Exercise Review: The Eyes
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Hello and welcome to the Review section of last week’s exercise, Drawing the Eyes.
Here was my thought process for My Eye Exercise and Timelapse.
In this exercise review I focused on drawing my eyes with color being my main tools. I laid down an initial sketch of the eyes highlighting the main features of the eyes and the area around them. While I was color picking I noticed how many different shades of the skin I was color selecting and adding to the image and not only that but how many different hues were going into it as well.
Using my custom skin brush I blended the colors i laid down to appear more natural and skin like. I also tried avoiding zooming in at all to try and focus less on the smaller details and more on the overall composition. Another tip I learned was that shadows on the face can vary in hue depending on their location. The shadow from the nose was a scarlet red while the shadow under the eye was a neutral gray.
After I have the larger sections filled in, I then add the details on top such as the eyebrows, eyelashes, skin pores, and freckles using 2 more of the custom brushes and rather than using the standard circle brush which has a very refined edge, I used the skin brush on a much smaller scale to give a softer look to it and not stand out too much.
After that it was all finishing touches and minor details to flesh out with a slight overlay pass where the light was hitting the skin the strongest.
Included with the source files are the brushes I used along with the .PSD of the final piece.
Below are some of the still frames from the timelapse that showcase different steps during the process.
1. The basic outline laid out as the foundation for the colors.
2. Laying the colors down, notice how many hues go into the skin, just just one solid skin color coating
3. Blending and smoothing out the colors together
4. Adding the details: The eyelashes, eyebrows, skin pores etc.
5. The Final Result
Now here are some of the eye submissions from this past week:
This one was done by sviolanis. Great use of light in the eyes, I would focus on the placement of the different shadows in the areas around the eye. My biggest tip for you is to watch how you draw your eyelashes. They feel stiff and too straight. They have a natural curve to them and the positioning of them is important to. Make sure you follow the angle of the eye and curve it off of that. Lastly the two circles I drew in that are connected is an example of where one side doesn’t match the other in terms of the eyelash placement. Great start!
2. This piece was done by mymatt11. So the placement seems to be relatively right but it seems you worked a little too hastily on the actual rendering and shading of the eye. If you just go in and spend some time cleaning up with blending then you will see your shapes really come forward and give that sense of realism. And the placement of the highlight should be coming from the same direction, where as one eye the highlight is on the left and the other is on the right. Good start and keep going!
3. And lastly, aduahawen‘s eyes exercise. These are excellent sketch drawings and challenging because of the different angles. I can tell you understand the different shapes and forms of the eye so my only critique will be on the color selection. Very simple clean shading and while the form is great I would recommend adding some more color to flesh it out. Even subtle hints of red in areas where the skin thins out around the eye and you would be able to see it come alive a bit more. Other than that, great job and great eye exercises.
Thanks for checking out this review post! Excited to push more of these exercises out and keep challenging the community to improve and progress!
Discussion
14 Responses to “Exercise Review: The Eyes”Leave a Comment
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Thanks for the comments appreciate them a lot, Blending will be my new target for the next time I upload a drawing.
do you think you could give the brushes to none-citizen members as well? If you don’t want to I totally understand.
Thank you for the tip about eye coloring. I do admit adding too much color in the eye scares me a bit. Though doing it correctly adds to the realism of the eye.
I would however very much like to see a tutorial on realistically coloring skin. Mainly pores and such. this is something I haven’t been able to get a good grasp on. There aren’t many good tutorials out there about it.
Very useful comments, thank you Tim. Considering your correction, I have to admit that my eyelashes are very stiff and too straight. I will try to make some exercises for drawing curved good looking eyelashes. Actually I’m not feeling very confortable in drawing curves, they are a bit tricky for me (so usually I spent a lot of time trying to redraw the same curve, until I reach the best result possible).
Svilanis, dont worry so much about the curves, or even perfect curves. No human is perfect. Also keep in mind that hair is very organic. So dont worry about making every lash perfect or the same, or making a perfect curve. Also keep in mind there are quite a few less lashes on the lower lid.
Hope that helps.
Oh and when all else fails study pictures of real human eyes. Both male and female of different ages and ethnicity.
Thank you Aduahawen for your help, I appreciated your tips. Decent curves can be enough for now
Great tips Christine! And the less organized and perfect the lashes are the better. Have them intermingle a bit and have some curve into each other. Unless if their fake lashes, no eyes have perfectly shaped and organized lashes!
Great timelapse vonn. Any chance you could put a quick tip tutorial together on blending or making a smooth transition between colors?
Its really very simple. Turn the opacity of your brush down pretty low, about 20 percent or so, and keep brushing. You’ll get a nice smooth gradient if you choose shades within (using your eyedropper) the area you are painting. Brush Brush, Choose color, Brush brush, color, etc. Also has yo do with types of brushes you use and also how hard you press (if you are using a tablet). Depending on you brush settings and brush shape it may be easier or hard to get a smooth transition. EX: Hard edge brush vs soft edge brush.
What about using the smudge tool? In my picture I have used it a lot, but I never seen Tim or other artists to make use of this technique.
The smudge tool can work great too, my close friend in school only used the smudge tool to blend and she worked wonders with it. It all comes down to what you prefer with your workflow
Yes I could do that, but there are many ways to blend and I will try and cover a few that then you could try out and see what feels the most comfortable for you. For myself, I do not change any settings or opacities but rather color pick with my eye dropper and press not as hard on the tablet. Also having a brush with a blended edge makes blending much easier such as a skin brush. Look for the blending tutorial soon!
This is just so beautiful and perfect! Great job!
Thank you!