How to Draw a Cat Eye Step by Step (Slit and Round Pupil)

A cat's eye is mostly iris, and that surprises almost everyone who tries to draw one. Leave a lot of white around it and you get a human eye with a stripe in the middle. Below I'll show you how to draw a cat eye step by step, from a faint circle and oval to an orange tabby eye with a green-gold iris and a tall slit pupil. A tiny second eye with a round pupil shows what happens when the lights go out.

Lines added in the current step show up in blue, and everything from earlier steps is gray. The pale blue circle, cross and oval are helpers that disappear in step 11, so barely press.

Quick overview
⏱️ Time: roughly 30 to 45 minutes with coloring
🎯 Level: easy to medium, good for ages 9 and up
✏️ Steps: 12
🐱 You'll draw: one large tabby cat eye plus a small night view with a dilated pupil

Supplies for a Sharp Green Cat Eye

• An HB pencil
• A kneaded eraser
• A coin or a cup to trace the iris circle
• A black fineliner or felt-tip pen for the final lines
• Colored pencils or markers (the color key on the printable lists all eight)
• Plain white paper, turned sideways

A cup is not cheating; a clean circle matters more here than in almost any other drawing.

How to Draw a Cat Eye Step by Step

Step 1: Sketch the guide circle and oval

Turn the page sideways and draw a wide oval that fills most of it. In its middle, draw a circle about half as tall as the oval, with a level line and an upright line crossing at its middle. The circle is the iris. The oval marks where the fur ends.

💡 Tip: Keep the oval off the right edge of the page, because the small night eye goes there later.

Step 2: Draw the almond eye shape

Wrap the eye around the circle. The top lid is one curve sitting just inside the top of the circle, and the bottom lid sits just inside its bottom. Let both curves run past the circle and meet in a point on each side. I set the left corner a bit lower than the right, which tilts the eye upward.

💡 Tip: If the lids leave a gap above or below the circle, the eye will look shocked. Let them clip the circle a tiny bit.

Step 3: Add the dark rim and the corner notch

Cats have a dark rim around the eye, like built-in eyeliner. Draw a second line a little outside the almond, all the way round, coming to a point at the outer corner. At the inner corner, nearest the nose, pull the rim down into a small pointed hook. That notch says cat instead of person.

💡 Tip: Keep the gap between the two lines even. A rim that swells and shrinks looks smudged once it's black.

Step 4: Outline the iris and its outer ring

Trace over your guide circle, but only the part that shows between the lids. Then draw a slightly smaller circle inside it, about a finger width in, for the dark edge of the iris. On a real cat the iris fills nearly the whole eye, so only small corners stay empty.

💡 Tip: Trace the outer circle with a coin, then do the inner one by hand.

Step 5: Draw the tall slit pupil

Here's the part everyone waits for. From the top of the iris to the bottom, along the upright guide, draw a long, thin shape like a stretched leaf: pointed at both ends and widest in the middle. In bright light a cat's pupil really does squeeze down to a slit like this.

💡 Tip: I draw one side in a single stroke, then the other. Stopping halfway leaves a bump.

Step 6: Add the iris lines and two shines

Around the pupil, draw a wavy ring about halfway out to the iris edge. Many green-eyed cats have a gold zone in the middle like this. From that ring, add short rays pointing outward, some long, some short. Finish with two circles for reflections, a bigger one upper left and a tiny one lower right.

💡 Tip: Leave a small space around each shine circle so no iris lines run through it.

Step 7: Draw the pale ring of fur

Most cats have lighter fur hugging the eye. Draw a smooth line about a fingertip outside the dark rim, a bit wider below the eye than above. I like this ring a lot: it separates the eye from the fur and makes the colors pop.

💡 Tip: Draw this ring with your hand resting on the paper below the eye; the curve comes out steadier.

Step 8: Shape the tufted fur edge

Follow the big guide oval to mark where this patch of face ends. Keep the top and bottom smooth. On the left and right sides, break the line into a few pointed tufts that sweep outward, like cheek fluff. Those tufts tell the eye it's looking at fur and not at a sticker.

💡 Tip: I vary the tufts slightly in size, since identical points look like a saw blade.

Step 9: Add stripes, fur strokes and brow whiskers

Tabby markings follow the shape of the eye, so draw two curved stripes above it and one below on the right, pointed at both ends. Add a short stripe behind the outer corner. Then put three small fanned fur strokes on the cheeks and three long brow whiskers rising past the edge of the fur.

💡 Tip: Group the fur strokes in threes and leave space between groups. Scattered single hairs read as scratches.

Step 10: Draw the round pupil for the dark

To the right, draw a circle about a quarter the width of the fur patch. Inside, draw a small almond eye with a dark rim and an iris, like before. This time the pupil is a big round circle that leaves only a thin ring of iris. Add a tiny shine, and a crescent moon above, to show it's night.

💡 Tip: Make the round pupil cover most of the iris; a small dot looks human.

Step 11: Ink the keeper lines and erase guides

With the black pen, go over the lines you want to keep. I start with the pupil and the shines, since those need the calmest hand, and finish with the long fur edge. Skip the cross, the iris guide and the big oval. Give the ink a minute, then erase every pencil mark.

💡 Tip: Spin the paper as you go, so you're always pulling the pen toward you around the curves.

Step 12: Color the cat eye

Fill the fur with orange and the stripes with brown, and keep the ring around the eye cream. The rim and both pupils are solid black. Color the iris green with a dark green outer band and a gold middle, then add dark green under the upper lid for its shadow. The corners get soft pink.

💡 Tip: My rule: leave both shines as bare white paper. Erasing color never looks as clean.

Where Cat Eye Drawings Lose Their Cat Look

• Too much white around the iris. It turns the eye human. Make the iris nearly as tall as the eye opening and keep the corners small.
• A pupil drawn as a straight line. A single stroke looks like a crack. Give the slit some width in the middle and taper both ends.
• No notch at the inner corner. Without that little hook the eye could belong to any animal, and it takes five seconds.
• Shines on top of the pupil. They get lost. Keep the reflections on clear iris, with a little space around each one.
• Stripes going in random directions. They look like cuts. Curve every stripe so it follows the outline of the eye.

Other Eye Colors and Coats to Try

Next time, change the iris. Copper or deep orange suits a black cat, and pale blue with a gray coat gives a Siamese feel. You can also draw the eye half-closed for a sleepy cat by lowering the top lid over the iris. To place two eyes in a whole face, the cat face drawing tutorial is the natural next step, and how to draw Sharingan is fun practice for another big, detailed iris.

Free Cat Eye Coloring Page and Printable Steps

Would you rather work on paper? The free cat eye coloring page shows the finished eye in color at the top, next to a key that names each color and the part it belongs to. The step-by-step PDF guide holds all 12 steps with their tips, two to a page, and prints on Letter or A4.

📱 On a phone? Tap a download button, then open the file and choose Share → Save to Files or Print. On a computer, the PDF opens or saves straight to your Downloads folder.

Cat Eye Steps for Your Pinterest Board

One Eye Down: Whole Animals to Draw Next

These are complete step-by-step tutorials, so each animal or scene is broken into short steps with a picture for each.

• Parrot Drawing: A scarlet macaw with a hooked beak and a very long tail is the goal of the how to draw a parrot lesson.
• Butterfly Drawing: Spread a pair of orange wings and place every dot in this butterfly drawing tutorial.
• Bunny Drawing: Draw a sitting bunny eyeing its carrot with the bunny drawing step by step guide.
• Polar Bear Drawing: The polar bear drawing tutorial ends with a bear sitting on the ice, paws up.
• Snow Leopard Drawing: Stay with big cats: this snow leopard drawing tutorial shows one resting on a mountain rock.
• Leopard Drawing: Practice amber eyes on a whole animal with how to draw a leopard step by step, tail curled at the tip.
• Gorilla Drawing: A calm silverback sits with a banana in the gorilla drawing tutorial.
• Peacock Drawing: The peacock drawing step by step lesson fans out a full tail in 11 steps.
• Family Drawing: Draw four people, a puppy and a red balloon with this family drawing tutorial.
• Simba Drawing: Two pencil ovals become a curious lion cub in the how to draw Simba guide.
• Mouse Drawing: A mouse sitting up with cheese in its paws takes 12 small steps in this easy mouse drawing tutorial.
• Chalk Art: Take it outside with the chalk art step by step lesson: a hopscotch, a rainbow and a sun.

Cat Eye Questions People Search For

Why do cats have slit pupils?

A slit can close much tighter and open much wider than a round pupil, so a cat sees well in bright sun and in dim light. In bright light it narrows to a thin line; in the dark it widens into a big circle.

What is the easiest way to draw a cat eye?

Trace a circle for the iris and wrap an almond shape around it that clips the top and bottom slightly. Add a tall, narrow pupil down the middle and one white shine. The fur and stripes are optional extras.

What colors are cat eyes?

Green, gold, yellow, copper and blue are all common, and some cats have one eye of each color. A green iris with a gold center, like this one, is very typical.

Can kids draw a realistic cat eye?

Yes, around age 9 most kids manage this one with a traced circle. Younger artists can leave out the extra details and just draw the eye, the pupil and one shine.

Pick your iris color, trace that first circle and see which cat stares back at you. 🐱✏️

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