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ShadowHawk137 — Eye chart

#anime #expressions #eyebrows #eyes #pupils #tutorial
Published: 2014-10-09 01:43:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 736; Favourites: 7; Downloads: 0
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Description Ok, so this was an eye chart that I was asked to do by to sum up some of my ideas about eyes, specifically anime eyes. I was going to photoshop it to fix the asymmetrical pairs and move everything to easily identifiable sections, but I didn't get around to it, so I'm going to try to explain what I've got going on here.
This is an eye chart detailing what different aspects of an eye can convey about what's going on in the character's mind, and I've written what I feel these things are beneath each drawing.
1st row + Egyptian, child-like, and Asian eyes: These are eye shapes, which are baked into the character. They have no pupils because those are in another section. Basically, these are the shape of a character's eyes when they are expression no emotion, and it sums up their overall disposition. My feeling is that the size and slant of an eye denotes the type of emotion it conveys. Starting from the outside, a downward slant denotes a passionate emotion, such as love, hate, or seriousness. An upward slant denotes a non-passionate or forlorn emotion, such as sadness, fear, or apprehension. A non slant is therefore neutral or apathetic. To coin traditional human behavioral terms, a downward slant provokes a "fight" response, whereas an upward slant provokes a "flight" response. Also, an eye's size on the head can indicate age or naivete, which is why children have very large eyes, while elderly people have very beady or closed eyes. And also, with the ethnic shaped eyes, a specific eye shape can tell the viewer what ethnicity or nationality the character is, in addition to their mood.
2nd row - those in 1st category: these are expressions, which can be applied to any eye shape. The real difference between these and the eye shapes is that while the shapes alter the overall shape of the eye, these expression, alter the view of the pupil by using the eyelids. Here you can see the same affect being applied as with the first; downward eyelid slant denotes passion or seriousness, while upward slant (or lower lid use) denotes fear or forlorn feelings.
3rd row - eyes: Eyebrows, the most noticeable indicators of emotion. These are some of the more common shapes or emotions conveyed by the shape of the eyebrows. However, these shapes are not the only emotions that can be conveyed. By wisely choosing what shape of eye or eye expression you pair with your eyebrows, you can convey a whole new set of emotions that cannot be conveyed by just using one. For example, if you pair an upward slanted eye with a downward slanted eyebrow, you can express a grieving rage, or by pairing the sultry eye with the incredulous eyebrows, you can convey an invitation for favors of a bluer nature. However, if you mismatch pairs, like the sultry eyes with the sad eyebrows, you can confuse the reader, as those two states of mind cannot or do not exist at once.
4th row + 1st 2 of 5th row + child and unconscious eyes: Pupils and Irises. Yet another way to convey or heighten the state of an expression. These are group together in both shapes and expressions, as there's a few less of them. The rule here is that the larger the pupil, the cuter the eye appears. This doesn't necessarily make the character look younger, but it can do that as well when correctly paired with the right eye shape. Conversely, the smaller these two become, the more focused or surprised the character becomes. General rule: Small pupil = focus, small iris = surprise. The other malleable factor of the iris is its reflectivity. Generally, the shinier the eye is, the cuter or livelier the character appears. This is why the child eye has two reflective bubbles, as what's more lively than a child? Conversely, the lack of shine conveys a lack of liveliness, or even a desire for death. Going along with this is the eye's color, which I demonstrated here with slanted lines through the eye, the horrified and irate eyes do not have these lines because they are colorless when portrayed in anime and manga. With these eyes, the eyebrows you pair them with can greatly alter how the expression is interpreted. With the irate eye, pairing with the angry brows conveys overflowing rage, while pairing with the pained eyes displays insurmountable anguish, and the incredulous pairing tells of a fearful question. Also, neither the horrified eye nor the dead eye have pupils because this is the farthest an expression can go to convey lack of life or imminent demise. The dead eye also includes shade, as it is the complete opposite of shine.
We're almost done, I promise.
5th row, last 4: These are a demonstration of what you can do with slants. To convey an emotion, you don't have to completely change an eye's shape. You can simply tilt the eye to help make your point about what emotion your character is experiencing. This is a bit advanced (and frankly, you can do enough with just eyebrows and mouths), but if you really want to give your character as much animation as possible, this is how you do it. And last but not least, we have female eyes. It's my belief that to make a female eye, you need to do 5 simple steps.
1) Pick an eye shape
2) Draw it with a rounder shape than a male eye
3) Thicken the upper lid
4) Add an eyelash or two (or however many you think you need)
5) When you add your inner eye, give it a larger pupil and more shine than the male equivalent
And viola, you can turn any eye into a female eye. The most common is the happy eye and sultry eye transformations, and this give the impression that female eyes have to be a specific shape and size, but they really don't. You can take any male eye and make it a female eye with these steps
Hope you found this helpful!
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Comments: 3

LemonyKatrina [2015-08-01 21:33:43 +0000 UTC]

wow, this really helped me to draw different types of eyes!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

ShadowHawk137 In reply to LemonyKatrina [2015-08-03 21:24:09 +0000 UTC]

I'm glad it helped someone! Although I don't think I did a very good job with the art here, I think the general rules laid out here apply no matter how good or bad your art is. This is mostly geared toward anime eyes, as most of my observations came from them. If you're looking for tutorials about drawing in general, I would recommend watching and drawing along with Alphonso Dunn and Sycra on Youtube (Sycra is also on DA). They really helped me improve my form and proportions in a very short amount of time. Just keep drawing every spare moment you have and you'll be surprised how quickly you improve.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LemonyKatrina In reply to ShadowHawk137 [2015-08-03 23:59:00 +0000 UTC]

Okay! That's good advice

👍: 0 ⏩: 0