How to Draw Anime Eyes

The eyes of an anime character are perhaps the most crucial parts to draw in this art form. Highly expressive and always overly large, anime eyes are a great starting point for beginning artists. Even seasoned anime veterans can learn new ways to draw these distinct features to enhance their work.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Graphite pencil or charcoal pencil
• Sketch pad

Learn How to Create Expressive Anime Eyes

1. Draw the tops of anime eyes with an arched line that curves upward just above where each eye will be. These lines should be the width of each eye or a little wider, and should be slightly thicker in the middle of the arch.

2. Draw two diagonal lines for the side of each eye. Each line should slope slightly outward at the middle to create an oval shape.

3. Add a half-moon line (or wide "u" shape) between these two lines at their bases. This will seal the lower part of each eye. Each line should be thicker at the outside corner (the bottom line of the right eye should be thicker on the right and vice versa for the left eye).

4. Blend all of these lines into an oval shape, connected at the top line of each eye.

5. Add a horizontal line under each of your eyes, spanning the width of the oval shape or a little wider. This accent line will serve as the traditional anime "expression line." It can be drawn on an angle to denote anger or excitement.

6. Create a large circle for the iris of each of your eyes. You can also draw thin ovals if the character you are working on is perhaps less innocent and/or more mature. Either way, the top of this shape should be obscured by the top line that you drew earlier.

7. Outline light glares to give a shiny look to each eye. Place a circle about one-third to one-half the size of the iris in the upper inside corner of each eye. Then, draw a small circle in the lower outside corner.

8. Give the eyes more depth by adding pupils. Between your light glares on each eye, shade in a dark circle, taking care not to draw over the light glares (these will remain white). Below, you can also shade with diagonal hatch marks to fill in the rest of the eye.

9. Draw eyelashes for female anime eyes. Eyelashes can simply be small triangles added to the outer lower edge of your eyebrows and filled in dark.

10. Add eyelids by drawing thin, curved lines that start from the top of each eye. These should be kept simple, but can be used to express emotion when drawn at a steeper angle.

11. Shade your eyes in any places where you have lightly drawn your lines, while taking care to keep the light glares free of marks.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't go overboard with eyelashes on male characters, as the gender ambiguity of anime characters can quickly become confusing because of their caricature-like nature.