How to Draw a Cat Eye (manga or Anime)

Hello everyone! As you all know, I've got a few manga cat tutorials already, but I figured it was about time I did one specific to the eye, which is particularly tricky. So, without any further adieu, let's get to it!

To follow this 'ible exactly, you will need GIMP and a basic knowledge of it, but a similar look can be achieved with Photoshop. You could also use traditional mediums like markers or paints.

Make a new image (it is very important that you make it 2000 x 2000 pixels). Using a bright color (I used cyan), draw a sketch. You can use the eclipse select tool to get better proportions.

Select the 'Pen Generic' preset to draw the lineart. Use a 4-pixel brush. Make sure you put it on a new layer. You can use IWarp (filters>distort>IWarp) to correct mistakes.

Fill in the background layer and the iris (do the iris on a separate layer). You don't have to use the same colors I used, they are just suggestions. Choose a large, soft brush. Set the spacing to somewhere around 37. Burn the top and rims of the eye, then dodge the bottom.

Lower the brush size and burn markings that look like: ( ) around where the pupil will be. Burn three or four little lines coming out from those. Dodge the area directly around and under the pupil, as well as in between the little lines. Use a smoke or cloud brush to slightly smudge the eye (be sure to lock the alpha channel before you do this, though). If needed, you can also use this brush to enhance the contrast between the shadows and the highlights. Fill in the pupil with a darker version of the eye color (never use black). If you want, you can dodge/burn the pupil, too.

Fill in the tear duct and eye white. Add any markings you want (I chose to use tabby markings). Add highlights to the eye.

Select the shadows. Feather the selection by 18 pixels, sharpen it, then feather it again at 2 pixels. Doing this smooths out any rough edges and greatly improves the overall quality of the image. On a new layer, fill in the shadows (I used a light blue, but almost any color will work). Set the layer mode to 'multiply'. Make another new layer. Invert the shadows selection (select>invert). Fill it in and set the layer mode to 'soft light' (I used light orange).

I Hope you enjoyed this. It isn't hard if you know how to do it, and it doesn't take very long to do, either. If you draw this, I would love to see how it comes out. Have fun!