda gross part of the eye. They’re just rolling around in there like big marbles! (No, I’m a real bear! Please don’t pull my fur, it stings ^_^)

When it comes time to draw the eye, it’s helpful to think of it in 4 pieces, or steps:

Let’s take it a piece at a time!

First off, you’ll want to think about where your eye will be looking. Start off by drawing the iris, pupil and cornea. Think of a light source, so you can put your shiny highlight on the cornea, and let the light shine through onto iris. Some eyes might have multiple highlights.

Some manga characters, like in Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, only have eyes like this even in the end!

Next, wrap your upper eyelid over the iris, and erase any parts which would be covered.

I usually stop on the third step. Once I’ve got the eyebrows in, I’m pretty happy! That’s just the way I’m drawn :]

However, if you like, the lower eyelid adds a splash of fanciness! For a character wearing eye makeup, or who needs extra expression, it helps a lot.

From here on, it’s a matter of your personal tastes and plan. What style of eyes do you like? What style best suits the character you’re drawing? As you saw in our second lesson, there are many ways to draw eyes. Take a look in your favorite manga, or draw from real life! Can you see the four steps we’ve done and how they are in every eye?