The eyes are the windows to the character soul!
I have had quite a few people ask me - "Why don't Japanese people draw Japanese people? I mean - Japanese people have smaller eyes - so why do they draw them so big in anime?" Well - the answer to that is actually REALLY SIMPLE. They realized a long while back, when anime and manga were first beginning to develope, that the larger the eyes and faces, the more expressive they could make the people.
Emotions are best shown using the face, and not just the actions. The eyes - their shape, the size of the pupils - the forehead - the nose, and shape of the mouth - They all play a huge role in the way you interpret the emotional state of the character!
That is why - in general - anime characters' eyes are abnormally large.
Anime eyes come in all
shapes and sizes, often variying slightly characters,
based on their personality. However - in general - most all eyes are drawn the same
way.
Anime Eye Anotomy
Think of the eye as having three main parts.
The top determines the
shape of the eye, and plays one of the largest roles. Sometimes the tops is thin, and other times it's very thick. Often, it
begins thin at the end of the eye nearest the nose, and sort of fans out and
becomes much thicker as you get to the end. This is to give the appearance of
eye lashes.
Sometimes a few individual eye lashes are drawn in at the end, and sometimes
they are not. It often depends on the character, and your style of drawing.
The base often begins as a
horizontal line that goes along the bottom of the pupil
to show the 'base' of the eye. Sometimes it actually connects on both ends with
the top, and often, it does not. Sometimes it ends as a horizontal line, but
more often, it continues on the outer edge of the eye, and curves up to either
meet with the lower end of the top, or stops just short of meeting.
The size and shape of the pupil is often varied, depending on the desired look
of the character. Sometimes they are very small, and do not actually touch the
top or base of the eyes. Sometimes they are very tall ovals and connect with
both.
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These are examples of 4
different types of eyes - each with slight variations - and 4 character
portraits to go with them. Match the eyes with the corresponding character to
the left. While the differences in 3 of the eyes, are very small, when cobined with the faces and hair, it helps to define the
characters.
The last of the four eyes is used on a male character. However this is not the
only reason for it's drastic difference from the other
three. I based the shape of the eye on the characters personality, and the idea
that I wanted to portray with the face.
Expressions
To express emotions on the face the eyes will change shape - and the shape of the nose and mouth will vary as well. Here are exampels of 4 different expressions.
Noses
As simple as they are in anime, I still have many people ask me questions on how to draw noses, so I'm posting a few examples below to help you all out.
A noses shape changes
depending on the angle the face is at - a nose will look different if the
person is looking strait at you, versus looking to the side, or at profile.
Number 1 is a long slender nose
(seen frequently on male bishounen characters in shoujou manga) - it is slightly
at a 3/4ths angle.
Number 2 is at more of an angle then 1, and is slightly shorter too. It
also comes out more.
Number 3 is rarely seen on the 'main character' - but rather on big
husky guys, or supporting male characters.
Number 4 is seen frequently - it sticks out quite a bit and isn't too
long. This is also a 3/4ths view of the nose.
Number 5 is sort of the front facing version of number one, but more
rounded. The side outline sort of represents the shadow - but mostly it
represents where the nose meets down with the rest of the face. Numbers 6
and 7 are the same nose, only 6 is at a 3/4ths
angle and 7 is almost strait forward.
Mouths
Another subject matter, that a number of people seem to have trouble with is the mouth. One thing that people don't seem to register when they first try to draw a mouth on a character is that you DO NOT DRAW THE LIPS. If you ever pay attention to actual anime and manga - you will never (or at least almost never) see any outlines lips. On certain characters you may see a little extra color added to show that she (or he in some cases!) is wearing lipstick - but the lips themselves are not outlined.
-The first mouth is
your general, every-day closed mouth. Not too much expression in it, but a
small simple line can say a lot on the right face, and with the right
nose/eyes/eyebrows.
2 - A bit more definition to it - this is a small frown. The line at the
bottom shows that the lower lip is coming out a bit - it is the shadow at the
base of the lip and at the top of the chin.
3 - A tiny, cute little smile. This can be adorable with the right eyes.
4 - Nice wide-open, excited smile.
5 - Depending on the eyes and other facial expressions put with it, this
could be a smile, a large mouth going Ahhh! from disapointment, or from shock!
Experiment!
6 - A small annoyed lip curl
7 - The large, clenched angry teeth!
8 - The over-sized yelling/shocked mouth. This would fill up the entire
face from one side to the next. You see this a lot when a character has just
been shocked, or is in the process of bitching at someone. It exagerates the emotion in the face, and gives the
words/situation for feeling.
Ears
Yes! I do intend to cover the topic of ears! However not too throughly ^__^
It's Fairly simple - just remember that on a strait forward face, and on a 3/4ths angle face, the ear will get slimer in width - but the height will not decrease too much.
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