Hi guys -

I've been without internet for a few days since my area had a huge thunderstorm, so without any reference images to work from for commissions I hit kind of a dead end in my art...so I decided to do a quickie tutorial/process instead! I don't know how helpful it is really...but I had fun. It's not really an eye anatomy tutorial...there's a lot of those...but this shows my process a little

I work in manga studio but the basic idea works in any art program. Mathilde has volunteered to be our model here.

1. Sketch! Just to get the basic shapes down.

2. Ink! On a new layer. I lower the opacity of the sketch layer so I can see what I am doing.

3. Flats! On a layer underneath the ink layer, I throw down basic colors. The only hints I can give you are to think about the anatomy of the eye (even when super stylized like I've done here) and also remember that the sclera or "white" of the eye is never pure white. I like to use a light blue but light greens and yellows work too.

4. Shade! I threw down some rough shading and highlighting to start with. Remember that the eye is round and that the eyelids follow the eye. I use big brushes and I don't turn down the opacity too much. I don't like to use soft-edged brushes unless I am going for a specific effect.

5. More shade! Just refining more here, adding a pupil to the eye. I rarely, if ever, use true black for the pupil, it's just my preference. Mathilde's eyes are red, but cool red, so I used a cooler red pupil and a cooler pink highlight (rather than, say, an orangy or yellowy highlight). Don't forget to shade the sclera too. At this point I also like to color the lines; in this case, I recolored the lines to be dark navy instead of black. I like to use a darkened version of the character's hair color for the eyelash color when possible; in this case, Mathilde's blue-black hair. It's not SUPER noticeable in this example but it does make a little bit of a difference.

6. Merge! When I get to this point, I like to merge my layers down. Sometimes I save a different version or duplicate the layers if I'm afraid I'll ruin something, but typically I just merge as I go. I paint over the lineart to make things more...painterly? I softened the eyelashes, added some highlights, reflected a little red up into the lashes, and added detail to her eyebrows,

7. Final touches! Sparklies, eyeshadow, eye sheen, etc. Try not to do too overboard with this (I did a little).

This is very short and silly but feel free to ask any questions if you have them. Obviously this isn't the only way to paint, and this isn't even the only technique I use. Hope this helps someone out there!