Male Eyes
Left: The upper lids are always thicker and heavier than the lower lids. The eyebrows should be curved. And note that the heavy outline of the “eyeball” is really the outline of the iris. You can cut off some of the top of the spherical iris with the eyelid for a more intense look, which works especially well on male characters. Right: Note that there are no individual eyelashes on male characters; rather, the upper eyelids are simply thick and drawn with a pointed outer edge. The pupils are small here. You can make them large, medium, or small, but larger pupils are generally reserved for younger characters. At this stage, the pupils look odd, floating in the middle of the irises. Don’t worry, the “shines” that we’ll add in the last step will “attach” the pupils to the upper eyelid and eliminate that deer-in-theheadlights stare.
Left: Add color or gray tone to fill in the irises. Right: There’s a large shine in the upper left and a less brilliant shine at bottom right of each iris. Shines are often placed diagonally opposite each other for a dynamic look. I add my eye shines by using a touch of white paint.