How to Draw Anime Eyes With One Eyebrow Raised
This guide shows how to draw anime eyes with one eyebrow raised. It consists of eight steps with illustrated examples and a line by line drawing video.
In anime and manga eyes with one eyebrow raised can be used to show a scrutinizing, puzzled or mildly surprised expression. For a fully drawn out face with an example of this you can see the How to Draw Anime Characters Tutorial tutorial.
Unless drawing digitally it’s recommended that you start this tutorial in pencil and make light and easy to erase lines that don’t leave marks if you make a correctio0n. You can darken them when shading.
Above is a video that show how to draw anime eyes with one eyebrow raised line by line. It’s recommended that you watch it and then read below for more detailed instructions.
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Step 1 – Outline the Eyes With (One Wider One Narrower)
Begin the drawing with the outer shapes of the eyes (this is basically the shape of the eyelashes).
You can draw one eye open slightly wider than for a normal expression and the other much narrower than normal. For the narrowed eye draw the bottom eyelid in a slight upside down curve.
For these eyes in their normal/relaxed state see:
How to Draw Anime Eyes (Normal Expression)
Be sure to space the outlines far enough apart that you can fit another eye in between them.
Step 2 – Draw the Eyelashes
Inside the outlines from the previous step define the the inner sides of the eyelashes as shown above.
Step 3 – Draw the Irises
Draw the iris of each of the eyes. As these are anime style eyes the irises in this example are oval in shape (real irises are of course round). The iris inside the narrower eye will of course be less visible.
Mismatched irises are an easy mistake to make when drawing this kind of an eye expression. Make sure that both are of the same size and shape. Also, make sure that both are on the same level (horizontally). If you are not sure you can fully draw out the parts hidden by the eyelids as shown in the example above and then erase them afterwards.
For more common drawing mistakes see:
Common Mistakes When Drawing Anime & Manga
Step 4 – Draw the Eyebrows (One Raised One Lowered)
For the most definitive part of this eye expression draw the eyebrow over the wider eye raised (particularly it’s inner end) and the one above the narrower eye lowered. Draw the lowered eyebrow in an upside down (of it’s natural state) curve with it’s inner end raised and pointing towards the other eyebrow.
Step 5 – Draw the Pupils & Reflections
Inside each iris draw a pupil overlapped by a pair of reflections. Similar to the irises try and make the pupils the same in size and shape in relation to one another.
On a side note, unlike the size of the irises the size of the pupils can change based on several factors such as when looking at a bright light (they get smaller). In anime and manga the shapes of the pupils can also be drawn different to show different kinds of emotions, personalities or eye types (such as those of fantasy characters).
For an example of drawing unusually shaped pupils see:
How to Draw Anime “Love Eyes” (With Hearts)
The size, shape, placement and number of reflections inside the eyes can also change depending on the lighting. In anime and manga in particular adding more reflections, different shaped reflections or no reflections at all inside the eyes can again be used to show different eye expressions and emotions.
For an example of this see:
How to Draw Excited Anime or Manga Eyes
Step 6 – Draw the Eyelids
Above each eye draw just a hint of the eyelids. You can define them with small curves near the inner side of each eye.
Step 7 – Draw Hints of Individual Lashes
Finally, for the last parts of the eyes add some hints of individual lashes. In this case there are just a few around their upper/outer ends.
As these are anime lashes you can draw them fairly thick and “spiky” similar to anime hair.
For drawing anime style hair see:
Step 8 – Shade the Drawing
For the final step shade or color the eyes.
Fill in the following areas with black or dark pencil shading:
- Eyebrows
- Upper Eyelashes
- Pupils
- Upper Areas of Irises
Also, darken the lines that define the eyelids, irises and lower eyelashes by tracing over them. You can also darken the outlines of the reflections but try and make these thinner than the rest.
Alternatively you can also not darken the outlines of the reflections at all and instead have them blend into the shading/color so that they have no outlines.
For the final part of this step you can either lightly shade or color the remaining areas of the irises.
Conclusion
Drawing anime eyes with one eyebrow raised is not much different from drawing many other common anime eye expressions. You want to start with their overall shapes and gradually add all of their other parts going down from the larger and more important ones to the smaller details.
Because for this expression one eye is drawn narrower it can be easy to make mistake when drawing the irises. For this reason you might want to take extra care when adding them.
For more similar step by step drawing guides on the anime and manga style also be sure to try the following:
- 4 Ways to Draw Crying Anime Eyes
- How to Draw Anime Muscular Male Body Step by Step
- How to Draw a Cute Girl’s Face in 12 Steps
