Key takeaways
- Wikipedia calls exaggerated eye size a common anime character design convention, and notes artists generally shade them with a light shade, the tone colour and a dark shade.
- Colour the iris in three values, darkest at the top where the upper lid and lashes cast shadow, lightest towards the bottom.
- The pupil sits at the centre of the iris; keep it the darkest value in the eye.
- Leave the eye whites off pure white near the lid: a soft shadow under the upper lid gives the eyeball its curve.
- Highlights, the catch lights, should sit in the same position in both eyes, consistent with one light source.
In anime art, the eyes carry the character. Wikipedia notes that exaggerated eye size is a common anime design convention, traced back to Osamu Tezuka, whose style allowed the full range of emotions to be shown through the eyes alone. That makes eyes the part of a page most worth getting right. This guide breaks colouring them into steps, with the colours worked out.
The parts you are colouring
Anime eyes simplify real anatomy, but the parts carry over. Wikipedia describes the iris as the ring-shaped, coloured part of the eye, with the pupil, the black circle, at its centre, all surrounded by the white sclera. Eye colour is defined by the iris. For colouring, that gives four areas:
| Area | Role | Suggested value |
|---|---|---|
| Iris | The colour of the eye | Three shades: dark, mid, light |
| Pupil | The centre of the iris | The darkest value |
| Sclera | The white of the eye | Light, shaded under the lid |
| Highlights | Reflections of the light | The lightest value |
Wikipedia adds that anime artists may add variable shading to the eyes, particularly the cornea, for depth, and that generally a mixture of a light shade, the tone colour and a dark shade is used. That three-shade iris is the foundation.
Step 1: a flat iris
Fill the iris with its tone colour, the mid value. Use the fill tool, then zoom in to check the edges for tiny gaps between the iris and the lash line.
Step 2: the gradient
Next, darken the top of the iris and lighten the bottom. The reasoning is to treat the upper eyelid and lashes as overhanging the eye and shading its upper part. That simple gradient helps a flat disc read as a curved, recessed eye.
A worked example. Start with a blue tone colour, RGB (58, 123, 213), hex #3A7BD5:
- Dark shade: multiply each channel by 0.6 for (35, 74, 128), #234A80, across the top third.
- Tone colour: #3A7BD5 through the middle.
- Light shade: mix 40% of the way towards white for (137, 176, 230), #89B0E6, in a crescent near the bottom.
The light crescent sits opposite the dark band, which strengthens the sense of depth. The same proportions can be applied to any iris colour, from brown to green to violet.
Step 3: the pupil
Add the pupil at the centre of the iris in the darkest value, such as near-black or a very dark version of the iris colour; Wikipedia describes the real pupil as a circular black spot. Keep it round and centred unless the art style calls for something else, and let the top of it sink into the dark band so the two read as one shadowed area.
Step 4: shade the whites
Wikipedia calls the sclera white, but a flat white can look pasted on. Add a soft shadow under the upper lid, in a pale cool grey or grey-blue, so the white of the eye curves away under the lid rather than looking pasted on. Keep the rest light.
Step 5: highlights last
Highlights go on last, on top of everything. A catch light, as Wikipedia explains, is a light source reflected as a specular highlight in a subject's eye, and photographers use it to draw attention to the eyes. Wikipedia's article on specular highlights notes that, in 3D computer graphics, they give a strong visual cue to an object's shape and its position relative to light sources.
Two suggestions follow:
- Consistency. Put the main highlight in the same position in both eyes, on the side facing the light, so both eyes agree about where the light is.
- Restraint. One larger highlight and one small secondary one is a simple starting point; adding many more can clutter the iris.
Matching eyes to the face
Eyes sit in skin, so their shadows should agree with the face's. If the face is shaded from the upper left, the iris gradient and highlights should match. How to colour skin tones digitally covers the face, and how to shade anime hair the fringe that can overlap the eyes.
Doing it in a colouring app
In Anime Coloring Book: Paint Art, eyes are where zoom, move and center earn their place: zoom right in, fill the iris, then use the brush for the gradient, pupil and highlights. The gradient palette styles and the Recently Used row help keep an iris's three shades together, and the eraser fixes a highlight that lands in the wrong place. It is one of our anime and creative apps.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
How do you colour anime eyes?
Where should highlights go on anime eyes?
Why are anime irises darker at the top?
Should the whites of anime eyes be pure white?
Sources
- Anime (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
- Iris (anatomy) (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
- Catch light (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
- Specular highlight (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
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