Ever looked at a sketch you just finished and felt like the character was staring straight into your soul in the worst way possible? It happens. You spend three hours on the hair, get the jawline perfect, and then you add the eyes. Suddenly, it looks like a caffeinated owl or a blank-staring mannequin. Cartoon drawings of eyes are deceptive because they look simple, but they carry about 90% of the emotional weight of your entire piece. If the eyes are off, the whole vibe is ruined.
Most people start by drawing a perfect circle. Don’t do that. Real eyes aren’t circles, and even the most "bubbly" cartoon styles rely on subtle angles to feel alive. Whether you're aiming for that classic Disney "deer eye" or the sharp, aggressive lines of 90s anime like Dragon Ball Z, you've gotta understand the anatomy before you can break it.
The big mistake in cartoon drawings of eyes
We’ve all seen it. That weird "thousand-yard stare" where the character looks like they’re dissociating. Usually, this happens because the pupil is floating right in the dead center of the white space without touching any of the eyelids. It feels unnatural. In reality, unless someone is absolutely terrified, the top of the iris is almost always partially covered by the upper eyelid.
Look at the work of Glen Keane, the legend behind Ariel and Tarzan. He talks constantly about the "weight" of the eyelid. If you don't show that overlap, your character loses their gravity. They just look... startled. Forever.
Why expression matters more than symmetry
Stop trying to make both eyes identical. Please. Human faces aren't symmetrical, and cartoon faces shouldn't be either. If a character is smirking, one eye should be slightly more squeezed than the other. This is what professional animators call "asymmetry in expression."
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Think about the classic "DreamWorks Face"—that cocked eyebrow look. It works because the eyes are doing two different things. One is wide with curiosity, the other is narrowed with skepticism. If you draw them as carbon copies, the character feels like a cardboard cutout.
Stylistic breakdowns: From CalArts to Shonen
Style dictates everything. If you’re drawing in the "CalArts" style—the bean-shaped heads seen in shows like Steven Universe or Gravity Falls—the eyes are often just simple black dots or large ovals with minimal detail. But notice the placement. They’re usually set low on the face. Low eyes equal "cute" or "youthful."
Then you have the high-detail approach.
In anime, specifically Seinen or more mature genres, the eyes become architectural. You have the caruncle (that little pink corner), the lash line, the crease of the lid, and multiple layers of highlights. Look at Violet Evergarden. The eyes in that show are basically liquid jewels. They use gradients and "subsurface scattering" effects to make them glow.
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- Western Traditional: Think Looney Tunes. The eyes are often fused together or share a bridge. The focus is on the "squash and stretch" of the entire socket.
- Modern Indie: Thick outlines, very little internal detail, focus on the silhouette of the eye shape.
- Manga: Focuses on the "sparkle" or the catchlight. These are the white dots that indicate a light source. Without them, the character looks "dead" (a common trope used in anime to show a character is under mind control or has lost hope).
Lighting is the secret sauce
If you want your cartoon drawings of eyes to actually pop off the page, you need to understand where the light is coming from. Most beginners put a random white circle in the middle of the pupil and call it a day.
Try this instead: Put a primary highlight near the top (where the sun or a lamp would be) and then a "reflected light" gradient at the bottom of the iris. This creates a sense of depth, making the eye look like a translucent sphere rather than a flat sticker.
Actually, think about marbles. A marble isn't just one color. It has shadows inside the glass. The upper eyelid casts a shadow onto the eyeball itself. If you add a tiny sliver of light grey at the very top of the white part (the sclera), it instantly gives the eye three-dimensional volume.
The "Redline" check for your sketches
If you're struggling, try the "mask" method. Draw a shape that looks like a superhero mask across the face first. This ensures the eyes are sitting on the same plane. Nothing kills a drawing faster than one eye sliding off the side of the head like it's trying to escape.
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Honestly, just go people-watching. Or better yet, look at your own eyes in the mirror when you're angry versus when you're tired. Notice how the lower lid rises when you smile? That’s called the "Duchenne marker." If the lower lid doesn't move when your character smiles, the smile looks fake. Like a villain pretending to be nice.
Real-world inspiration
Look at the work of masters like Kohei Horikoshi (My Hero Academia). He uses eye shapes to define quirkiness and personality. Deku has huge, round, honest eyes. Bakugo has sharp, slanted, triangular eyes. You can tell who they are just by looking at a crop of their sockets. That’s the goal.
Getting the "soul" into the pupil
The pupil is the most expressive part of the eye, even in a cartoon. In old-school rubber-hose animation, they used the "pie-cut" eye—a circle with a little slice missing. It’s iconic. It gives a direction to the gaze without needing a lot of shading.
In modern digital art, we tend to go overboard with sparkles. Dial it back. If you have fifty different highlights, the eye looks busy and confusing. Stick to one main light and maybe one tiny "glint."
Also, consider the "line of sight." If your character is looking at an object, the pupils need to be slightly converged. If they are perfectly parallel, the character looks like they’re staring into the infinite void. It's creepy.
Actionable steps for your next drawing
- Ditch the pure white: Use a very light grey or a "cool" off-white for the eyeballs. Pure white looks like a hole in the paper.
- Vary the line weight: Make the top lash line thicker than the bottom one. This mimics the natural shadow of the lashes and makes the eye feel "grounded."
- The "Third Eye" rule: Generally, there should be exactly one eye's width of space between the two eyes. If they’re closer, the character looks intense or pinched. Further apart, and they look "derpy" or alien.
- Check your brow game: The eyebrows do half the work. You can't draw eyes in a vacuum. If the brow doesn't match the eye shape, the expression will feel "broken."
- Use "Sclera" sparingly: In many modern styles, you don't even need to show the whites of the eyes on all sides. Letting the iris touch the top and bottom lids creates a more focused, calm look.
To truly master this, start a "sketch dump" page. Don't draw the face. Just draw fifty pairs of eyes. Draw them angry, draw them crying, draw them squinting at a bright light. Experiment with how a single line change—tilting the inner corner down or up—completely flips the personality of the character from a hero to a villain. You'll start to see the patterns. You'll stop drawing symbols of eyes and start drawing the eyes themselves. That's when the magic happens.