How to Paint on Procreate: The Eyes

1. Introduction: Drawing the eyes used to be one of my obsession when I was younger. You can find them in each of my journals and school books, and it's still something that I love to do until now, especially on my iPad. Hi, I'm Alessia, and today, I want to invite you to paint lots of eyes with me using iPad Pro Apple Pencil and the app Procreate. This class is going to take you through the structure and anatomy for the artist in a very simplified way, as well as giving you a lot of tips and tricks to make it look realistic. Whether you are an absolute beginner or you already have some experience with drawing and painting, this class is going to help you to see the eye and its structure in a completely different way, simplifying the steps that you need to take to break it down and make it look like real. You will need some basic knowledge of Procreate, as we're not going to go in through the basics on how to use it while we're drawing. If you love painting portraits or you always wanted to paint the eye in a realistic way with color changes and beautiful reflections, this is the class for you. 2. Your Class Project: For your class project, I want you to take a picture of your own eye and draw it and paint it on Procreate using all the steps, the tools, and the tips that I've talked about in the lessons. All you need is an iPad Pro, an Apple Pencil, an app called Procreate, and a smartphone or your camera to take a picture of your own eye. If you are a beginner, you have two choices. You can jump into this class right now and use all the examples and practice that you need to complete your class project. Or you could also have a look in my previous classes here in Skillshare, where I explain how to use an iPad to draw realistically and how to use light and shadow in your art to give that illusion of a three-dimensional space. These classes are going to give you the foundation, as well as the extra knowledge and practice that you need for drawing anything in a realistic way. Once you create your beautiful painting, make sure you post it in the gallery below to have some feedback either from me or from your fellow students. It's super easy and all you have to do is go to the Project and Resources section and click on "Create a Project". When you upload your image, you can add the title and description if you want, and just click "Publish" on the top corner. Now you can share with other artists and keep track of your improvements over time. But for now, let's jump into the first lesson. 3. Anatomy Made Simple: In this lesson, we'll go through the basic anatomy of the human eye. We won't get into the details of how everything works, just what we need to know as artists. The most important thing to remember is that the eye is a sphere; therefore, it has a volume. In the middle, we have the big circle known as the iris which is the colored part of the eye, and at the center of the iris, we have the pupil. This sphere is positioned inside the eye socket or cavity in the skull. It's good to memorize this because the skull can help us position in the elements of the eye in the right position. The eye has muscle all around it, and that help us move it in different directions. You can indicate the volume of the eye with some shading as well as if it were a ball, as I'm doing here. It's a three-dimensional object, so it can be rotated. The perception of the iris, which is the colored part as we've already seen, is going to change based on the inclination and direction of the gaze. It's actually very simple, but we'll go into more details in the next few lessons. But for now, let's give the name to the different parts of the eye. The white part is called sclera. The biggest circle is the iris which is the colored part. In the middle, we have the black pupil. Then we have the eyelids and a tear duct next to the nose. Another part of the eye often forgotten is the cornea, which is transparent, and it's good to keep in mind when we're drawing the eye from the side. To understand these relationships and practice this concept, I recommend drawing the eyes inside the skull. I personally do this whenever I doubt their position or their volumes, and it really helps me remember the human anatomy when I'm drawing people. In this case, I decided it was looking to the right, so I tried to imagine what that would look like in real life. I even added some color to make it look more realistic, and I started to experiment with blending different shades to get the right skin tone. This is just an exercise that you can do as often as you need it, but remember to get the elements of the skull right. Always use a reference picture at the beginning. [MUSIC]. 4. Common Mistakes: There are also common mistakes that can be made when drawing the human eye, including shape, proportion, and color. The first thing you could get wrong is the shape. I often see the eye shaped like almonds with symmetrical eyelids and harsh lines. In reality, the eyes have all sorts of shapes. But as a rule of thumb, we can say that they eye can be divided by a diagonal line at about 45 degrees. For the upper lid going from the side of the nose, the line goes up until it meets that 45 degrees angle line, and then goes down and down again. To remember, imagine three planes of different lengths. For the bottom lid, we have one line going down until it meets the diagonal, then goes up with a small curve up until the tear dark. For the eyelids, I often see them drawn as simple lines. In reality, they have thickness and a wrap around the white of the eye, which as we've seen before, is a sphere. At the edge of the eyelids we have eyelashes, which should now be painted like straight lines. We can also find them drawn as too few or too many to look realistic. In general, they're all going in different directions and then team up together. There are also longer towards the external corners. The best way to represent them is to draw them one by one and look at the reference picture, if you're not sure how to draw them correctly. Then let's have a look at the iris, which is the colored part in the eyes. The easiest thing to remember is that the pupil is always at the center of the iris. The iris can have different colors and shapes depending on the direction of the eye. But when we see from the front is a circle that takes about one-third of the space inside the eye. It's often painted as too big or too small compared to the rest of the eye. One last mistake that is easy to make is to draw the edge with a harsh line. Now when we sketching and placing the different elements, that's okay because in nature that's not what's happening and it's not going to look realistic. The iris is a circle from the front but if the person is looking to the side , this can become an oval. The same if we're looking up or down. To draw the iris correctly, first thing you want to do is to pay attention to the direction and placement. One of the most important part when we're drawing or painting the eyes is the white part, what we call sclera. The most common mistake is to draw as a white flat element. As we saw, the sclera is a sphere, so it has some shadows and lights. They need to be represented with some darker colors. In fact, I don't suggest using pure white, but a lighter shade of the color that you're using as the main shade for the skin. Most of the time, it also has some shadows cast by the eyelids, or eyelashes. You can easily see how the eyeball fits into the external anatomy of the eye. The skin of the eyelids wraps all around it. It's a good exercise to practice drawing the structure as well as I'll show you in the next lessons. I believe that the secret is to see the structure of the ball and have fun by moving it around and see what happens to the iris. Remember that the circle in perspective becomes an oval or ellipse. Now let's quickly have a look at the easiest mistake you can make when placing them in the face. Having the eyes too big or too small or too far apart, as well as too close can ruin the illusion of reality. The eyes are always in a straight line and that line can curve if the face is tilted, the distance between the eyes is the same as the measure of the eye. You can think about it as a third eye and you can even draw it in between. There are also some relationships with other parts of the nose. For example, you can draw a triangle between them to help you place them correctly. 5. Painting Diversity: In this lesson, we'll explore different eye structures based on, for example, eye palettes. But before we start, I just want to remind you that the following lesson is meant to help the art student to practice observation while painting a variety of subjects. By no means this is stating objective truths, nor is it including everyone's ethnicity, age, and traits. Every person is unique and there are infinite combination of factors affecting one person's facial features. Please always keep in mind that every generalization is made to make learning easier by breaking down concept. True representation of reality is only possible by observing what is in front of us in all its complexity. Now, let's get started with the first die. I chose a reference picture of a three-quarter view with the eye looking up slightly. If you wonder what I'm using, it's mainly a standard wet acrylic brush with occasional changes to give a different texture. As we say in the previous lesson, I like to understand the structure of the eye underneath, so that I can reconstruct it on the side. I start with the eyeball and I break down the direction of the eye through the lines, almost like latitude and longitude on a map. I'm trying not to use black for the line drawing because I don't want this to affect the painting in the layers later on, and that's why I'm using dark red. A few things to notice is the structure and tones relating to the ethnicity. This person is probably Caucasian and the skin tone palette is looking at pinks, yellows, undertones with some blue as well. When you draw your version, you can have a preference for the kind of shades of color you use and how to use them, whether it is layering the paint or put brush strokes next to each other. When I do use some black is usually for the lashes and the pupil because they can create a strong contrast with the blue of the iris. Most Caucasian eyes, although not all of them, have a fold with the eyelids meet their highest curve of the ball and the [inaudible] is visible. In this specific case, it's in shade because of the lashes. Let's move on to the next eye. Another three-quarter view with a beautiful strong contrast and some interesting position of the eye. The subject is looking to the left and the iris looks a bit squashed. If you remember, we talked about how the iris changes shapes from a circle to an oval when looked at it in perspective. Once again, we can facilitate this process by breaking it down with a sphere adding latitude and longitude. I try to use colors that can be blend easily related paint, but also stand out from the background. As for the structure, there is no crease on the eyelid and the [inaudible] is covered by skin overlapping. In this case however, we can't see it anyway because everything is in shade. Otherwise, we won't be able to see the internal thickness of the eyelid. The iris is very dark and that's creating a clear reflection, giving us the illusion of the wetness of the eye. I simplify the skin tone, I create a strong contrast between the lit part and the parts in shadows, then I carry on adjusting turns until I'm completely happy with what I see in the sketch for this exercise. Now, we move on to a darker skin tone with a different eye structure. I try to match the color add in the background to achieve the same contrast. I created the structure of the sclera with this green color to be more visible. As before, I pay attention to the eyelids and overall proportions, then I start adding to lighter tones and see some shapes come into life immediately. The subject is looking directly at us, but her head is standing a bit on the side. Because of this, we can actually see the curve of the sclera instead of the external corner of the eye. We can also see the upper part of the cheekbone as well. I spent quite some time trying to get the crease of the eyelid correct. It's not very thick and I wanted to suggest that clear line has a thin shadow. I use some green color for the eye shadow, making sure to paint the highlights as well. For the skin tone, I try to use the variations of brown color to suggest the roundness of the eye. I love that reflection on the darker spot of the eye. It really gives the character and connects her with us because she's looking straight in our direction. After adding the shadow cast by the eyelashes and a few details, I'm ready to carry on with the next sketch. But this final sketch, I decided to have an older subjects because most of the time proportions change with aging. In general, we can say that the older we get, the smaller as our eyes get. The eyelids seem to create less room for the sclera to be visible, so we end up seeing the iris taking most of the space. We also have more wrinkles and the eyelids are drippy, creating even more shadows and contrast. This is a great exercise for observation and practice, but most of all you need to make some choices and how to replicate that complex skin texture and skin tones. You might decide to include sunspots or to leave that behind, or you can try to abstract what you see with a few lines. That of course it's up to you. For me creating that strong contrast between light blue of the iris and the reddish tones of the skin, was the most important aspect to prioritize in this sketch. If you don't seem to get realistic result, trying out some reflection straightaway to motivate yourself to keep going adding some details. Reflections just not that magical sense of reality, especially when observer against a flat background color like in this case. Now, I'm going to keep going on serving and adding details until I'm happy with this. I'll see you in the next lesson. 6. Painting Your Eye: Basic Sketch: In this lesson, we'll start the basic sketch for our class project; painting your own eye. I shot a few pictures of my eye with my camera and I've used one to warm up my hand and get to know the color palette, as well as the structure of my eye. The result is that painting on the top right corner and you can find the time-lapse in the resources section. For my final painting, I chose this picture where it looks so as the top left. I always suggest starting by positioning sphere and the iris. I'm using a green brush to make it visible. The sphere as latitude and longitude and they meet somewhere this side looking up a bit. Also, make sure that the iris is an oval and the position of the eyelids is in the right place. No worrying too much about the thickness for now. I follow the curves of the eyeball as well. The next step is to open a new layers and go over the lines to create a more realistic sketch of the shapes, thickness and position of the various spots. The key here is to take your time and if you make mistakes, don't worry about erasing them. It's better to have a new layer and to go over it once more. I prefer this way of building up my drawing because it allows me to keep the wrong lines as a reference for the correct ones. You only have to make the layer more transparent and draw it on a fresh layer. Then I will add all the elements that I want to keep such as the eyelid crease, the lines under the eye, and some suggestions of the eyebrow. Once I'm happy with all the elements, I leave all the rest of the details for the coloring phase, as you can see in the next lesson. 7. Painting Your Eye: Making It Real: In this lesson, we'll add color and details until we get our final painting brightly. I wanted to say that I had to speed this process up. Otherwise the lesson would be one hour and a half long. Also because the simple colors I chose or the mark I make, they're not as important as the process itself. This is my eye and my style for the painting. It doesn't mean that it has to be the same for you, or that you would have the same color palette. This class is about a series of steps that you can apply regardless of what brush or color you choose. Here, Here placing the base colors that I can see in the photo. They're not accurate but they will guide me for lighter and darker parts in the next steps. I suggest starting with a single shape for each color and adjust all the tones and the blending in the next few layers. When I add the color of the sclera, remember to use shading and give it roundedness using a range of grays, pinks and yellows, or color that you might find reflected in your eye or as part of your eye color. My favorite part is the reflection on the iris and the pupil. I took the picture using a ring light, so you can clearly see that reflection and it's a bit distorted. I make sure I use a lighter shade of color and not necessarily a pure white, although sometimes I'm guilty on doing that for an immediate contrasted effect. When it comes to drawing the lashes, it takes me a long time and I'm not very precise with it. If you want to be hyper-realistic, make sure to observe the picture and to draw them one by one. Pay attention how they overlap on top of each other and how they change direction and length towards the end. The same for a lower lashes and for the eyebrows. Choose how much precise or painterly you want to be and have fun with it. At this point, I noted that the skin was looking too transparent and not saturated enough for my liking. So I decided to add a brown color underneath all the layers and I really like the results afterwards. Now, I'm going to leave you to the end of this process. Well, you can see me adding the last few details, such as subtle reflections, final touches and I'll see you in the next lesson. 8. Final Thoughts + What's Next: You did it. You made it to the end of the class, and now you know how to paint a realistic eye on Procreate using your iPad anywhere you are. I hope you enjoyed this class and I'd love to see what you made. Remember to post your picture in the gallery. Also, leave a review to give me some feedback and maybe suggest what the next class should be about. Make sure you follow me here on Skillshare to receive updates of my next class launches. I also have a YouTube channel where I post arty things and you're also going to find the time-lapse of one of the drawings that I made, preparing for my eye drawing. Check out my other classes, especially the one about light and shadow. That is going to really give you everything that you need to know about working in a two-dimensional space, such as paper or digital painting, and make it look three-dimensional. Thank you for taking the time to paint with me, and I'll see you in the next lesson. Bye-bye.