Cartoon eyes tutorial

This is a quick little tutorial for eyes. I mostly use it for my non-realistic animals but it could be used for humans as well.

1. Draw your sketch. I use the pencil tool, hardest setting, at a small size.

2. On a layer underneath the sketch, lay down the basic colors. Start with the white of the eye, then the iris, then pupil and final the outline. I like to make the pupil a very dark shade of the iris instead of just black.

3. Delete your sketch. On a new layer, set it to 'clipping group' and then the 'multiply' mode. Now take either a REALLY dark shade of your base, or grey, and draw the shadow. It doesn't have to be smooth and neat. Now take your water brush and blend in the shading, and then lower the layer's opacity. Merge the layers together (ctrl + e on windows).

4. Now make yet another layer and this time set it to luminosity. This makes things glowy. Draw in your light and use the water tool to blend it. Lower opacity of layer. Merge layers again.

5. I like to add some little lines in the eye for details. I use yellows and blues as well, not just green, to make it look less flat. You can add whatever details you like, just use a small brush size.

6. On a new layer, select a circle shape over the pupil and iris and fill this in. At the top of the selection use almost white (but not pure white) and at the bottom use a light grey or light shade of your base color. This is your highlight. Now use the water brush to blend everything together and then de-select the circle. Take the eraser tool and split up the highlight into little chunks, with one bigger and brighter than the others. Gently use the water brush to soften them. Set it to luminosity and lower the opacity.

Hope this helps!
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