Hey

hey

how you draw eyes?

you draw eyes so pretty and i want to know how you do it

((Alright strap in kids, this is gonna be a bit long. I’ll put the full thing under a read more to keep things clean. Here’s a quick explanation on how I do eyes!

First of all, I work primarily in Paint Tool SAI2. If you already have SAI (which can be bought for around $52 USD here) you can upgrade for free to SAI2 on their website, which I’d highly recommend.

There are mimic brushes on Clip and Photoshop, but I can’t attest for their accuracy.

These are my primary brush settings. I adjust the blending on the marker as preferred when painting. I use the marker to sketch, blend, and paint. I use the pen when I need to put down solid colors without blending or to add fine details.

Now for eyes. I love eyes because they’re super expressive and can be so many possible shapes and sizes. I’m going to assume you already have the fundamental knowledge of anatomy and how eyes work, and go into my process.

It’s very simple. I start with a top and lower lid, or lash lines. From there, I can place the iris with the marker tool, keeping the opacity low, and adding a shadow for the top of the eye. Easy!

Really, you can stop at this point, depending on how detailed your style is. OR, you can be like me, and hyperfixate on little details because it’s relaxing and fun to paint.

Below, I have several examples. The first is a base, where I put in a regular pupil and some basic shadows. From there, I have a choice on what style I want to go with. For stylized realism, I go on the right and add a lot of finer lines around the pupil, varying up the tones because eyes aren’t all one solid hue or shade. Study pictures of eyes, you’ll see they’re very complex and subtly beautiful.

For a simpler look, like what I go for in my Inverted comic, I keep things more straightforward. A blended gradient from top to bottom, and then picking up several lighter and darker colors to add definition lines. Nothing excessive, just a little bit of flavor. I give the characters in my comic stylized unique eyeshines as well, because it’s fun. Cotton is one of the only characters I really define the eyelashes on, mostly bc his eyes are very important to his character and design.

And, just because it’s fun, I sketched up a few different eyes in color, varying the technique a little each time. You can go wild with shapes, colors, and painting techniques. I hope this was informative, and I’d love to see the kinds of eyes you guys paint!))