Super Simple Eyes for Powerful Storytelling

1. Introduction: Eyes are the key factor that can instantly turn anything into a character. But when you know how to add emotions to those eyes, that's when the magic really happens. Hi. My name is ta. I'm an artist and educator based in Germany. I'm a top teacher on skill share with classes about drawing in general and working with procreate or procreate dreams. One of my favorite things to do is create Kirki and fun illustrations where I personify objects and add unexpected twists. In this class, we'll explore how to create super simple yet expressive eyes. I'll show you how to use them to bring fun characters to life and even create whole scenes with simple techniques. Whether you're working digitally in procreate or using traditional tools like paper, ink, or Posca pens, you learn how to give your illustrations personality without overcomplicating things. Grab your iPad, paper, pen, or whatever you like to use, and let's have some fun turning super simple eyes into powerful storytelling tools. Let's get started. 2. Class Project: Now, let's talk about the class project. This is where you put everything you've learned into action and create your own unique illustration. For this project, you'll be creating a scene with three or more simple characters, each showing a different expression. The goal here is to tell a little story with your characters using the techniques we've covered in class. I know creating a whole scene can feel a bit intimidating at first, but don't worry. I've got you covered with a prompt list in the workbook. You can mix and match ideas like mugs on a shelf, balloons flying or crayons in a cup, all showing different expressions and interacting in a fun creative way. There are no rules. You can get as creative as you like and keep things super simple or go all out, whatever feels right for you. I'll be walking you through my own process from brainstorming ideas to sketching out the scene and finishing the project. This way, you can follow along and get some inspiration as you create your own story. Of course, you can also recreate my scene as this can be very helpful when you start your journey of character creation. I can't wait to see the characters and stories you come up with. When you're done, share your project in the project gallery, so we all can admire your work. Have fun with it. And remember, no perfection is needed. It's all about letting your characters shine with super simple, expressive eyes. 3. Material: Before we dive into the fun Stuff, let's quickly go over the materials you will need for this class. Whether you're working digitally or traditionally, I've got you covered. For those of you working digitally, you need procreate on your iPad, and I've included a custom brush set specifically designed for this class. You can download this brush set directly from the class resources section. It'll help you create those super simple eyes with ease. By the way, if you want to use all the brushes I use for my illustrations, you can get my brand new Illustrators toolkit brush sit right here on Skillshare. I'll leave the link in the project and resources box for you to check it out. Now, if you're a traditional artist, you'll need a few basic materials. White or colored paper. Your favorite drawing tools like pens, pencils, or acrylic markers, which are perfect for creating those bold clean lines we'll be working with. Just note that I will be using my iPad throughout the class. But you go with whatever you like working with. Of course, everyone gets access to the workbook that I've put together. It's packed with tips, a handy prompt list to help your brainstorm ideas, and a few extra goodies to make the process even smoother. Just download the files from the projects and resources tab as well. No matter which tools you're using, the goal here is to keep things simple but effective. You don't need anything fancy. Just materials that allow you to have fun while creating expressive characters. All right. That's it for the materials. Easy, right. So gather your tools, get comfortable, and then we'll jump right into the next lesson. I will see you there. 4. Anatomy of a Human Eye: All right, so here we have it and I. It's got the familiar almond shape, the white eyeball, a colored ris, and right in the center the pupil. There are also the upper and lower eyelid with the lashes. Lastly, on top of everything, the eyebrow. Pretty standard stuff. In the inner corner, we have the tear duct, where tears are produced to keep the eye nice and moist. It's like the eyes built in irrigation system. The eyeball, of course, moves around as we look at things. The pupil expands and contracts depending on how much light there is. Think of it like a camera adjusting its aperture. When we blink, the upper lid comes down to close the eye, then pops back up to open it again. Usually, it's just the upper lid doing the work. The lower lid only moves when we squint and don't forget the eyebrows. Whether they rise, curve, or push down, they give away our emotions even if we don't need to. But since this class is all about super simple eyes, let's see how we can strip this down to the basics. First, let's ditch the eye lashes. It still looks like an eye, right? Do we really need the lids? Nope. Gone. How about the iris? Not necessary, either. And that almond shape too fancy. Let's go for something simpler, like a circle. Finally, the eyebrow. It can just be a line now. And there you go. Super simple, but our brain still recognizes them as eyes. Technically, you could even get away with just two black dots. But they're not that great at showing a huge range of emotions. Let's stick with our super simple eyes made out of four circles and maybe two lines for eyebrows. That's it. Now that we've broken the eye down to its simple form. Let's move on to the next lesson where we'll explore how these super simple eyes can tell a range of emotions. See you there. 5. Super Simple Yet Expressive: Now that we've stripped down the anatomy of an eye. Let's explore how these simple shapes, circles for the eyeball and pupil can convey different emotions. For now, we're keeping it very simple by leaving out the eyebrows. Let me show you how much expression you can get from the super simple shape. These eyes are neutral. No big emotions yet, just eyes looking straight ahead. Now look at these. By changing the directions the pupils are looking, we can already tell a story. Are they curious, suspicious, or maybe lost in thought? These eyes here are wide open, clearly surprised or shocked. These ones are sleepy with the lids drooping. If we just drop the lids even more, well, this character already dozed off. Here's a fun trick. If you flip these curves upside down, suddenly it looks like the character squinting from laughing to hard. That's just a small sample of what you can do with simple circles and curves. There's so much room to play. Now it's time for you to try it out. I've provided a practice sheet in the workbook where you can focus on using circles only. If you are practicing a procreate, don't forget to add a new layer to this layer. Mark the new layer and the layer below and turn these two into a group. This way, you won't damage the original page. I want you to play around with the size of the eyeballs and pupils. Try different combinations and see how many expressions you can get. Write the emotion you see in a pair of eyes below. By the way, Interpreting emotions can be subjective. One person's happy might look like excited or relief to someone else. There's no right or wrong. You can watch how I do it first, then pause the video and practice yourself. Or if you'd like, pause the video right now and dive into drawing, then come back to see how I approached it. I find it very important to watch others draw to learn about their technique, like pen angles, how they draw curves, or their general workflow. There is so much information communicated and it helps to improve constantly by just watching. It is also a very mindful process, I often think. For me, it is important to include a lot of actual drawing in my classes. If you find it a bit slow, feel free to speed it up, but I think seeing how the art is created can be super valuable. I hope it helps you to find your own rhythm. Oh. If Oh And here we have my super simple eyes practice. To me, this one looks neutral. This one looks to the side. This might even roll its eyes. This one seems to be shocked, and this one scared. This one seems to be focused, maybe. This one is silly. This one confused and this one. Do you interpret the same or something else? Anyhow, let's move on to the next lesson where we'll include the eyebrows to create a wider range of expressions. I'll meet you there. 6. Expression Through Eyebrows: Eyebrows are one of the most powerful tools we have for conveying emotions. It's amazing how just a few lines can completely change the expression. Now, we're going to explore how to create different expressions by changing the shape, angle, and curve of simple eyebrows. Let's start with neutral eyebrows. These are straight lines or slightly curved ones. I leave that to your preference. They don't really convey a strong emotion, and they're a great starting point. Next up, we have surprised eyebrows. These are raised up high above the eyes, almost forming a dramatic arch. Raising the brows gives the impression of surprise or shock. For angry eyebrows, we angle them downward sharply towards the nose. Notice how this aggressive tilt immediately gives the character a fierce intense expression. To create a sad or sorrowful look. We make the brows arch down in the middle and then slope down towards the sides. This drooping effect instantly makes the character seem upset or defeated. When we bring the eyebrows closer together and put them slightly downward, it shows focus or concentration. You can almost feel the intensity of their attention. Now, let's have some fun with the cheeky expression. Raise one eyebrow while the other stays neutral or drop slightly. This asymmetry creates a playful, mischievous vibe. For an anxious or worried look, the eyebrows take on an upside down V shape with slightly arched up curves. It's a great way to show fear or unease. Now it's your turn to experiment. Play around with different eye shapes and eyebrow position. Try angling or curving the brows in different ways to see how it change the expression. You can also vary the size of the pupils to add even more, like making them larger for fear or s for focus. Remember, the possibilities are endless. Don't be afraid to stay super lose as this is where often something unexpected, but super interesting happens. Once you're ready, you can move on to the next lesson where we will add a few more super simple accents to create an even wider range of expressions. I'll meet you there. 7. Additional Accents: All right. Now that we've mastered the basic of super simple eyes, let's take a look at how a few additional actions can drastically expand the range of expressions we can convey. These small touches might seem minor, but they have a big impact on how the eyes feel and what they communicate. Let's start with closed eyes. By simply drawing curved or straight lines, we can easily suggest closed eyes. This works great for a sleeping character. Now, if we draw the same curves just upside down, it creates a character that squints their eyes from laughing heard. Next, eyelids. We can show the presence of eyelids by adding a line or curve across the eye. This simple addition can make a character look tired, annoyed, or even suspicious, depending on the position of the pupil and how much of it you show. See how this gives the eye more depth and adds a little extra emotion. Eye lashes are another great tool. By adding a few simple lines at the corner of the eye, we can suggest that the character is more feminine, playful, or even flirty. The number and length of the lashes can completely change the vibe, whether you're drawing just one line or a few more for a bolder look. How about highlights in the pupil? Just some small white dots can create a sparkle in the eyes, making them look more alive, shiny, or even watery. It's a great trick for adding charm or even a bit of drama to your character's expression. Lastly, don't forget that it doesn't always have to be pupils, we draw in the center. But it could also be an iris. By adding a colored dot, you can give your character a different feel, perhaps more mystical, other worldly or simply more vibrant. Do you see how this bright color adds a new layer to the eyes, making them stand out even more. Now it's your turn to experiment. Try adding these little accent to your simple eyes. Play around with closed eyes, eyelids, eyelashes, highlights, and colored pupils? I'm sure you'll be surprised by how much expression you can create with just a few additional accents? And as working in my workbook in Procreate, don't forget to add a new layer and turn it into a group. And once you're ready, you can move on to the next lesson where I will give you a summary of how to depict specific emotions. I'll meet you there. 8. Let's Get Emotional: Welcome back. Now that we've covered the basics, let's have a look at the characteristics of specific emotions. For this lesson, I will be walking you through my cheat sheet that highlights various emotions. This is your reference for later in case you want to refresh your knowledge or need a little bit of inspiration. Here we have the neutral expression. The eyes are wide open, pupils centered, and there's no movement in the brows. This is the resting phase, no strong emotion is being conveyed. For happy, the pupils might stay in the center and the brows arch slightly upwards. The key is the subtle curve of the eyebrows. Now, if you want to express joyful, we take that happiness up a notch. These eyes are squinting and the brows lift higher, so we only need curves. Next, we have ad. Notice the downturned eye brows, which makes all the difference here. The pupils are lower in the eyes, sadly looking to the ground. I wonder what happened to this one. Now onto angry. The pupils might still be centered, but the eyebrows angle downward sharply. This creates tension and for an even stronger emotion, like being furious, we crank that anger way up. The brows are pushed together even more tightly. We add a tilted lid as well, and the pupils are partially covered, adding a sense of intensity. It feels like this character is about to explode. Next, we got tired. The eyelids are half closed, almost droopy, and the pupils are usually centered and halfway covered from the lids. You can sense the weight pulling down the eyes. Now, here's obviously the sleeping phase. The eyes are completely closed, just curved lines, no pupils, no extra details. It's simple, but instantly recognizable. Moving on to touched. This one's a little soft and hard felt. The eyes might glisten slightly. Pupils looking straight ahead, and the eyebrows lift in a gentle caring way. It's like the character is moved by something sweet or meaningful, or they are in love. Next, we have surprised. The eyes are wide open, the pupils s and the brows are lifted high. This sudden widening gives it that startled effect like something unexpected just happened. For shocked, we exaggerate the surprise even more. The eyes wide, pupils huge, and the brows are slightly tilted. It's a more extreme version of surprise, just like you witnessed something unbelievable. Now for fun one, silly, the eyes might look in different direction and have different sizes. The expression is playful with some unpredictability to it. Focused eyes are all about intensity. The pupils are centered. This one looks downwards and the eyebrows move slightly downward as well, giving the sharp concentrated look. This character is in the zone. And scared is a little bit similar to surprised, but there's more tension. The eyes are wide, pupil small, and the brows might lift high, but curve downward slightly. It's as if the character is paralyzed. Finally, we got suspicious. This brow is lifted, one stays down, and the eyes look to the side. The character looks like they're not trusting what they are seeing. Definitely skeptical. And that's the sheet. As you can see, small changes to the eyes and brows can make a huge difference when expressing emotions. Feel free to reference this sheet when you're working on your own characters to capture just the right feeling. And then it's time to move on to the next lesson, where we dive into creating a super simple character. I'll meet you there. 9. Super Simple Character Creation: Welcome to the final module. In this lesson, we're going to bring everything we've learned together and create a super simple character. Today, we're going to keep it really fun and lose, so don't worry about perfection. The goal here is to explore expression and just have fun with it. I have consulted my prompt list, and I'll decide to go with an Apple as character. Let's just start by drawing a super simple apple. Nothing fancy, just a nice roundish shape, a little stem at the top, and maybe a leaf. That's it. It doesn't have to be perfectly round or symmetrical. Remember, your character's charm comes from the imperfections. It's much more important to give it personality than to make it look perfect. Now let's add a face to our apple. We're going to keep the eyes super simple, just two white circles. You've seen these before, A trusty, super simple eyes. We're going to draw three versions of this apple, each with a different expression. Happy, tired and sad. Let's duplicate our apple two more times. Now let's start with the happy apple. We want to give our first apple a big curved smile. Notice how this small curve immediately brings a feeling of joy. The pupils are a bit larger, and maybe you can add a slight lift to the eyebrows to enhance the expression. It's such a small adjustment, but it really makes a difference. Doesn't our apple look like it's having a great day? We could even add two super simple arms hanging relaxed by its sides. Tada first character done. That wasn't hard, was it? Next, let's move on to a tired apple. The key here is to make the eyes droop a bit. We'll close them halfway, and the pupils will be lower looking down. For the mouth, instead of a big smile, we'll draw a short, straight line as if this apple is too tired to move one single muscle. Let's move the arms a bit towards the center as if its shoulders are slumped from being so tired. Now for the sad apple, to show sadness, we'll turn the mouth into a small downward curve. The eyes can stay open, but the pupils will be lower and we'll drop the eyebrows a little to make the expression look heavy. You could also add a tiny tear drop if you want to go all out. The arms are hanging by its side too, as if there would be no hope whatsoever. The apple is still super simple, but with just a few lines, it really communicates that it's feeling down. As you can see, with just a few simple changes like adjusting the shape of the mouth, the position of the pupils, or the angle of the eyebrows. You can give even the simplest character a wide range of emotions. The beauty of working with super simple characters is that you can play around, have fun, and not worry about making mistakes or have everything look perfect. The charm comes from the little quirks and looseness in your drawings. All right, now that you've discovered how simple character creation can be. Let's move on to the next lesson, where I'll guide you through my process of creating our class project, a super simple C. I'll meet you there. 10. Class Project: Create A Scene: Welcome to the class project. Now that we've learned all about creating super simple characters and expressions. It's time to bring it all together into one fun scene. In this lesson, I'll take you through my illustration process step by step to show you how I create my super simple scene. Let's dive right in. Whenever I start a project, I like to refer back to my prompt list for some inspiration. Let's see what we've got here. I think I've got it. I'm going to create a scene with cups on a shelf. Each cup will have its own expression and personality, so they'll all interact with each other in different ways. First, I'm going to sketch out five simple cups. Remember, we're keeping everything super simple, just basic shapes to start. We can even duplicate one of the cups and move it to the side. The cups will be on a shelf, and they'll all be doing something different. All right. This one here to the left. This one will be reading. I love it when my characters are reading because I like reading too. I'll keep it focused. The eyes are looking down into its little book. The next one will be somehow worried or concerned. He will have this kind of eyes looking to the side, and he will have some droped eyebrows, and his mouth will look like in a frown. I think he looks really worried. Moving on to Cu three will show why the second one is so worried. Number three has a chip, and he is obviously not happy about it. He's looking up in shock. His mouth is an oval as if he wouldn't make this shock sound. Maybe, maybe he covers his mouth with his hands to highlight the dramatic pose even more. Just imagine the shock when you discover a chip in your brim, how awful? All right. This next cup here, it fell over. I want this to sleep. So he's sound asleep, like having just a small mouth. And because it's laying there, some leftover that was inside is leaking out of here. And we could even give it a teddy bear like pressed under his arms. Look, he holds this cute little teddy bear here. Ah how sweet. I like that. But the last one here, he's a little bit of a mischievous one. He is trying to tickle this one there. Pupils need to go over here. He looks at the sleepy one. He is like a little bit of a mischievous smile, and his eyebrows are a little bit mischievous as as well. Look and he stretches out his hand to tickle this one. Tickle tickle. No, no, no, that's not okay. All right, and here my sketch is done, and I'm ready to ink out my little scam. I've started by adding a new layer below my sketch layer and then turned down the opacity of my sketch to not be distracted too much. I've also changed the blend mode to multiply. Then I pick my nice liner brush and start with the shelf. I have decided to leave my entire drawing process in this lesson. I strongly believe watching someone draw is very beneficial. You can learn so much just by observing from how they create lines, control curves, and of course, their overall workflow. There's a ton of subtle information being communicated. I've sped it up a bit though to keep this lesson at a reasonable length. On a new layer, I ink out the front of the cups, making sure to alternate the colors to have enough variation. A data data Once all cups are colored in, I clean up the edges. Here I am adding a layer below the cup fronts. I also turn down the opacity of the layer above to better see where the inner part of the cups start and end. I am using the same for each cups inside, but since it is usually due to the shade, I turn down the brightness of this entire layer. Now I draw the handles on the same layer, sampling the hue from the insides. And now onto the faces. On a layer above the cup fronts, go the white eyes, the teddy, and the book. On a layer below this one, I am adding the books pages. On yet another layer on top of the white eyes. I draw all black accents, like pupils, eyebrows, arms, and so on. That's Here, I noticed that I didn't like the yellow cup. So I changed his viewing direction and gave him an arm pointing towards the th. And this is my approach. Doesn't it hilarious and see. The process itself was super simple, but with all the imperfections and quirks, we have added a lot of personality. And now it's your turn to create your super simple scene. You can use the prompt list to get started or come up with your own fun idea. But you're more than welcome to recreate the scene I have created here. Draw three or more characters, each with a different expression and personality and see how they interact with each other in your scene. Remember, it doesn't have to be perfect. The most important thing is to have fun and let your creativity shine. After you're done, upload your class project in the project gallery to show off your super simple scene. I can't wait to see what you create. Enjoy the process. And once you're ready, I'll meet you in the final lesson where we'll wrap up the class. 11. Let's Wrap It Up!: Comrades on making it to the end of this class. We've covered quite a lot on this journey, haven't we from learning how to create super simple eyes with just a few circles and lines to experimenting with eyebrows and other accents. Finally, even designing your very own super simple characters. I hope you now feel more confident in using these simple techniques to create expressive characters. Fun illustrations. Remember, perfection isn't the goal. It's all about enjoying the process and playing around with different expressions and ideas. What's next? Well, I'd love for you to take everything you've learned here and create your own super simple seeds. Share them with us in the project gallery, and of course, the rest of the world, AKA, social media. Don't forget to tag me. I'd love to see what you come up with. You can find me on Instagram, Tik Tok, and YouTube, and be sure to follow me for more tips and tutorials. If you enjoyed this course, please take a moment to leave a review. It really helps me and also allows others to discover this class to. Lastly, thank you so much for being part of this class. I had a blast creating it, and I hope you had fun learning. I can't wait to see you in my next one. So take care, keep creating, and we'll see each other soon. Bye.