Part 4 – Painting the Eyes.
Before I begin, a short note about brushes. I use a combination of Reaper, Vallejo, and W&N Series 7 Sable brushes in sizes #1, #0, and #00 for over 90% of my painting. All of these are long lasting, have good points and have sufficient bulk in the bristles to hold paint. I also have ‘special effects’ brushes; brushes that are used for dotting pupils and catch-lights, broad coverage, groundwork, dry-brushing, etc. The brushes are rinsed in water continuously during use to prevent buildup in the bristles and ferrule. They are washed with a brush soap/conditioner after a painting session. I use old brushes for mixing the paint/water on the palette. Less wear and tear on the good brushes that way.
When painting eyes, lips, and other fine details, I use a pair of 3.25X reading glasses to magnify things. It’s just so much easier. Getting’ older, y’know…
The eyes start with the whites, in this case an eyeball (ha!) mix of Reaper MSP Acrylics’
http://www.reapermini.com/Paints/corecolors Fair Skin Highlight and Pure White. The idea is to get a warm, off-white color. This is followed by a Misty Gray strip across the upper quarter of the eye. The gray represents the shadow cast on the cornea by the upper eyelid. It’s okay to go outside of the lines, since any stray paint will be cleaned up as we go.
The iris consists of a dot of Leaf Green followed by a small dot of Jade Green in the lower half of the iris, but still leaving the darker edge of the Leaf Green around the outer iris. Look for eyes on an image search engine and you’ll see what I mean. Again, going outside the lines is okay.
The lashes are next. I used a 1:2 mix of Blackened Brown and Intense Brown for the lashes. The piece is going to have red hair, and this mix provides a medium brown with red overtones for the lashes. I started in the inner corner of the lower eyelid and painted a thin, semi-transparent line that became increasingly opaque as it reached the outer corner. The line on the upper lid also started in the inner corner, but was thin and opaque to start with and became gradually thicker as it neared the outer corner. Again, see the image search… The lines only have to perfect (or as near as you can make them in this scale) on the inside where they border the cornea and iris. The lashes will be continued after the face has been shaded and highlighted and any makeup applied. Yes, I add makeup; that’s the
babe part of ‘Warrior Babe’.
Once done, the pupils and catch-lights are added. I use Walnut Brown for pupils. It’s a very dark brown and less stark than basic black. The catch-light was placed on the upper right side of the iris (as viewed), since that is where my light source is coming from.
The lips were given a base coat of Pure White and Rust Brown in 2:1 ratio. This gives the lips a pink-brown tone which the interweb tells me is a good lip color (among others) for redheads. Research, research, research…
The pics show the overall piece at slightly less than twice normal size and an enlargement of if the head so you can see the warts. It looks like crap now
,
but it all comes together later.Comments and questions are welcomed.
Glen