How to Make 3 Different Sets of Eyes

All of the steps can be done on paper or on a tablet/electronic device.

Materials for paper drawing:

1. Paper
2. Pencil (any kind will work but i would recommend one that leaves a lot of color behind; mechanical pencils work just fine too).
3. Eraser
4. Ruler
5. Your fingers (this will be needed for smudging: smearing graphite with your finger).

Materials for digital drawing:

1. Drawing tablet or electronic device where you are able to draw
2. Photoshop or any app that enables drawing (for example Procreate or IbisPaint)
3. Brush tool (in app material)
4. Eraser tool (in app material)
5. Blur tool (in app material)
6. Multiple layers (your going to need to do each and every step on a different layer so that you can easily erase, paint and smudge without ruining other parts of the drawing)

Draw 2 horizontal lines that are 5.1/2 cm long. They will be spread apart by 2 cm.

In between the lines we previously made, draw two vertical lines. They will form an intersection with a space of about half a cm. These will become your guidelines, they will dictate how far separated the eyes have to be from each other and how big they must be. (You can adjust the sizes of the lines depending on what kind of look you want the eyes to show off).

Repeat the last 2 steps three times, this is so we can form 3 different sets of eyes. We will focus in drawing normal, crying and surprised eyes. The eyes I will be drawing will have a more cartoony sense to them rather than the realistic style, so mine will be big and round.

Start by making a small circle near the middle guidelines for both sides. From that circle arc an oval that does not touch the horizontal guidelines. This will be done for all 3 sets of eyes.

We will do the last step yet again two more times, except we will make some changes and accommodations.

• Crying eyes: We will start with the small circles on both sides, then make an arc originating from them (this will be the top of the eye). When you cry, usually, you slightly close your eyes, so we will make the bottom part of the eye a little closer to the top part. Instead of a round arc, we will start it from the small circle as a curved line. Very slight curve!

• Surprised eyes: Similarly to the normal eyes, surprised eyes must be round but they will be wide open and the eye outlines will be much more curved to achieve the effect. So start drawing your top arc from the small circle making it very round at the top (remember that this is still an eye so it will have an oval shape not a circle). Same thing will be done for the bottom line, just a little more peaked in the part near the small circle.

I will refer to the eye outlines as "the oval", as for the iris I will call it "the orbs" (this is just to make it easier to understand, using smaller vocabulary).

• Normal eyes: draw average sized orbs inside the oval.

• Crying eyes: draw average sized orbs inside the oval; this time make a small curve in the middle of the orbs.

• Surprised eyes: the orbs will be a bit smaller and wont touch the top or bottom of the oval, it will be centered.

• Normal eyes: for the eyebrows we will use the guidelines. The guideline at the top will become the bottom of our eyebrow. You just need to draw a rectangle on the front and then make it smaller as you move down the eyebrow. (Erase any excess rectangle and shade it in when you have your desired eyebrow).

• Crying eyes: for this one it will be a little different, we will still use the guidelines but only so that we can know how far our eyebrow needs to be from the eyes. When someone cries, they usually frown and the eyebrows come closer to the eye, the eyebrows will be put just under the top guideline. To draw it just make a light curve (“U”) and then shade it in as you did with the normal eyes.

• Surprised eyes: these eyebrows will be rounder to show more emotion and they will be put above the guideline as a big upside-down curve. You will fill it in the same way as with the last ones.

• Normal eyes: for the eyelashes simply make triangles around the oval facing the directions in the picture. Then fill them in with color. To make it seem realistic, from where the bottom of the triangle is, shade the oval outline to make it seem like its united. For the lashes on the bottom of the eye just make small and fast strokes downwards from the bottom of oval .(Reference the image).

• Crying eyes: when drawing crying eyes, I like to make them seem beautiful, gentle and “ethereal” and the best way I can do that is by giving it big flashy eyelashes that complement the shape of the eye. Following the same process for a normal eye, just make the end lashes (the ones on the pointier side of the oval located on the outside) with two triangles instead of one. (Reference the image).
• Surprised eyes: for these types of eyes, I rather not give them eyelashes so we can focus more on the emotion presented. Instead, I give these under bags (basically just draw a slight curve from the outside of the bottom of the oval and slightly shade inside).

Now we will give life to the actual eyes by shading the insides (the pupils and the iris; we will be using the same terms as last line: iris= orb and pupil= circle)

• Normal eyes: make a smaller circle in the middle of the orbs. Shade it black and then smudge it with your finger so the excess color will go to the rest of the orb (If you use a tablet you can use a lighter shade of grey to paint inside the orbs and to smudge use the "blur tool" and you will blur both the color inside the orb and the pupil/smaller circle ).

• Crying eyes: make a smaller circle in the middle of the orbs with the same curve we made beforehand. We will smudge it again (or paint grey if it’s on a tablet and to smudge use the "blur tool" and you will blur both the color inside the orb and the pupil/smaller circle).
• Surprised eyes: you will draw a small and thin circle inside with a small gap in the middle, like a cartoon (Reference the image). Smudge it, or paint grey if using a tablet and to smudge use the "blur tool" and you will blur both the color inside the orb and the pupil/smaller circle.

• Normal eyes: you will erase a part of the orb in the form of a circle to show the highlight.(I sometimes draw lightly colored straight lines coming from the eyebrows down to the top of the eye, which is a way of shading, but that’s optional).
• Crying eyes: This time we will erase the top area of the orb to give it more light and make a small circle on the erased part (Reference the picture). Finally, for shading ill make small details such as the lines I mentioned before, and I may shade in between the furrowed eyebrows (again this part is optional).
• Surprised eyes: no need to erase, just make two circles on the place that you like the most, I prefer them on the top right and one on the bottom left. For shading you need to make the features look deep so we will make a line atop the eye as shown in the image above. Shade in the space between that line and the eyes, and finally I add the straight lines and smudge them a bit.

This step may apply to any of the eyes but mainly for the actual crying eyes. In any case, there's a possibility for you to want to incorporate some characteristic of crying on the other eyes and that's fine!

Tears are very tangible form so what's best to do is make a random figure near the bottom of the eyes, the figure must be rounded and then just think of how a tear usually flows, it starts as a little mound and when it slides down your checks it becomes thin. (Reference the image if confused).

This is how your finished results should look like, but if you get something different its ok too!

Art is about enjoying yourself and making cool things on your own, you should be proud of yourself for even following this on your own account. Not everyone will get this right on their first try, everything we do is a matter of practice, the more we do it the more we will improve.

Having a different outcome also helps you find your own art style, its all a matter of time and work if you really are invested in pursuing and improving your drawing skills!

Thank you for following this instructable and I hope it was helpful, feel free to share your finished products in the comment section, I would love to see what you were able to do! :)