Q&A for How to Draw Anime Eyes

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 along with the edge of the eye itself, while the pupil and iris should look like a slightly flattened disc on the side of the eye closest to the nose. For a more stylized anime look, leave a gap between the outer corner of the eyelids and the point where the lower lash line goes under the iris. Make sure to shade the iris and add a couple of bright highlight spots.

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 little more realism. Draw some small, round droplets in the inner and outer corners of each eye to indicate tears just starting to well up, or draw longer, slightly wiggly tear tracks down the cheeks. Shade the teardrops along the bottom and leave them transparent on top for more realism.

Anime is a shortened form of the English word “animation.” The term anime is used in Japan to distinguish animated cartoons from illustrated cartoons or comics, which are called manga.

Draw the pupil part with a pencil. Draw an oval/circle along the line between the pupil and the iris, and add more inside the pupil. Colour everything, leaving out the circles. The circles reflect the light off the white background, giving the viewer the impression of shining eyes.

In anime, characters often have colorful eyes depending on the art style. If you want to draw in a specific art style (eg: Black Butler), then pay attention to how dark or light the eyes are and how many highlights you should add. If you are drawing in your own style, feel free to choose any colors and combinations you want.

It depends on the type of character you have in mind. For example, if you were aiming for a moody or aggressive character, you would draw smaller, thinner eyes. If you wanted a loud, bubbly character, you would probably draw much larger, defined eyes.

For a wide face, position the eyes slightly farther away from each other. For a narrow, slender face, place the eyes somewhat closer together. Adjust as needed and remember to leave some space between the eyes for the nose.

It is for the left eye, due to the brow being thicker on the right and thinning at the left half.

No, there are many ways to draw anime eyes. If your follow the basic shape and reflection circles, you should be good.

Yes, because it won't look right. Erase it and try again. There is no harm in trying again and again until you have mastered the drawing; it's the only way to gain the ability.

It depends on the size of your drawing. Just adjust the size of the eyes until you think they look good for your character.

Use a small brush to outline and color so the eyes will look real.

Once you've completed one eye, trace it on a piece of tracing paper and either trace or copy it over. If you don't have tracing paper, just keep drawing and rubbing out. If one eye is a bit bigger than the other, it'll look better once you shade it in.

Draw them together, instead of one at a time. Go back and forth between them.

This depends on style and lighting. If you do opposite corners, this will usually make it look like the light source is directly in front of or directly behind the character, but some more simplified anime styles always use opposite corners to make it easier to animate.

Draw your character's eyes big, then curve the eyebrows so they look like they they are innocently staring at you/the other person. Add blush.

It usually depends on what kind of character you're drawing. An innocent character, maybe a friendly kind of person, should have big round eyes. A villain's eyes would be smaller, and slit-shaped. Keep practicing with different shapes until you've got something you're happy with.

Anime noses are usually 2/3 down their face. Anime noses aren't usually as detailed as real noses. Most of the time they are simply a line with a sharp bend in it.

Make the baby's eyes really big and innocent, curve the eyebrows, and make the eyebrows small.

The images in this article are drawn digitally, using a program on a computer. You can use paints or colored pencils in your own work if you like.

You can start with a reference image of a real skeleton, then simplify and stylize it. If you draw your anime characters with large heads and eyes, the skeleton will have a large skull and eye sockets. If you aren't sure how to make a skeleton fit your style, try sketching a person first and then drawing the person's skeleton on top.

2B or HB work well for the eyes.

You might need to use references to draw them, unless you have every small detail of their appearance etched into your mind.

Yes! I'm a terrible artist, but I learned anime eyes in just a couple of days. However, a large part of drawing anime eyes involves the face itself. Practice drawing the head and everything else except the eyes. Then, try drawing the eyes last.

Split the face into quadrants by drawing a line across the middle of the face left-to-right and another up-and-down. The nose should be where the lines that run across the face intersect with the lines that run up and down.

You can use any program or none at all. You could use any drawing implement and a notebook.

Work with the shape of the eye itself and the curving of the eyebrows to communicate an expression similar to one you have envisioned. Or, work with a human model to be able to replicate the realistic equivalent, which might require tweaking to fit the anime style you use. Focus mainly on the shape of the eyebrows, which contributes the most to implied feeling. If you remake the line of the eyebrow for the eye in the tutorial, you can achieve a number of expressions.

Yes, you can try this method to get two eyes that are alike.

You make the eyes look glassy by using different shades of the colour of the eye. Also, you add white to make the eye look like it is reflecting the light.

No, often eyes will reflect light independent of how shadow falls on the face. This is partly because eyeballs in real life are a rounded, curved object.