#every time I try to draw the lower lid it looks like an eyebag. Even if I draw it thinner it feels so off to me

[puppyeared]

I hate drawing eyewssssss

[mephistia-arts]

I am absolutely SUFFERING trying to draw John Marston's eyes. I'm wondering if you have any tips? Maybe a photo you first referenced to get the hang of them or something. Literally anything. You draw him so fucking well and I'm always so amazing by the eyessss. Please and thank you if you reply.

Hey! Ahh omg thank you so much!! 😭💗💖💗💖 I am flattered!! I’ll try my best to help 💗

This might get a little big because I’ll be adding photo references so I’m adding a break, but the TL;DR is “trace screenshots to get the shape, then draw in your style”

So, I don’t even make his eyes exactly the same every time skdjghjsdkg but the most important thing is, gather references! The closer to the expression and point of view you’re aiming for, the better. Here are some screenshots I took (feel free to use them if you want to!)

Now you can trace the shape of the eyes clearly. Make it real basic, it’s not part of your drawing yet. You can lower the opacity of the screenshot, and raise the contrast if needed! I recommend changing the brush size and other settings to see which can give you better results. Also, trace some other details that you may find important, like the brows and eyebags.

If you look closely, you may find some patterns in what you traced over. Simplifying it to your style might be easier now! So it’s time to look and copy what you traced, trying to get what you think are the most important parts and exaggerating them a bit. In my drawings, I usually emphasize the outer part of his eyes going down and connecting to his eyebags in some way. The same with the inner part, trying to separate the lid from the eye itself and connecting to that other line that goes to his cheeks. I make his lower lid lower in the outer side and going up into the inner side. The eyebags are something I think are very important too! And since I almost always draw him grumpy (lol), I make his brows very low too. I think my final drawings are more similar to the bottom left above!

And here you can see two different drawings from a very similar perspective. But if I’m being real honest, you don’t need to think about it too much. There are other features that makes John himself, especially his scars, and if you say it’s John, then it’s John! Think about “chibi” style drawings that have button eyes and super stylized proportions, sometime not even features like brows or noses, but you can still say it’s the character the artist wanted to draw.

I hope this helps! And I’m also hoping to see that art in the near future 💗 Thanks so much again! 🥰