Manga Tutorial: Lesson One B

Next we will draw some male eyes. Male characters are sometimes neglected by fan artists, because many fan artists have trouble drawing guys. They really aren't that hard, though, just different. Most male eyes are more thin and narrow than female eyes, though there are several exceptions. This particular eye (which I think belongs to Hotohori from Fushigi Yuugi) is narrower than other female eyes, without being so thin that it looks like it belongs to a more shady, suspicious character. ^_^ Begin by drawing a thick, very slightly curved line. Its almost horizontal, but still has a slight curve to it. The edges should curve inwards a little, more so on the left.

Lightly draw two diagonal lines, starting from the edges of the top line, to help define the lower part of the eye. The lines are almost perpendicular to each other. Don't make them too steep or too flat, or the size of the eye will be off. Draw the lower line of the eye, using the guidelines to help you position it.

Erase the guidelines and draw the iris. The iris is a perfect circle, but is paritally covered up by the eyelids. Do not draw the iris so small that you can see the entire thing (unless trying to convey a strong emotion like surprise or anger)

Male characters have light glares in their eyes, too, though they often are not as large or obvious. Draw one oval light glare on the left side of the eye, and a pointed one on the right side.

Draw the pupil benath the light glares and shade heavily, especailly if the character has darker colored eyes. Draw the eyelid and eyelash. Male characters tend to have darker, thicker eyebrows, so make sure they aren't too thin. Don't worry if the eyes look too 'girly'; often times its hard to tell if some eyes belong male or female characters. Some styles of eyes are interchangable and can be used for either gender.

Once you have the right eye drawn, you're probably going to want to draw the left eye, too. All you have to do is draw the mirror image of the exact same eye. The placement of the second eye can be tricky, though. Anime eyes, no matter what style, are always drawn about one eye length apart. The distance may be a little more or less, but one eye length is a good measurement.

You probably are not always going to draw your characters facing towards you, though, so you'll need to know how to line up eyes at different angles. Always draw guidelines to help you position the eyes, until you are really good at it and no longer need them. You don't want the eyes to be off-center. Notice that in this picture, the right eye is smaller and flatter than the left since it's further away from you.

The previous two posts are all made with help and information fromManga University with special thanks to Julie^^.