Draw Manga Female Eyes
Drawing eyes is fundamental to creating manga-style artwork. The eyes are the focal point of any character, perhaps more so with manga than any other art form. Drawing female manga-influenced eyes may look tricky, and with a bit of practice can be easily perfected.
Steps
- Take a piece of paper. Make sure you have a flat surface under your paper, otherwise your drawing might appear shaky and messy. If your work surface is rough, try placing a pile of paper under the sheet you're working on to create a smoother surface. Newspaper or a magazine will also work, although the ink from the newsprint might transfer to your drawing paper, so consider having an additional paper layer over the top of the newspaper.
- Draw a circle. Then draw a curved line over the top and on the bottom. This will form the main shape of the eye. Don't worry, your circle doesn't have to be perfect. It should really be more of an oval.
- In manga, the female eye tends to be drawn rounder than the male eye, so the circular shape is very important.
- Draw another circle inside the main shape in the corner where you want your light source to be coming from. This will be a highlight.
- Draw an oval in the centre of the main shape for the pupil. Just make sure that the Properly Highlight a Paper is on top, so that it obscures the top right part of the pupil. Shade the pupil in black.
- The pupil shapes vary in manga, so find what works best for you but be sure to include the highlight. Sometimes artists have more than one highlight.
- Starting at the top of the main circle, and avoiding the highlight and pupil, Coloring and Shading from dark to light, to the bottom of the eye. You may want to use a thicker pencil for this step.
- Add additional highlights, if wanted. Bear in mind that highlights make the character look more feminine and child-like.
- Even though in real life, some males can have equally luscious eyelashes, when drawing the female eye, it is commonplace to emphasize the eyelashes by making them long and thick, as a sign of femininity.
- Female manga eyes tend to have a lot of "shine" added to them in contrast to the duller male manga eye. Add some extra sparkle to the pupils if wished.
- Using a black outlining pen or a felt tip, outline the eye, leaving the shading without an outline. Erase the pencil lines, again leaving the shading.
- Stand back and admire your work. Now try the eye facing the other way, so that you can put a pair of eyes together and continue with the rest of your female manga drawing.
Tips
- Add the eyebrows. These will often be able to express your female manga character's emotion if drawn correctly.
- Be sure that you aren't holding the pencil too rigidly. this will only result in jagged lines. Hold it loosely, but not so loosely that you'll drop it.
- Keep practicing and add color variations if you are using colors. The more you try, the better you'll become at this skill.
- After the eye, comes the eyelids. These add depth and framing for the eye. Practice adding these on after the eye is drawn.
- If you are drawing the whole face, drawing eyes first is not always the best idea, as adding the rest of the face later may cause it to be out of proportion. Experiment with what works best for you.
- If you are very interested in anime/manga, many books on it are sold at various prices, often with entire chapters on eyes.
- Be sure to add a gleam where ever your light source is at.
- Use different shades when colouring the eye - you're aiming to make the eyes as large as works with the image.
Warnings
- These are just basic guidelines. Don't worry if your eyes don't look just like someone else's. In fact, creativity is essential, and any artist will tell you to strive to find your own style. There are infinite possibilities in manga.
Things You'll Need
- A sharp HB or B lead pencil
- A piece of white paper
- A good soft pencil eraser
- A fairly soft, thick lead pencil; 6B works particularly well
- A smooth drawing surface
