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How To Shade Anime Eyes

Drawing An Anime Mustache

[TUTORIAL] How To Color Anime Eyes!

When it comes to anime and manga mustaches similar to the above example are fairly rare but you may be able to see some on characters in retro style themes.

To draw this type of mustache simply draw it below the nose and leave some space between the mouth . and the hair. If you want a mustache with longer hair then you can even have it completely cover the mouth.

Drawing Simple Anime Eyelashes

The most basic types of anime eyelashes are pretty much a solid shapes without any of the individual lashes. Usually these consist of the top and bottom but in some very simplified styles only the top eyelashes may be shown.

Drawing these eyelashes is fairly simple. Start with the outline of their overall shape.

Make the top eyelashes much thicker than the bottom. Be careful not to make the bottom eyelashes too thick or your character may look like they have bags under their eyes or a black eye.

Fill the eyelashes in with black once done with the line drawing.

Above you can see what these types of eyelashes can look like with the eye fully drawing.

For tutorials on drawing the eyes:

Draw Your Own Anime Eyes Step

Lets now implement the common visual elements of drawing anime eyes by actually drawing one. Step by step.

No, you dont have to draw a hundred of them like I did, just draw one, get a feel for it, then decide what you want to draw next!

To me thats the great part of drawing, once a fresh canvas is in front of you, you get to decide what to do next! You feel like a ruler of your own domain or at least you should feel that way, or rather, you will feel that way once your skill level is where you are happy with it.

Okay, without further ado, lets draw anime eyes. So far we have learned eight basic parts of the eye as discussed in detail above, these are:

  • Eyelashes

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The Common Shape Of Facial Hair

Before you draw a beard or a mustache its good to have an understanding of the overall shape of facial hair.

While facial hair can vary in shape for the purposes of this tutorial we will look at a more common example. As in the above illustration facial hair tends grown down from the sideburns with some hair on the cheeks. After that the hair goes down from the nose curving around the top lip. The hair then grows down form the bottom lip down towards the chin but there are some open areas on each side of the lips towards the bottom.

If you want to draw a character that looks like they havent shaved in a few days but does not really have a beard or a mustache start by drawing out the shape of the hair as described above and lightly shade the area. You do not need a visible outline around the shape as the hair is too short to be so well defined but what you can do is draw a few very short individual hairs.

Degrees Of Realism And Stylization

Step by Step

In anime and manga, eyes are drawn in various degrees of stylization. Human anatomy in anime is stylized often to the point of being unrealistic, yet still very recognizable as the anime counterpart of the real world person the artwork is describing.

This is an important point. This means that if we are to draw anime, we must observe what we see in the world and put it through a stylizer machine before we output it on canvas as a more anime version of what we saw. Fortunately, we all have a stylizer machine called the brain!

In anime, there is a spectrum of on one end, very large anime looking eyes, and some on the other end, that are pretty realistic with some stylization flare. I tend to like something in the middle, although a lot depends on the artwork itself.

You can use this guide to draw eyes and stylize to your own comfort. Check out the image right below, anime eyes drawn on the left are more stylized and the ones toward the right are more realistic.

In anime, as we move away from realism, the shape of the eye is larger and more round, and the iris itself is drawn larger as well. More realistic anime eye drawings closer follow real human anatomy, with eye shape less rounded, although still styled.

With that said, here are seven common elements present in most anime drawings of eyes.

  • Highlights from at least 2 light sources
  • Drop shadow from the upper eyelid
  • Thicker lines on the upper eyelid, stylizing eyelashes
  • Indication of the upper eyelid crease
  • Enlarged Iris
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    Female Anime Eye Specifics

    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 . 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 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.

    How Anime Hair Is Shaded

    Generally anime and manga hair is shaded without gradients and has hard transition between its light and dark areas. This makes the shading process much faster but at the same time a little tricky as it can be difficult to figure out where the boundary between light and dark should be placed.

    Where the actual shading is placed depends on the lighting conditions the artist wishes to show.

    Anime characters are generally shaded in two ways:

  • Generalized shading where there character or object are well lit from most sides
  • Shading with strong one directional light source
  • This particular tutorial will focus on the more generic shading as its very common and can be used in most scenes. Please note however that even in the well lit lighting setup the strongest light will generally comes from somewhere above . This means that shadows will tend to form towards the bottom parts of the hair.

    Dont however confuse this with a one directional light source form above which would be more like shining a flashlight down on someone in a dark room.

    For examples of shading in one directional lighting see:

    Finally also keep in mind that anime/manga style shading does not need to be perfectly accurate or overly realistic. The goal is to have just enough basis in reality so that it looks believable.

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    Coloring & Shading Order

    When coloring and shading a drawing you want to start with the largest areas of the drawing first and work down to the smaller details. You will also want color in your whole drawing before applying the shadows.

    If you are going to be drawing on paper be sure to leave the highlighted areas white. If you are going to be coloring digitally you can add the highlights after you color the entire drawing.

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    Highlights From At Least 2 Light Sources

    Anime Eye Tutorial! | How to Shade Anime Eyes | IbisPaint x

    White or bright circles or ovals appearing in stylized anime eyes are representative of highlights on the surface of the eye.

    Note here that usually one highlight is dominant and is depicted larger, and the second subordinate and depicted smaller. Neither appear as a bounce light or reflective light, rather, each is a highlight representative of another light source nearby.

    Adoption rate: in many examples in anime. There are also many examples where only one highlight appears, or where a light is cast from multiple sources and many highlights appear.

    If you are confused about terms describing how light interacts with a surface, or need a refresher on terms like bounce light or highlight, follow this link to an article I wrote on this topic, glossary of often-confusing art terms is at the bottom of that article).

    The chart below indicates how in many examples, the smaller highlight is directly across the surface of the iris from the larger highlight, in some cases, it is placed across and down the surface of the iris.

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    Layer : Add In Shadows

    Next, duplicate the blending for the newly created layer.With a light purple color, paint in shadows below the eyelids and the pupils.For the interior of the eyes, if you add in shadows with the same color as the eyes painted in layer 1, the shadows will clearly stand out.

    Use the eraser to erase a circular portion in the center of the pupils, and blend it with the blurring brush.

    Eyes Manga Eyes Tutorial

    Normally my anime characters come out . Paint in the base color for the eyes · layer 1: Add in shadows · layer 3: I set out to break down the drawing of anime eyes and to come up with a strategy that i will share with you in this tutorial. Post this here because a follower asked me for an eye tutorial :eyes: This tutorial is for you! I’m going to show you a slow tutorial how to color eye in medibang in various ways. Of course, i’m trying to show . That& #39 s how i color eyes at the moment :3. Hi all, today i will make an eye drawing tutorial for anyone who needs uwu here is my personal experience when painting anime eyes so everyone can refer (or . Add in reflected light · layer 4: . Learn how to shade manga eyes using anime pens with taniidraw. Paint the inside of the eyes · layer 2:

    Of course, i’m trying to show . Body proportions anime head tutorial drawing heads at three quarter angles. I set out to break down the drawing of anime eyes and to come up with a strategy that i will share with you in this tutorial. Hi all, today i will make an eye drawing tutorial for anyone who needs uwu here is my personal experience when painting anime eyes so everyone can refer (or . Learn how to shade manga eyes using anime pens with taniidraw.

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    How To Color An Anime Character Step By Step

    This beginner friendly tutorial explains how to color a character in the anime style with detailed step by step examples and explanations.

    The coloring style used in anime is known as Cel Shading. Cel shading is a technique generally used in animations and manga/comic book style art as well as 3d renderings where there are no gradients used between the shaded and normal areas.

    To keep this tutorial beginner friendly it will focus on applying the bare minimum shading generally used in anime in most normal lighting conditions.

    You can also apply the tips in this tutorial to drawing other anime characters. You can simply add more steps if you want to color a more complex character.

    For help with picking a color combination for your character you can see:

    The Highlights And Pupil

    Beginner

    Next, add two highlights. If you are drawing the right eye, add a highlight in the top right “corner” or area, and a smaller one in the bottom left “corner” or area. There should be room for a pupil in the middle of them. Note: DO NOT FILL THEM IN. Leave them white.The Pupil: Between the two highlights, color in a black pupil making it partially obscured by the larger highlight.

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    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.Lets 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 , 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.

    Coloring The Lineart And Blending The Piece In

    To color the lineart without coming out of the edges, just “Lock transparent Pixel” by clicking that lock-icon with transparent pixels. When you have your layer locked, simply pick colors from around your piece that you like the most, and splash them around with a soft hairbrush. I also added a little bit of shadows to the skin to make it look more complete.

    Merge all the layers and with a soft watercolor brush just blend in calmly the linear to the piece. You can see how more unified it already looks!

    Gently add more and more details to make it blend into the skin and the iris even more. Play with colors and shapes until you’re satisfied

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    Learn How To Draw Anime Eyes In 9 Simple Steps

    In this tutorial, Ill show you how to draw anime eyes to help you build a solid foundation in manga art style. Drawing expressive and believable eyes for your anime or manga characters is essential in creating an authentic and appealing look.

    Gather your tools whether its paper, pencils, and erasers, or digital tools like Procreate and an iPad Pro and lets get drawing!

    Before we start drawing anime eyes, we need to have a plan of action. This involves two stages of drawing: a rough stage and a clean-up stage. In the rough stage, we draw loose, messy, and free, building strong foundations on our paper.

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    In the clean-up stage, we focus on making the foundations look clean and professional. If youre working on paper, draw your rough stage as lightly as you can. If youre working digitally, use two layers within your art software, one for rough and one for clean-up. You can always lighten the rough layer using the opacity slider later.

    Here we can see an elementary diagram showing the 3D form differences between a real eye based on a sphere and an anime eye which is essentially like a flat sticker.

    Keep this flat structure in mind when drawing anime eyes from the side view of the character, where the shape effectively compresses.

    Shapes And Colors Of Anime Eyes

    HOW TO COLOR ANIME EYES WITH CHEAP ART SUPPLIES

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

    Lets 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 .

    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 and then

    In step 4, I set the color layers 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 youre aiming for colorful, engaging anime eyes, vibrant, saturated colors may be best.

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    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.

    Its 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.

    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 youre 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.

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