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READ THE COMMENTS!!!!! IT'S NOT OVER!!!!

This is a picture reference for a tutorial/walkthrough on anime eyes that I volunteered for

Anime eyes: The Basics

Anime is a hugely popular trend, not just in Japan, but all over the world. Everywhere, its fans try to mimick the style(s) of their favorite shows and comic books (manga), but some are unsure of where to start. To make it simple, anime is nothing more than a particularly well known form of animation. The same can be said of Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons, and both rely on mere simple basics that is key to the style. For anime, it’s the eyes.
Now, don’t be fooled, anime eyes have even more varition from artist to artist than even American artists have. However, they all follow the same basic principles that I mapped out in this one picture file. I did my best to condense it into the most comprehensive and simple layout I could, and I also apologize for the extrememly quickly done art. I hope you will all be able to follow along with this, however, as I refer back to it often.

The first step of drawing a basic eye is first. I hope that it’s pretty self-explanitory. Now I kept some rock bottom essentials next to it, however. First off, the top eyelid must be at least as thick as the bottom one. Why? The top eyelid has much thinker eyelashes, regardless of gender or age. Now a note on eyelashes. There is no particularly “correct” way to draw eyelashes. Some prefer to do the simple single eyelash sticking out of the eyelid, but I prefer to use thick, feathery lines to make a large bunch of eyelashes. This is all personal preference, of which I will elaborate even further on later in the tutorial. Also, while eyelashes are most commonly used to make a character more pretty or beautiful, you can even turn the tables to make eyelashes make the character look even UGLIER! A great example is Ganju Shiba from Bleach. While still keeping with the principle of the top eyelid being thicker, the artist, Tite Kubo, drew stick-style eyelashes on his bottom eyelids, making him look a bit uglier. Have fun, but be aware of the look you will give your character if you use one technique or other. Just because you like it may not mean that it will look good on your character or that it will be what you want your character to look like in the end. Play with it and find what works. (And makes you happy! )

The next section is placement of the eyes on the face which I’ve done my best to map out the ideal spot on the generic anime face. You may have noticed that there seem to be two sections running across the face. These are for the top and lower half of your eyes. You can adjust the width of it to the size of the eyes you’ll need, but I’ll go over that later. After that, we come to variations on anime eyes. One of the things that sets anime apart from any other kind of style is the over-the-top nutty expressions. The eyes are the windows to the soul, and the soul is where emtion comes from, so it’s only natural that most of the expression comes through the eyes. I’ve listed just a few emotions as well as a few variations as examples.

Now for the “no pupil” eyes. These are usually reserved for strange creatures, blind people, or those with mysterious powers. I would only use any of them in those instances. As for the closed eyes close by, these are surprisingly common used eyes for many characters like Sai (Naruto), Gin (Bleach), Fai D. Flourite (Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles) and many other characters. This is also widely used for older folks as it does look like an elderly person constantly has their eyes narrowed or closed, but it’s really just their eyelids drooping in front of their eyes. When you draw these for old folks, however, be sure to draw wrinkles as well, or they won’t look old. (Again, more on that later.)

Next, EYEBROWS! Don’t forget the eyebrows because: 1. Your character’s will just look goofy. ‘Nuff said. 2. Eyebrows give most of the emotion in the face. Don’t forget them when drawing. There are many, many,many, many different kinds of eyebrows, so pick the one that’s best for your character. Also, as for where you put the eyebrows, go out a bit from the top eyelid and follow the curve of the eye. That’s it. So if you’ve got the eye right, you’ve got the eyebrows down! Next, keep in mind that the kind of eye can help define the age of your character. The younger the character, the bigger and rounder the eyes will be. The older the character, the narrower and even wrinkly the eyes will be. Just be aware of that.

Whoa! That’s a lot of info! Now what? Use what you know to make your eyes and characters unique! Sure, there’s a generic sort of eye that is easily recognised as “anime” but if you look at the different eyes I’ve drawn at the bottom, you’ll notice that each series has their own artist/author and their own eye style. That’s the point of this tutorial. Make your eyes your own! Be like these guys who can draw one picture and you know who drew it! It takes practice but you can do it! Let’s just take a closer look at these.
One Piece is a pirate manga, and there are obviously may different kind of eyes for the wide variaity of characters. However, they all pretty much have the same basic principles that we mentioned earlier. Next is Bleach. I only scratched the iceberg with this one! There are SO MANY DIFFERENT EYES and practically EVERY character has their OWN KIND OF EYE! Talk about diversity! Naruto isn’t as diverse, but there certainly are quite a few different variations of the same theme.

A note on Naruto and Bleach styled eyes: while both are undoubtedly “anime”, they do have their bae in realism if you look closely at official images. Tite Kubo (Bleach) even draws tears ducts in the eyes of his characters in the manga! Anime doesn’t nessecarily mean that you have to abandon realism and embrace a cartoony style. Go WILD! There are ways to go wrong in anime, but you have better luck building a bicycle with old soda pop cans. This theme goes into the “make it your own” idea for anime. It’s your drawing! Assert it!

Now, there are certainly different genres that most eyes can fall into according to the kind of stories their artists write. Bleach, One Piece, Dragon Ball, Naruto, and even Tsubasa RC are classified under “shonen” manga which is aimed at boys and is mostly action-based. At the end both of the eyes for Sailor Moon and Tokyo Mew Mew are the epitome of “shojo” manga which is aimed at girls and is more focused on the main characters and even romance. The big eyes apeal more to girls because they’re pretty and draw your attention, but the smaller shonen eyes are easier to draw in action scenes and don’t distract the eye much. These aren’t steadfast rules either; it’s just sort of a guideline. Like I’ve said before, make your eyes your own!
Well, that concludes this tutorial! I hope many of you out there have found it helpful and enjoyable! Get drawing!

All characters and titles copyright their respective owners.

Description
READ THE COMMENTS!!!!! IT'S NOT OVER!!!!

This is a picture reference for a tutorial/walkthrough on anime eyes that I volunteered for

Anime eyes: The Basics

Anime is a hugely popular trend, not just in Japan, but all over the world. Everywhere, its fans try to mimick the style(s) of their favorite shows and comic books (manga), but some are unsure of where to start. To make it simple, anime is nothing more than a particularly well known form of animation. The same can be said of Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons, and both rely on mere simple basics that is key to the style. For anime, it’s the eyes.
Now, don’t be fooled, anime eyes have even more varition from artist to artist than even American artists have. However, they all follow the same basic principles that I mapped out in this one picture file. I did my best to condense it into the most comprehensive and simple layout I could, and I also apologize for the extrememly quickly done art. I hope you will all be able to follow along with this, however, as I refer back to it often.

The first step of drawing a basic eye is first. I hope that it’s pretty self-explanitory. Now I kept some rock bottom essentials next to it, however. First off, the top eyelid must be at least as thick as the bottom one. Why? The top eyelid has much thinker eyelashes, regardless of gender or age. Now a note on eyelashes. There is no particularly “correct” way to draw eyelashes. Some prefer to do the simple single eyelash sticking out of the eyelid, but I prefer to use thick, feathery lines to make a large bunch of eyelashes. This is all personal preference, of which I will elaborate even further on later in the tutorial. Also, while eyelashes are most commonly used to make a character more pretty or beautiful, you can even turn the tables to make eyelashes make the character look even UGLIER! A great example is Ganju Shiba from Bleach. While still keeping with the principle of the top eyelid being thicker, the artist, Tite Kubo, drew stick-style eyelashes on his bottom eyelids, making him look a bit uglier. Have fun, but be aware of the look you will give your character if you use one technique or other. Just because you like it may not mean that it will look good on your character or that it will be what you want your character to look like in the end. Play with it and find what works. (And makes you happy! )

The next section is placement of the eyes on the face which I’ve done my best to map out the ideal spot on the generic anime face. You may have noticed that there seem to be two sections running across the face. These are for the top and lower half of your eyes. You can adjust the width of it to the size of the eyes you’ll need, but I’ll go over that later. After that, we come to variations on anime eyes. One of the things that sets anime apart from any other kind of style is the over-the-top nutty expressions. The eyes are the windows to the soul, and the soul is where emtion comes from, so it’s only natural that most of the expression comes through the eyes. I’ve listed just a few emotions as well as a few variations as examples.

Now for the “no pupil” eyes. These are usually reserved for strange creatures, blind people, or those with mysterious powers. I would only use any of them in those instances. As for the closed eyes close by, these are surprisingly common used eyes for many characters like Sai (Naruto), Gin (Bleach), Fai D. Flourite (Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles) and many other characters. This is also widely used for older folks as it does look like an elderly person constantly has their eyes narrowed or closed, but it’s really just their eyelids drooping in front of their eyes. When you draw these for old folks, however, be sure to draw wrinkles as well, or they won’t look old. (Again, more on that later.)

Next, EYEBROWS! Don’t forget the eyebrows because: 1. Your character’s will just look goofy. ‘Nuff said. 2. Eyebrows give most of the emotion in the face. Don’t forget them when drawing. There are many, many,many, many different kinds of eyebrows, so pick the one that’s best for your character. Also, as for where you put the eyebrows, go out a bit from the top eyelid and follow the curve of the eye. That’s it. So if you’ve got the eye right, you’ve got the eyebrows down! Next, keep in mind that the kind of eye can help define the age of your character. The younger the character, the bigger and rounder the eyes will be. The older the character, the narrower and even wrinkly the eyes will be. Just be aware of that.

Whoa! That’s a lot of info! Now what? Use what you know to make your eyes and characters unique! Sure, there’s a generic sort of eye that is easily recognised as “anime” but if you look at the different eyes I’ve drawn at the bottom, you’ll notice that each series has their own artist/author and their own eye style. That’s the point of this tutorial. Make your eyes your own! Be like these guys who can draw one picture and you know who drew it! It takes practice but you can do it! Let’s just take a closer look at these.
One Piece is a pirate manga, and there are obviously may different kind of eyes for the wide variaity of characters. However, they all pretty much have the same basic principles that we mentioned earlier. Next is Bleach. I only scratched the iceberg with this one! There are SO MANY DIFFERENT EYES and practically EVERY character has their OWN KIND OF EYE! Talk about diversity! Naruto isn’t as diverse, but there certainly are quite a few different variations of the same theme.

A note on Naruto and Bleach styled eyes: while both are undoubtedly “anime”, they do have their bae in realism if you look closely at official images. Tite Kubo (Bleach) even draws tears ducts in the eyes of his characters in the manga! Anime doesn’t nessecarily mean that you have to abandon realism and embrace a cartoony style. Go WILD! There are ways to go wrong in anime, but you have better luck building a bicycle with old soda pop cans. This theme goes into the “make it your own” idea for anime. It’s your drawing! Assert it!

Now, there are certainly different genres that most eyes can fall into according to the kind of stories their artists write. Bleach, One Piece, Dragon Ball, Naruto, and even Tsubasa RC are classified under “shonen” manga which is aimed at boys and is mostly action-based. At the end both of the eyes for Sailor Moon and Tokyo Mew Mew are the epitome of “shojo” manga which is aimed at girls and is more focused on the main characters and even romance. The big eyes apeal more to girls because they’re pretty and draw your attention, but the smaller shonen eyes are easier to draw in action scenes and don’t distract the eye much. These aren’t steadfast rules either; it’s just sort of a guideline. Like I’ve said before, make your eyes your own!
Well, that concludes this tutorial! I hope many of you out there have found it helpful and enjoyable! Get drawing!

All characters and titles copyright their respective owners.