How to draw eyes anime eyes

How to Draw Anime Eyes: Easy Step by Step Tutorial

One of the things I loved drawing most when I was young was anime people, especially eyes.

To me, drawing anime eyes is so fun, unique, and simple. It’s a great way to create without the burden of having to make something look “real” enough.

That is why I decided to create this blog post: A step-by-step tutorial on how to draw anime eyes.

For the ease of creating this tutorial, I decided to digitally draw the steps but the technique I use to draw them digitally or traditionally does not differ.

As you draw these eyes, I recommend using light, short strokes to achieve the overall line and shape you want. This is also a good way to naturally give depth and dimension to any drawing you create.

All in all, drawing is a great way to quiet the mind and get into the flow of creating something – So I hope this inspires you to draw much more often! Enjoy trying out these anime eye drawings and have lots of fun in the process!

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Step 1: Draw the Upper Lid

Draw the upper lid of your anime eye by drawing a curve like a hill.

Step 2: Draw the Lower Lid

Draw an upside-down curve for the lower lid of your anime eyes.

Step 3: Draw the Iris Shape

Draw a oval shape for the iris of your anime eye drawing.

Step 4: Draw the Light Source Reflections

Draw little spots in the corner of your anime eye drawing. This is where the light hits the eyes so we won’t color this part in.

Step 5: Draw the Pupil

Draw a dark spot in the center of your anime eye. This is the pupil of your anime eye drawing.

Step 6: Shade in the Iris

Color in the iris of your anime eye drawing with your pencil or pen. I like to keep the bottom portion of the eye less shaded.

You can play around with the stylization of your eyes and explore different art styles.

Step 7: Draw Eyelashes

Thicken the top lid and draw eyelashes if you are drawing, especially if you are drawing an anime girl.

Further down this blog post, I will be showing different anime eye style to draw, including male anime eyes.

Step 8: Draw Eyelid Crease and Eyebrows

Draw an other additional features to your anime eyes, including an eyelid crease or eyebrows.

With this, you are all done with your anime eye drawing!

More Easy Anime Eye Drawings to Try

Here are some more anime eye drawings to try out of different genders and styles.

You can interchange the male and female eye drawings as you please by making slight adjustments.

It all just depends on the character you’re drawing.

Here is a collective image of the final anime eye drawings, along with other ones to try out.

I first started digital drawing on a Wacom tablet (Similar to this one). If you are an avid drawer, I highly recommend trying out digital drawing: It’s a great skill to start mastering if you are interested in pursuing art in the future, or just as a fun hobby or side-hustle!

As for programs, I have used Paint Tool Sai in the past and it’s free, so it’s great for beginners. Now, I use Photoshop to create these digital drawings.

Thank you for stopping by my blog post!

I hope you enjoyed these drawings and now know some tips to start drawing your own anime eye drawings.

Much of the character comes from the details in their eyes, so have fun and get as creative as you want with the eyes!

I hope you have a wonderful day or night wherever you may be! Until next time!

How to Draw Anime Eyes

In this tutorial, you will learn how to draw anime-style eyes.

I will explain the different shapes and styles, how to apply basic colors, how some expressions work, and finally, how to draw anime-style eyes as a part of an illustration. You can also follow this step-by-step video tutorial (in Spanish only):

Index

1. Basic Eye Study

Before you start drawing and designing anime-style eyes, it is essential to learn the basic shapes of real eyes. This will make the stylization process much easier.

2. Real Eyes vs Anime Eyes: Proportions

Have a look at the image below to see the difference between real eye proportions and anime-style proportions.

3. Variations

Since there are so many types and shapes when it comes to anime eyes, first you need to think about what kind of eyes you want to create.

4. Styles and Greyscale

This is a good way to approach the exaggerated version of anime eyes. Starting from some elongated shapes, add the necessary gray tones to create depth, always keeping the highlights and the structures that are most interesting to you in mind. See that in steps 1 and 2, I’ve only sketched the basic structure of the eye. Here, you get the base for your eye and a guide to help you figure out where to place the grey tones.

In step 3, I apply subtle grays (I make the pupil area a little darker than the rest of the eye).

In step 4, I add darker grays to create depth on the upper part of the eye because the eyelid casts shadows on the eyeball. In this step, I experimented a bit and added a lighter grey in the center of the pupil, to insert some originality.

In steps 5 and 6, I define and enhance the grays and textures.

In step 7, I brush up and detail all areas, as well as adding some extra shine a little less intense than the rest of the highlights.

To see all the details of this process, please have a look at the video at the beginning of the tutorial.

5. Shapes and Colors of Anime Eyes

It is helpful to divide the eye creation process into a few steps.

Let’s go back and break it down once more and add the coloring process. Let me show you some coloring techniques parting from the grayscale drawing that we already have from the previous part:

Remember: On top of the basic grays with their respective gradients, add brightness and textures that match the style of your drawing (see the example in the previous point).

Steps 1 and 2, start by making the eyelids, this will help you to figure out where to place the iris and the rest of the eye.

In step 3, add some basic grey tones (check chapter 4. “Styles and greyscale”) and then…

In step 4, I set the color layer’s blending mode. In this case, I used Overlay, but you are free to try a few out and choose another mode that you like better. This way, the color that you add will be perfectly integrated with the gray tones. On the right, you can see where the blending modes for layers are located in my software. The default mode is “Normal”. From here you can play around and find which mode you are comfortable with.

If you’re aiming for colorful, engaging anime eyes, vibrant, saturated colors may be best.

6. How to Color Anime Eyes

Here you can see the results from using different colors and blending modes. I used the Overlay mode for purple, Vivid Light for yellow, and Pin Light for the blue tones and the pink details. They blend great with the grey layer.

The key is to know where you want to place the grey gradients, the darker areas, and the highlights. Please go back to chapter 4. “Styles and greyscale” when in doubt.

Try different colors and see which ones are best for the effect you’re trying to achieve. In this illustration, I chose two complimentary colors: purple and yellow – with pink and blue tints.

Grayscale coloring steps:

In 1, I simply started with the previously created grayscale drawing.

In steps 2 and 3, choose any color you fancy —purple, with some blue in my case— and try a blending mode that blends well with the greyscale.

In steps 4 and 5, I add some yellow using the Vivid light blending mode.

In step 6, I usually soften the dots a bit, by using the eraser or decreasing the layer opacity.

Finally, in step 7, I just add the finishing touches to emphasize volumes and textures.

7. Expressions for Anime Eyes

In real life and in the manga/anime world, eyes are one of the most important features to express emotion. Remember that a series of facial muscles tighten or relax, depending on the expression you want to achieve.
Let’s take a look at the eyelids, the inner eye, and the eyebrows.

The emotions intended in these examples are easy to understand.

In example 1, the eyebrow is a bit tense, but the eye is relaxed and shining. This conveys a worried state or maybe missing someone or something.

In example 2, the eyebrow is arched vertically, and the eye is closed, so we can deduce that the character is happy.

In the next example (3), there is no shine to the eye, the iris is completely white, and the pupil is reduced significantly. This shows that the character is aggressive. Note that the eyebrow is arched in the opposite direction of the happy one in example 2, which also signifies anger.

Let us check all these expressions to deduce their meaning: 4 is suspicion, 5 is worry, 6 is neutral or observing, 7 is shock, 8 is sadness, and 9 is shock or madness, depending on the situation.

8. Final Illustration and Anime Eyes

Here is a character illustration with anime eyes. Note how the colors and shapes work together.

About the artist

Raquel Arellano is a digital and traditional illustrator and concept artist from Barcelona. She has a background in teaching video games and currently works at a university as an art teacher in the subject. She works for indie role-playing game companies, creates commissions for individuals, and also writes tutorials for a number of companies. She shows her art processes on Twitch, and you can see more of her illustrations on Instagram, Twitter, or ArtStation.

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How to Draw Anime Eyes and Eye Expressions

There are many ways of drawing anime eyes. This tutorial illustrates how to draw anime eyes with different expressions in one style from the front view.

Example of how to draw anime eyes

Step 1 – Draw The Shape of The Eyes

One defining feature of anime eyes is that they are usually much bigger and wider than real eyes; so that is how we will draw them.

The eyes should be far enough apart that you can fit a third eye in between.

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:

Step 2 – Draw the Pupils and the Reflections

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.

For example if you are drawing a character that is standing outside on a sunny day the main reflection in the eyes could be caused by the sun while the secondary could come from the sun reflecting off of another object.

Step 3 – Add Shading

To shade the eyes as in the above example you can pretty much make everything excluding the inner part of the iris and the reflections black.

Leave the reflections white and make the iris area grey.

Drawing Different Anime Eye Expressions

The factors that determine the expression of the eyes are:

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.

Drawing Normal Anime Eyes

Draw as described above in the first part of the tutorial.

Drawing Angry Anime eyes

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.

Drawing Bored Anime Eyes

For a bored look draw the pupils rolled up and the eyelids slightly lowered.

Drawing Shy/Embarrassed Anime Eyes

For a shy or embarrassed look draw the eyes looking down and draw the top eyelids slightly lowered.

Drawing Sad Anime Eyes

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.

Drawing Surprised Anime Eyes

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.

Drawing Scared Anime Eyes

For a scared look draw the eyes wide open and the eyebrows raised. You can also draw the pupils smaller than normal. The smaller you draw the pupils the more scared your character will look.

Drawing Happy/Content Anime Eyes

For happy or content anime eyes closed with the shape of the eyes in an upside down arch. This is probably the easiest example of drawing anime eyes as there are almost no details to worry about.

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.

It’s important to note that if the eyes are closed or squinted the top eyelashes will need to be drawn further down from the horizontal line in the example. If the eyes are wide open then the eyelashes will need to be drawn further up.

Conclusion

There are almost countless variations of anime eyes but the guidelines and tips used in this tutorial can still apply no matter what style you choose.

For more information on drawing anime and manga eyes you can also check:

For specifics of drawing male and female anime eye see:

For drawing various facial expressions you can see:

How to draw Anime Eyes. An Easy Comprehensive Tutorial

This article contains affiliate links.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to draw Anime eyes in every style and form. You will learn how to draw Female and Male eyes and how to diversify the look of your eyes to make them unique! I will show you the Basics, a Step by Step approach and then I will give you some final Tipps.

So let´s get started with drawing some Anime Eyes!

The Tools you will need for this Tutorial

In all honesty, all you need is a graphite pen and a piece of paper. That’s it!

I would recommend a rather soft graphite Pen like a B4 or B5 but really any pen, that can achieve a huge variance in tone is just fine.

You can also just use any paper you would like even though I recommend a stronger drawing paper, something, that can survive some erasing. I usually use sketch paper or an illustration block.

You will need an Eraser and some whiteout. A kneadable eraser would be best but any eraser will do in the beginning.

This tutorial is meant for exercise purposes. So the tools I mentioned above are more then enough for you to learn how to draw Anime eyes but if you really want to create an illustration I would strongly recommend you to get a set of graphite pens that go from HB to at least 6B and you should definitely get some drawing Paper or illustration board!

The Basics of Drawing Anime Eyes

Before we get to the actual drawing part we should take a look at some Basics, that everyone should know before drawing eyes in any style.

Firstly, let´s have a look at the Anatomy of the eye. Don´t worry, you don´t have to know exactly how the human eye works but you should at least have a basic idea of the structure of the eye.

So let´s start with the eyeball. The eyeball is almost completely round. On the eyeball, there is the iris. In Anime the Iris is much bigger than normal, keep that in mind. The Picture below shows the eyeball of an Anime character. A normal eyeball would not have an iris this big.

And finally the Pupil. This is where the light shines through to the inside of the eyeball and from outside this part looks almost dark. The Pupil is also way larger in Anime drawings then it would be in reality. It is also sometimes not round but has more of an oval shape.

Next up are the eyelids. The eyelids are basically just very thin skin that is wrapped around the eyeball. The “wrapped around”-part is the important part. If you keep in mind, that the eyeball is like the name suggests, basically a little ball and the eyelids are wrapping over the ball form, then your eyes will look so much more realistic and believable right away.

You can look at your own eyes in the mirror and you can see, how your eyelids also wrap around your eyeball.

Anime is nothing more, than an abstraction and simplification from real life in a very specific style. This is also the reason, why so many people and artists tell you, that drawing anime is bad.

Because you should learn how to draw the normal human figure before abstracting it. But in my opinion, it is not that big of a deal…

So take a look at the image below and you will, hopefully, see what I mean. Look especially on the left side, where the eyelids are over the eyeball. It is a little detail but it will help your drawing to look more believable.

And finally, the last thing you have to know when you draw eyes. There is a little skinfold over the top eyelid. Don´t forget to show this little skinfold! It is one of these little things, that will make the eye look better if you just think about this little detail.

How to Draw an Anime Eye Step by Step

So lets take the foundation from above and finish the eye now step by step.

First Step

Let’s draw the eyebrow over the foundation of our eye. The eyebrow will be slightly longer than the eye. Obviously, that is not always the case but normally it is slightly longer. The eyebrow is slightly above the point where the eyeball ends.

Just sketch the Brow in lightly and once you are confident about the form and the way it looks you can define the form with a little darker lines.

Second Step

Let’s add some eyelashes and make the lines a bit darker. When you draw eyelashes keep in mind, that you will never see every single hair individually so don´t draw them all individually. It will look weird. Instead, draw the Eyelashes as one single form and then draw some finer lines outwards. This will give the drawing the effect of individual hairs without you having to draw them individually. And it will make the Drawing so much more believable.

Third Step

Add some shading and shadows! The eyelids are over the eyeball and as such, they will cast a shadow on the eye itself. This shadow is very important and will help the drawing to create the illusion of depth.

But be careful! The iris and the pupil should have different shadow tones. If you just draw one big dark area under the eyelid then it will not look like a shadow and thus the effect will now work! So slowly build up the shadow tones until you are satisfied with the outcome.

Now just give the iris a little shading. One tone that gets slightly lighter in the bottom part.

If you take a look at the image below, you will see where the light is coming from in the drawing. The shadow under the top eyelid is the drop shadow.

The eyeball is hit by the same light source, so the part of the eyeball that is visible in the far left corner of the eye will be slightly darker. Don’t forget to indicate the roundness of the eyeball with little indicators like this, when you draw eyes!

Fourth Step

Let´s add some highlights! You can either add them with whiteout or you can just erase the parts in the eye where they are supposed to be. When you are adding highlights to the eyes always keep the direction where the light is coming from in mind. The biggest highlight will also be where the light hits the surface the most. In our case, the light is coming from the top right corner.

I also added some little lines in the iris to make the eye look more detailed. Don´t overdo it with these lines and don’t spread them to evenly. Nothing in nature is perfectly even or ordered.

And that was the last step. You are done with drawing the eye. Now you can take a look at how to draw a female eye and how to draw a male eye. Or rather what distinguishes them from one another.

How to Draw Male Anime Eyes

The Eye we dre above looked more like a Female eye, but why? And how can you draw a Male Anime Eye?

What makes an eye look male? The answer is pretty easy. It is slimmer, more angular, doesn´t have big light reflections and the iris is smaller.

Here is the sketch of an Eye, I made, keeping the differences from above in mind.

Not let´s add some details but we are keeping the eyelashes to a minimum and the reflections are very small. The lines are also way more angular.

Only these very subtle differences made a huge difference. You can obviously push the differences more by making the eye even slimmer and the iris rounder and smaller. Or you could also make the eyebrow bushier.

How to Draw Female Anime Eyes

Female eyes are generally bigger and rounder. They will also have bigger irises and bigger reflections in their eyes. The eyelashes will be longer and there will be more of them. The overall form of the Eyes should be softer and rounder, not angular!

As you can see in the Sketch below. These eyes look very feminine even though we did not change all that much.

How to Make Eyes look Unique

So here is a problem a lot of artists run in to after some time. I struggled with this as well, when I was starting out to draw. How can I make my characters all look unique? Or better yet, how can I make their eyes all look unique?

Well, the answer is probably way easier than you may think. Just change little but defining thinks of how you draw their eyes. For example, slightly tilt the eyes in a direction to make them look a little dimwitted or to make them look sharper. Make the eyes extremely round or insanely slim. Give them no reflections in their eyes to make them almost appear dead or evil. Or give them a lot of reflections to make them look innocent or happy.

Just play around with these little defining changes and you will be surprised how many different eyes you will be able to draw! Just take a look at these Sketches I did.

Beginners Mistake and how to Avoid Them

There are quite a few mistakes, that beginners make. Here are the Mistakes, that I see the most and my tips on how you can avoid these mistakes.

The eyes look dead
When the eyes, you drew, are looking like they are dead, then you should add reflections in the eye. Reflections make an Eye look alive!

The eye looks flat
If your drawings look flat then you should check your shadows again. when you draw a shadow in the wrong place or when you draw your shadows too dark then the drawing will look flat. Also if you don´t draw the eyelids correctly (too stiff or not as if they are wrapping around the eyeball) then your eye may look flat as well.

Don´t hate your work
I know, that it can be frustrating when you want to draw something and it doesn´t turn out as you imagined it. Then you will hate your drawing or you will think, that you can´t draw in in the worst case you may even stop drawing.

The truth is, you can´t expect to be good at drawing when you start out. It will take practice and you should look at your improvements and not at your failures. Just look at what you did wrong and make it better in the next drawing. Don´t get hung up on your mistakes.

Keep it light in the beginning
During the sketching phase, you should keep your lines light. So don´t push the pencil down to hard. By keeping it light, you will be able to erase the lines easier.

Only after you feel, that everything looks good and correct, only then you should start to draw the lines darker and make them “Permanent”. so keep it light in the beginning and don´t commit too early!

Be careful about selling your Anime Fanart!
I have been to quite some anime and comic conventions and one thing, that I keep seeing is artists selling fan art of popular anime characters. This is not exactly legal in the US or anywhere else. Anime characters are all copyrighted!

So be very careful about selling your Anime fanart online or offline. You can read all about fanart and why it is illegal right here on my blog as well.

If you have questions about drawing eyes then post them below and I will answer you as soon as I can. Until then, have fun drawing and don´t give up!

Hi, I am a passionate maker and professional prop maker for the entertainment industry. I use my woodworking, programming, electronics, and illustration know-how to create interactive props and puzzles for Escape Games and marketing agencies. And I share my knowledge and my experience on this blog with you so that you can become a maker yourself.

How to Draw Female Anime Eyes Tutorial

This step by step tutorial explains the specifics of drawing female anime and manga style eyes and provides detailed drawing examples for each step.

Female anime eye drawing step by step

This tutorial focuses on drawing female anime eyes but there are many other eye drawing tutorials here on AnimeOutline as well. If you’ve already looked at those please be aware that there may be some overlapping information.

For the male eyes drawing tutorial you can check:

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.

One thing that really sets female anime eyes apart from male are more prominent eyelashes (longer, thicker, and more of them). This is not always the case but it does tend to be so.

For different styles of anime eyes you can check:

Be sure to make light lines for the line drawing part of the tutorial (if drawing on paper) as you will need to do some erasing through the different steps. You can go over your drawing with a more solid line once you are done.

Step 1 – Draw the Outer Shape of the Eye

Start the drawing with the outer shape of the eye. In this case the eyelids/eyelashes.

For more on drawing eyelashes see:

Step 2 – Draw the Shape of the Iris

Draw the iris vertically stretched (compared to a real eye). Basically an oval with the top and bottom hidden by the eyelids.

Step 3 – Draw the Pupil

Inside the iris draw the pupil tracing the shape of the iris but smaller.

Step 4 – Indicate Dark Area at Top of Iris

Make a line towards the upper half of the eye that will indicate the darker area partially created by the shadow and the eyelashes reflecting in the eyes.

You can erase the line overlapping the pupil in the next step. The reason for drawing it all the way though like that is to make sure that both sides match up and that you have a nice and smooth curve.

Step 5 – Draw the Primary Reflection

Draw the main reflection area from the main light source such as an indoor light bulb, a fire, or the sun. You can erase the area of the pupil and shadow that is overlapped by the reflection.

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.

Step 6 – Draw the Secondary Reflection

This reflection will usually come from the light of the main light source bouncing off of a surface and will be smaller than the primary reflection.

Again erase the part of the pupil overlapped by the reflection.

Step 7 – Shade The Different Area of the Eye

Finally you can shade the different areas drawn in the previous step. If drawing on paper simply leave the reflections white.

Shade the eyelids which are also technically part of the eyelashes black. Shade the pupil black as well.

Finally shade the iris grey or any color you want the eyes to have.

Step 8 – Add the Outer Top Eyelid Eyelashes

It should be noted that you could stop at step seven of this tutorial and have a perfectly normal anime eye but since the tutorial focuses on female eyes we will add some eyelashes.

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.

Since the eyelashes are fairly small you can also shade them as you draw them.

There is no need to add any in the middle as these usually tend to point forward and therefore visually sort of just merge into one shape.

Step 9 – Add the Bottom Eyelashes

Finally add some tiny eyelashes at the outer and inner bottom corners of the eye to have a finished drawing of a female anime eye.

Color & Gradient

You can also color the eye instead of just shading it with greys as well as add some gradient.

For gradient you can shade the iris to be darker towards it’s outer edges and lighter towards the middle.

Drawing Both Eyes

If you are drawing both eyes at once draw out each step for each eye before moving on to the next step.

For an explanation as to why and for other important drawing tips you check:

Another thing to note is that the light reflections will not be mirrored and will be in the same positions in both eyes.

Female anime eyes color drawing

Placing Anime Eyes on the Head Vertically

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. Especially so for younger female characters.

Spacing Anime Eyes

To place the eyes out you can simply leave a distance of the width of one eye between them.

Conclusion

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: