How Do YOU Paint Eyes

JonAtron

Member
Load of guides online I know this, BUT, you lot are bloody good so how do YOU paint human eyes? This is something I want to improve on but just don't seem to find a good consistent way. I've resulted in painting the eyes off white, gloss varnish then black ink to settle around the eye white thanks to the gloss. I then dot the pupil with a fine liner pen. While this works-ish its not satisfactory, not crisp or defined enough.

What brush size?
What paint/consistency?
Your technique?

Thanks in advance.
 

Orjetax

Member
I’ll throw my thoughts in

I avoid the pen. I don’t have super steady hands, so on the eye issue I cheat as much as possible.

I paint the whole socket black. Then I add the white on the sides, leaving a small amount for the pupil remaining.

If this doesn’t work out on the first attempt, I then try to do white, then dot with the brush, rather than repeat this exercise.

I find this to get a decent result for a degree of effort that is practical.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Golgfag1

Moderator
dark flesh tones around the eye socket, white on the eye and finally any natural eye colour for the pupil for a character, or black for paint regiments and an brow line. last, but by no means least - be prepared to do it two or three times to get the result you want.

paint consistency - smooth cream

brushes - usually 3ooo for the fine work, 1 for the base

Hope this helps

Paul/Golgfag1
 

Grumdril

Member
I'm definitely not in the "bloody good" category of a lot of people here but I've been through a learning curve on this recently so I have opinions...

I do sort of what Paul says but a bit different: very dark flesh tone around the eye, then a very light grey for the eye, then black for the iris / pupil. Then inevitably cleaning up the cheeks where the dark flesh tone got too large... I tend to do eyes as pretty much the last thing, but thinking about it I really should do them before highlighting the face...

My early eyes I did with a black base but then they tend to end up looking like they're wearing eyeshadow. I avoid white for eyes (and teeth when they're visible are similarly a light yellowy-grey) as I feel they look too bright and unnatural otherwise.

Edit:
Brush size - 00
Paint consistency - thicker than proper painters recommend, Vallejo straight from the pot, but onto a wet palette which seems to thin it very slightly. Absolute minimum of paint on the brush

Photo of my most recent effort (the eyes rather in shadow unfortunately, bad attempt to photograph in natural light... :( )

traderAndSquat.jpg



Paul / Grumdril
 
I do the same as Orjetax, and somtimes add a bit of wash shading round the eyes if I want the figure to look tired or hungover. Generally works, although occasionally the figure gets an expression that looks like a suddenly buggered owl. :shock:

Oh yes, I use a size 1 brush for everything, but have 2 or 3 on the go at once,
 

Fimm McCool

Member
I used to paint in the whites and then do the black pupil, but I actually found it was easier to get the eyes looking in the right direction and the right shape by doing a black oval and painting in the two white dots either side. MMV did a great tutorial on eyes in WD 190-something.
 

Padre

Member
I hate painting eyes. I also have to do it two or three times to get it right. Sometimes with big regiments I just leave a black shadow, like a cartoonist would have for characters in the background of a picture.
 
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