How to Draw Surprised Anime or Manga Eyes

This tutorial shows how to draw anime or manga eyes with a surprised look/expression. It consists of eight steps (with illustrations) as well as a line by line drawing video.

Surprised anime eyes drawing step by step
Surprised anime eyes drawing step by step

The focus of this drawing guide is on town things. One is on giving the eyes a surprised look and the other is on doing it in an an anime/manga style.

The tutorial also consists of a video as well as well as illustrated step by step examples.

The video (above) shows a detailed line by line breakdown of the drawing process while the rest of the tutorial provides more in depth instructions. For this reason it’s recommended that you look at both.

Please don’t forget to leave a like. Also be sure to check out the AnimeOutline channel for more similar content.

Step 1 – Outline the Shape of the Surprised Eyes

Surprised anime eyes outline drawing
Surprised anime eyes outline drawing

Star by getting the overall shape of the eyes. Generally in a surprised expression they will be wide open. This means that you should draw the them “taller” than you would for a normal look.

You will notice that the upper lines are shown in blue. This to indicate that you may want to make extra light lines when defining that part of the drawing. However, this is only needed if you wish to make the eyelashes a color other than black or dark pencils shading (more explanation of this later).

For drawing this pair of eyes with a normal expression see:

How to Draw Anime Eyes (Normal Expression)

Step 2 – Outline the Eyelashes

Surprised anime eyes eyelashes drawing
Surprised anime eyes eyelashes drawing

Show the thickness of the eyelashes by outlining their inner sides as shown above.

Step 3 – Add Hints of Individual Lashes

Surprised anime eyes lashes outline drawing
Surprised anime eyes lashes outline drawing

Add some hints of individual lashes. Place these along the outer tips of the main outlines of the eyes.

Surprised anime eyes lashes drawing
Surprised anime eyes lashes drawing

Once done you can (optionally) erase the lines shown in blue (at the base of each lash) to have a clean outline of the lashes as shown above. This is a good idea if you want to have lighter colored eyelashes (yellow for example). For dark/black eyelashes like in this example you don’t need to do any erasing as the lines will just blend into the color.

Step 4 – Draw the Irises

Surprised anime eyes irises drawing
Surprised anime eyes irises drawing

As these are anime/manga eyes you can make the irises oval in shape (fairly common for the style). Draw them with some space above and below each iris so that they are not touching the top or bottom eyelashes. You can even make the irises slightly smaller than for a normal/relaxed expression in order to achieve this. However, don’t make them too small as the eyes might end up looking more scared than surprised.

Step 5 – Draw the Eyebrows

Surprised anime eyes eyebrows drawing
Surprised anime eyes eyebrows drawing

Draw the eyebrows with their inner ends raised. This is important in giving the eyes a surprised look.

Step 6 – Draw the Eyelids

Surprised anime eyes eyelids drawing
Surprised anime eyes eyelids drawing

A tiny bit above the eyes (towards their inner ends) add a hint of the eyelids. Simply draw one curved line for each.

Step 7 – Draw the Pupils & Highlights

Surprised anime eyes line drawing
Surprised anime eyes line drawing

Inside each eye draw a pupils overlapped by a pair of highlights (light reflections). Position the pupils directly in the middle of each iris and give them the same oval shapes (but smaller).

For the highlights you can add a larger one that is generally created by the main light source (such as the sun) and a second one that is generally created by the same light reflecting from something else.

You can either first draw the pupils and then erase little bits of their outlines when adding the highlights. Alternatively you can draw the highlights in first (whatever you find more comfortable).

When done with the above look over your drawing to make sure that everything is in the the right place and make any corrections if required. You an also darker any lines that seem too light by tracing over them.

Step 8 – Add Shading & Finish the Angry Eyes Drawing

Surprised anime eyes drawing
Surprised anime eyes drawing

An easy way to shade the eyes is as described below.

  • Eyebrows – black
  • Eyelashes – black
  • Irises (upper parts) – black
  • Highlights – white
  • Pupils – black
  • Irises (lower parts) – grey (or any color you like)

If you prefer you can add color instead or use lighter shading for the eyebrows/eyelids.

For more ways to draw and shade eyelashes see:

How to Draw Anime Eyelashes Step by Step

For coloring anime eyes check:

How to Draw Female Anime Eyes Tutorial

Conclusion

Drawing anime or manga style eyes with a surprised expression can be much easier once you know the important aspects of giving them such a look. These were covered in the different steps of the tutorial along with a very detailed line by line drawing video. Hopefully you’ve found the guide easy to follow, informative and fun.

Please be sure to give the video a like if you have not already done so.

For more similar tutorials also see the following:

For other tutorials on drawing facial faetures in the anime and manga style also see: