Thursday, March 13, 2014

"Just A Thought" 9x12", And a Lesson in Painting the Eye


Terry stopped in to pose for our Open Studio session last night.  Since I had been painting all that day, I was warmed up and ready to go.  I put down thick paint with a bare minimum of detail.  I decided to stop painting as soon as I had a good gesture.  If I noodled it with it any more, I think I would have killed the spontaneity.


In my Monday Evening Portrait class, we have been working on painting features.  Here is my method for painting an eye ( I used a #2 filbert brush for the entire process):

 We will use a photo of Christy for our model.


 After putting down a base of light skin tone, I find the entire shadow area of the eye socket.  I put this in with a middle value of purple warmed with a bit of cadmium red.


 On the top of the shadow form, I paint in the brow with a dark mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.


 Once the brow is in, I can see where the iris belongs.  Using the same mixture as the brow, I loosely paint in the iris.


I add the lash line with the same dark mixture.


 I add the "white" of the eye, which in reality is a very light gray.  I find the lid crease and darken it.


 And now for the fun part-- the details!  I highlighted the lid and the brow bone.  I darkened the shadow underneath the eye to give it more dimension.  Then I added a hint of red in the tear duct and placed a tiny highlight on the eye between the pupil and the colored area of the eye.  I lightened the eye color on the bottom half of the iris.  Voila!

3 comments:

  1. You make it all look so easy Ann! Wonderful reminder on painting the eye. Turned out great! And I love the portrait above that. Perfect gesture and just enough information!

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  2. Love the portrait Ann...wonderful palette! I haven't painted eyes since I stopped teaching my classes. I might have a little practice again, thanks for sharing:)

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  3. Oh my, so different than painting in watercolor. I do love your portrait.

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