How to Paint Realistic Eyes in Watercolor - Level Up your Portraits

1. Intro: [MUSIC] Eyes, my favorite part of any portrait, whether it's a person or an animal. It's the first thing we look at when wanting to connect with someone, and in portraits, they are one of the things that can really draw you into that photo, drawing, or painting. Hey there, I'm Tanya. I'm an artist based in Denmark. In this class, we're going to take a look at how to paint realistic eyes in watercolor. We'll go through the materials we need, the basic anatomy of an eye. We'll go a few different exercises, including some basic watercolor techniques, as well as the simple study to allow us to practice shading and layering. Finally, we'll go through the process of painting two eyes so you can have a look at both light and dark skin. This is the fourth class in my watercolor portrait series. You may benefit from having watched the previous classes or go through some more basics, column mixing when painting skin tones in water color, and how to sketch portrait from reference. In this class, we'll focus on building up layers in order to create believable shading and thereby captivating eyes. If you're interested in learning how to paint realistic eyes to level up your watercolor portraits, I hope you'll join me in this class. [MUSIC]. 2. Materials: [MUSIC] For this class, you'll need some watercolor paper. I'm using some cold press 100 percent cotton paper for a couple of the exercises and hot pressed 50 percent cotton paper for the three eyes we'll be painting. All you need is one type. If you're looking for more working time, I would recommend cold-pressed, but for painting details, I prefer hot pressed and surprise you will need some watercolors. Although I'll be using a few different paints, we'll only be using a limited color palette of 3-4 colors at a time. You don't have to use the same colors I'm using, feel free to substitute them for any colors in your own palette. You can even check out my class on mixing skin tones if you'd like to get a better idea of how to go about selecting colors or how to go about mixing different skin tones, but as long as you have some variation of your primaries, red, yellow, and blue, you should be all set. Next up, you'll need some brushes. I'm using two different brushes in this class, both of which are synthetic. I'm using a number 10 Escoda Perla, which holds a really fine point and is great for details. Then a number 10 Escoda versatile. This is a softer brush. It holds a nice point, but I recommend using softer brushes when wanting to paint soft shading. So go ahead and grab your favorite brushes. You will need at least a decent size brush to help wet the paper and create the shading for the main portion of your paintings, as well as a brush that will allow you to work on some of the smaller details. You will need a pencil and an eraser. The pencil I'm using is a 0.2 mechanical pencil and as for erasers, I'm using a few different ones, but all you really need is one basic eraser to get rid of any unwanted pencil marks, but if you do have a needed eraser, this may be a good option just to be able to erase pencil a bit more gently from your watercolor paper. This is optional, but I recommend the addition of white gouache. We'll be using this to add some finishing touches. If you don't have gouache, you can also use white watercolor or white acrylic paint. You will need a palette, I recommend using one that allows you to create some more wet mixes. So you will want one that can hold at least some water. I'm also using a flat palette for a couple of lessons. So you can see the color mixing a bit better, but one palette of your choice should suffice. If you're working on loose sheets of watercolor paper, you may want something to tape down your paper. Lastly, because we are working with watercolors, you will need some water, a cloth, or some tissue to wipe your brushes, as well as some tissue to help lift paint. Let's get started with the basics. 3. Eye Anatomy: [MUSIC] We're going to begin by taking a quick look at the basic anatomy of an eye. Just a better understand of the mechanics and why different shapes and shadows behave the way they do. We're going to start off by just drawing an eyeball which is a circle or a sphere. [MUSIC] Because this is a sphere and not just a flat circle, we're just going to give it some form, so we're going to add some shading along the edges. Where and how the shading or shadows fall on the sphere is going to vary depending on the lighting condition, but for simplicity, we're just going to assume that the center is going to be our lightest point, so everything out towards the edges is gradually going to become darker and darker. Now that we have our eyeball, we can add our eyelids and these are going to wrap around that sphere. We're also going to add the corner of the eye and even though this technically probably should overlap the eyeball at least just a bit. For simplicity, we're just going to stick it here on the outside. If we had a horizontal line going across the center of our eyeball, that line is going to be straight, but because our eyelids fall above and below that central line, they're going to have to follow the curvature of that eyeball. Because we're just going to assume that we're looking at this person face-to-face, we're going to draw the bottom waterline as well. Depending on the angle you're looking at the person from, you could see the top or the bottom waterline, but you don't usually see both unless maybe the person has seen a ghost and their eyes are wide open. We can then add the eyelid or at least the top edge of that eyelid and then under the eye between the eye and the cheekbones, we usually see the skin going inwards. This is again just due to the way the skin sits on top of that sphere, so this can be more or less pronounced depending on the person. I'm just going to roughly add that in as well. [MUSIC] Next up is the iris and really the only rule for this is that you want to make it a circle. If we assume that this person has a decently relaxed expression on their face, we're going to want that top portion of the iris to be covered by the top eyelid. You can then add the pupil and we are also going to add some shading here at the top where the eyelid is covering for the light. Then you're also going to have some reflection or little speck where the light is coming from. Before we move on, let's just enhance some of those lines. [MUSIC] Next we're going to take a look at eyelashes. If we go back to our eyeball, we can add our eyelid. In this case, we are dealing with a very sleepy eyeballs, so the line is going to be almost straight since it's so close to the center point. We're going to assume that this again is a three-dimensional sphere. If we imagine an eyelash right at the center point, it's going to be straight. If we have eyelashes coming at the very outer points or sides, they're going to look something like this. [MUSIC] If we add that to the eye, it's all starting to come together. One of the most important things when drawing or painting realistic eyes is contrast. Right now, this is still a fairly rough, flat looking sketch, but if we go in with some watercolor and just add a few layers, we're not going to add a lot of detail, but we can see how this really starts to bring out that three-dimensional shape. [MUSIC] If we want to add some basic shading to the eyelid and brow bone, we can look at it almost like the eyeball, but instead of a sphere, maybe seeing more of a cylinder shape. So like the barrel of my pencil. The center of that cylinder which the piece that is going to be the most protruding is going to have the lightest color. Then going out towards the edges, so top and bottom, you're going to have the darker shades. In the creche of the eye where the skin folds inwards, you're going to have the darker shade. Then for the edge of the eyelid, you don't really have that rounded shape. It's cut off, so we're just going to skip the shading on that bottom portion. I really hope that makes sense, but if not, it's not a big deal. We're going to be working from reference pictures. [MUSIC] Then the last bit of shading I'm adding is just that cast shadow from the eyelid onto the eyeball itself. [MUSIC] For this demonstration, I didn't really wait for the paper to dry completely before going in and adding the eyelashes. To avoid bleeding off the paint or pigment, I'm going in with a thicker pink mix which does result in a more clumpy mascara type looking eyelash, but we just want to make those eyelashes a bit more visible. [MUSIC] 4. Exercise - Basic Techniques: Before we move on to painting, I'm just going to go over some of the basics. If you need to water color, I recommend that you check out the first-class in this series because I do go more in depth with the very basics of fundamentals in that class. For this class, we are going to do a recap off some of those same techniques, but we are also going to take a closer look at lifting as well as what color control when it comes to details. In this class, I'm going to be using two different brushes, and I apologize for giving some misinformation in a previous class about all these brushes. Both of them are indeed synthetic. The difference is that this one is a synthetic version, or an attempt at replicating and natural fiber which is very soft. A soft brush like this often holds more water. It is better for going with the motions off your hand and better for creating soft shading. Whereas for more typical or standard, synthetic brush is better at holding its shape, so it's great for details. Because of this, it is able to hold its shape hand point better. It is great for areas where you need that extra control. However, if you use the right way or with the right sense of control and experience with watercolor as a medium, either of these brushes could be used as the one single brush for completing the paintings, or the eyes we're going to be painting in this class. Bringing in different brushes with different properties is just going to make it easier. For this exercise or lesson, I've brought out a version of our primary colors. I've got a red, yellow, and blue. In this case, magenta, quinacridone gold, and helio turquoise. You can use any colors you want but, as we talked about in the comments in class, this is a simple way of creating at least some version of a skin tone. To create a basic flat brush, you want to mix up your paint depending on how light or dark you want your skin tone, you can go in with a mix that has more or less water compared to the ratio of pigment. Then get your brush nice and soaked in the paint and apply it to your paper. No matter where on your paper or painting you begin, you want to make sure to not leave any dry edges behind. If you do find that you have it drying before you get back to them, there are a couple of things you can do. One is to use a paint mixed with more water so that it doesn't dry as quickly. Another thing you can do is take a look at the paper you're using. For these exercises, I'm using cold press paper. For the final paintings in this class, I'm using hot press paper. The main difference is the texture. Cold press paper is textured and that texture enables the paper to hold onto the water for longer, and so it's going to dry slow and give you more working time. Hot press paper is very smooth and it's going to dry faster. When using this, you will have to work quickly. Once you've laid down your flat wash, what do you don't want to do is rinse your brush and then go back into same area just painted with that wet brush. Because you're changing the ratio of water to pigment that is currently on that page. The water is going to push away the pigment. So before adding any more layers, you'll want to make sure to allow that first layer to dry completely. Again, I'm just going to demonstrate a flat wash but working slower and in irregular patterns. I'm going to purposely leave drawing edges behind which is going to result in an uneven wash. If you want to lift paint, or pigment from your paper, there are a couple of ways you can do it. One is to go in with a clean brush that you just wipe off so you don't introduce new water, and lift up the paint or pigment while it's still wet. Watercolor flows where there's water. If you do find that the paint moves back into that area where you just lift up the paint from, you can use a tissue to help dry off that area. This is going to stop the paint from moving back into that same space, because there's no longer enough moisture or water to make the paint flow. Another way of lifting paint from your paper is to lift paint or pigment from an area that has already dried. For this, you want to go in with a clean, wet, or damp brush and do some light scraping. You'll find that a more stiff synthetic brush is usually better for this purpose. I should be able to tell I'm having a difficult time lifting any pigment off this area. There is a subtle change, but I'm not really getting too much of a result. The paper I'm using here is by Arches or ash and it is Arche expression, and it's 100 percent cotton paper. Some pigments are going to be more difficult to lift than others, and so some paints or pigments are just not grateful lifting overall. But in this case, if I use the same paints and pigments on a different paper, so here I'm using Fabriano Artistico extra whites and it is still 100 percent cotton, I'm having a much easier time lifting the pigment. Depending on what you want to paint and which techniques you want to use, you may want to take a look at the paper you're using just to make sure that you're not going to struggle too much with the techniques you want to use. Something else you can play around with, and I'm not sure if this is a very broadly used trim, but it is locked versus unlocked layers. What I mean by this is that when you add watercolor to your paper, your paper is going to soak up that paint. Depending on how well your paper holds onto that paint, this is one of the reasons why you may have a difficult time lifting. First you wash off paint, you apply to your paper is going to be soaked into those deep layers within the paper. The more layers you add on top, the closer to the surface of those new paint layer is going to sit. Here, I've gone back to the paper we were first using, and I'm applying multiple layers of paint, allowing each layer to dry in between. As I've built up layers and more pigment on that paper, I'm now able to lift off some of that paint fairly easily. Even though you will have an easier time lifting paint and pigment off some types of paper, it's usually true with all watercolor paper that the first layers are going to be locked or at least more locked than the seventh, or eighth layer. This is also one of the reasons why if you go in with a paint mix that has less water in it. So a much more concentrated paint mix, more of that pigment is going to sit in those top layers of the paper and it's not going to be dragged in to the deeper layers as much, which means that these layers will be much more easily affected even once dry. When you want to add some shading and you want to build up those layers, you can do it either wet on wet or wet on dry. For wet on wet, you want to wet your paper, then pick up your paint mix and apply to the surface. The water is going to help the pigment spread in a more even layer, and create a nice soft edges which is ideal for shading. The second method is wet on dry. For this you want to go in on your dry surface, pick up your paint mix, apply to your paper and then go in with a wet, or damp brush to help blend it out. You want to work in a fairly speeding manner so that it doesn't dry before you've had a chance to blend it. As an exercise in layering and blending, try adding some shading to a sphere. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you want to try and get some smooth transitions. Try and create a clear highlight, and then as you move towards the shadow area, you want to gradually deepen the value. You can experiment with using both wet on wet and wet on dry. For mine, I used a mix of the magenta and the quinacridone gold as my main skin color or base color. Then as I'm moving towards the shadow area, I'm introducing some blue into that mixture to help neutralize it. Because this is a simple shape without too much going on, I'm choosing to work wet on wet because I don't need that sense of control, and I'm okay with allowing the paint to just flow where it wants to go. I've got plenty of time to remove paint from that highlight area, and it's only for the final layer that I'm choosing to go in wet on dry to be able to control the shape a bit better. Finally, for this exercise, we're just going to do a couple of things that can help you control your watercolor when doing detailed work. I've got my pink mix on my palette. Firs, t I'm going to go in with my soft brush and just try and create some really fine lines. As a comparison, I'm going to do the same thing with that same paint mix, but I'm going to switch to my more stiff brush. Right away because this brush is able to hold its shape and its point better, we can see that it's a lot easier to do those fine details, so choosing the right brush for the job can really help. Another thing you can play around with is paint consistency. Here, I'm going in with a very wet paint mix, and even though I'm going in with that same stiff brush, I'm having a much harder time creating those fine details. Because the brush is like a sponge, it's going to soak up all that water. Because the brush is nice and soaked, it's going to release that much more water and pigment onto the paper as opposed to here where I have allowed my paint to dry on my palette. When I go in and pick up my paint, I'm only really getting pigment onto the tip of the brush. The brush is not soaked with clean water, but it is somewhere between wet and damp, and thus I'm having a much easier time controlling the paint for creating details. When we move on to painting the eyes, you'll be able to see that for a lot of those final steps, I am using the paint dry as opposed to wet from my palette. 5. Exercise - Using Gouache: [MUSIC] Something I love using with my watercolors is gouache. Let's take a look at how gouache compares to or differs from your regular watercolors. Gouache is technically a watercolor, but with an opaque pigment added. You're working with an opaque paint, whereas with your normal watercolors you're working with transparent paint. It's perfectly fine to use them together and so most often you'll see me just using white gouache and then mixing in my watercolors to get the different colors or shades of gouache. Like watercolors, if you allow it to dry on your palette, you can come back to it at a later time and just add some water to reactivate it. If applying it straight from the tube or just mixing in a small amount of water, you'll get a more opaque paint, whereas if you mix in more water, you'll see that as it dries, it gets less opaque. [MUSIC] You'll also be able to see here where I painted it on top of the watercolor that even though it did become more transparent, this area or this line does look more dull. That's because whereas with your watercolors you have this transparency which creates a beautiful luminosity because it allows the light to shine through, the gouache is not going to allow for that same passing or light. Another difference between watercolor and gouache is that watercolor dries lighter than what it looks like when it's wet. With gouache, although that is still true for the darker shades, you'll find that most shades become darker as they dry. This can make controlling the exact color and value a bit more challenging. [MUSIC] If used in a more diluted form, you will find that in many ways the gouache is going to behave the same way watercolor would, so in the way that it moves and spreads on the paper. [MUSIC] But you may also find that it reactivates and is easier to effect than your normal watercolors, even one stride on your paper. [MUSIC] One of the things gouache is great for is to help correct mistakes. Let's say you were adding some details to a watercolor painting and you accidentally did this. Now, if you were to lift this off your paper straightaway after applying it, you'd most likely, for the most part at least be able to fix this. But let's just pretend that it left a mark that you just couldn't remove. What you can then do with your gouache is mixing some of your watercolor and use it to go back in and help conceal that mistake. [MUSIC] Another thing you can do with gouache is apply light on top of dark. You will see me do this for the eye paintings for some of those final touches, so when adding the eyelashes and even some of the details on the skin. If you are being careful I'm not using much pressure, you can even use normal watercolor to then glaze over that layer of gouache you just applied. [MUSIC] But be careful when it comes to going in too many times while it's still wet unless you are trying to soften those edges or make it look a bit more smudge. Have a go at using gouache in combination with your watercolors and discover potential ways you can use it to help improve or enhance your watercolor paintings. [MUSIC] 6. Warm-up Exercise - shading: [MUSIC] Let's do a warm-up type exercise. This is a good way to get to know your color palette and to be able to see how the different colors react with each other. More than that, it's a great way to practice adding shading without feeling the pressure of having to make something that looks finished or polished. You can find my sketch as well as the reference in the Projects and Resources tab, and feel free to either trace or print it onto your own watercolor paper. I haven't put any thought into the color palette in relation to the reference picture. I just used the color palette from the previous exercises. Because we don't necessarily have to paint with the exact colors of the reference, we just want to loosen up and practice adding shading. To make it easier, I'm just going to refer to the colors as pink, yellow, and blue. I first mix together the pink and the yellow to get the base for the skin tone and apply this in a thin wash. If your base is too yellow, you can add some more pink and if it's too pink, you can add some more yellow or even go in with some of the blue. While the paper was still damp from the first wash, I added some blue to the mix and added this to the eyelid and beginning of the crease area. I also went in with a deeper orange with some more pink added and began adding some color to the under eye. Under the eye to our left, the skin is a bit more pink, whereas to the right it's a bit more yellow. For the right side, I added in some more yellow to that orange mixture. I then just went back and forth between these different shapes, kept referring to the reference and then added in color wherever I felt it needed it. You'll notice that I'm not blending middle layers. If you want you can do that but the point of this exercise is not to make it look nice and polished, but rather to keep more relaxed approach and focus on the colors or the placement of the shading rather than the edges of each layer. Though it does come down to personal preference. In my humble opinion, the more layers you add and the more you build up that shading and the different color tones, the better it'll look. At the end of this lesson, I actually think it looks pretty decent. Even though this is not a style I typically paint in, it's just more loose and expressive and there are plenty of artists who paint like this. Though in this case it's meant as an exercise, it's definitely a style that's worth exploring to see if it's something you enjoy. After that first layer had dried, I went back in and added some more shading to the crease and the eyelid. You can see that on the brow bone where you usually have a nice soft transition, I'm just allowing that hard edge to form. But it's still stops right before that most highlighted part on that brow bone, so we still get the sense of shading. You can continue adding as many layers as you want to make it look a lot more three-dimensional than what I'm doing. All you want to do is just keep an eye on the colors and the changes in value. If the skin is pink in areas, add some more pink. If it's more yellow, add more yellow. If it's blue, add more blue. That might turn green because you've added a yellow layer already, but then add some pink to neutralize it, or if you can't fix it, just allow it to be green. This is not about right or wrong or potentially messing up. We're just playing with paint. We're allowing ourselves to discover new colors or color combinations to familiarize ourselves with our color palette. There are no rules. You may also notice that color is not only always that important. Having a green tint to the skin where it wasn't meant to be, isn't necessarily going to make or break our painting. The values you put down and the overall contrast of the picture or painting or composition is far more important than the color choices. You can create a portrait and add lots of rainbow colors to the skin and still read that as a face. But if the values are off, that's where you may have areas that look too flat or you're not getting the liveliness that you want. Don't worry about the exact placement of every single color choice. We're just practicing. While adding in these final layers, and before we get started on the final paintings or studies, I also want to quickly talk about the size of the sketches I'm working with in this class. I'm purposely choosing to not work on eyes that take up the entire sheet of paper. The reason for this is that even though you can get in lots of details when you paint a huge eye on eye, that takes up an entire sheet of watercolor paper. If you were to paint a finished portrait of an entire face, would you still work that big? Would the eye still take up that much space and would the face then take up that much more space so you'd have to work on a much larger sheet of paper? In my case, there's no way I'd ever paint a portrait that big. While it's fun to add in lots of detail and really get into the nooks and crannies of every single line or pore of the skin, I personally find that it's much more useful to exercise or to practice painting in a scale closer to the paintings you're going to be creating. Because you're getting a more realistic sense of how much detail you can fit into that painting and you're able to practice brush control a lot more. Plus they're not going to take us long to finish. To me, it's a win-win. But, of course, if you prefer painting larger painting or larger eyes, feel free to do so. I'm just letting you know my reasons for choosing this smaller scale. With that, let's move on to painting some more detailed eyes. 7. Sketch & Color Palette - Dark Skin: You're not going to be focusing on how to sketch from a reference in this class but if you are interested in that, I recommend that you check out the second-class in this series where I go through a few different approaches to freehand sketching from a reference. But I still wanted you to be able to see the process and so for this sketch, I am sketching directly onto the watercolor paper I'm going to be using so I'm using a very light touch, especially for these first few lines where I'm trying to figure out the distance and the shapes of everything. Then once I've decided that I'm happy with the lines I've put down, I go back and define them, but don't worry, this class is about paintings so if you want to just get to that part, I've provided my sketches in the project and resources tab. You can either trace them or use a printer and print them onto your watercolor paper. [MUSIC] Just like in the sketching video, rather than looking at it as an eye, I'm trying to see it as simple shape so I'm starting out with that curve for the tablet then focusing on getting that almond or leaf shape, which is going to be the eye itself. Then once I have that, I put in the eyelid as well as that crease under the eye. While doing this, I'm looking at the lines and the curves, I'm looking at the angles and the shapes within those lines. Because I ended up making the iris a bit smaller than what I did initially put down on my paper, I forgot to move up the waterline, which means that the lower line is actually not in the right place but don't worry for the sketch I have provided in the resources tab, I have corrected this so you don't have this issue. For the eyelashes I am trying to get someone off the correct angle, but I'm not really looking at the individual lashes because these pencil lines are so faint that they're not going to dominate the final painting and so I'm not going to worry about those details just yet. [MUSIC] In drawing in the eyebrow Schwann, and look at the direction the hair is growing. In the front on the bridge of the nose, the hair usually grow up. Then as they move towards the arch, they start to almost lay down horizontally, but not completely and then for the tail of the eyebrow, they grow downwards. Because we're going to be painting darker skin for this one, you don't have to worry as much about the pencil lines. Unless you go really dark with your pencil, you're most likely going to be able to cover them up with the watercolor. Even said this is not meant to be a finished portrait of some specific person. We're just practicing and I'm having fun adding shading, building up layers, and trying to get this realistic eye. If you do end up having some visible pencil lines in the end, it really doesn't matter. [MUSIC] Once I was done, I did go in a final time and just define some of those lines a bit more. [MUSIC] Next we're going to take a look at the color scheme for this eye. I've chosen a pallet of technically four color spot really only need all three of them. Our main palette is going to consist of transparent orange, quinacridone purple, and Helio turquoise. This color scheme is similar to the fourth skin tone in my color mixing class, but I replaced that blue color with this Helio turquoise. You could really use either but the reason why I decided to go with the turquoise is because on the right side of her face, you can see how the sky is reflecting on her skin and so it has more of the turquoise helio than it does a more standard or actual blue shade. Then the last color I added to this color scheme or color palette is neutral tint. You don't really need this. The other three colors are capable of mixing some really nice grayish tone but just for the simplicity and ease, I decided to add in the neutral tint. As with any color palette, I recommend that you spend a few minutes just mixing different shades and see what you can come up with. Not only is this a good way to see what the color palette is capable of and which colors you can get, but it's also a good way to practice mixing the colors and the shades you need. Plus it's just a really easy way to be able to go back and see which colors you've used for previous paintings and what those colors could also be used for. I mean, swatches just look good. [MUSIC] 8. Base - Dark Skin: We're going to apply some base layers of color to everything and start working on the skin surrounding the eye. Starting with the white of the eye, which is actually why do we want to mix almost like a creamy color. I'm not sure if you can call it that, but I'm mixing to get out the orange and the purple, and then adding in some of the turquoise to get more of a neutral tone down or grayish tone. If you find it difficult to figure out exactly what color tones or shades you need to mix, using the color tool we made in the color mixing class can really help. Personally for this one, I just have my reference on my phone and then I'm just mixing what I see. [MUSIC] Right now, we're just adding some very light washes of color so we are going to be darkening them and adjusting them. No need to worry. If you do end up having a layer on your paper that is a bit too yellow, you can use your knowledge of color theory, which we did go through in the color mixing class, and just use the complimentary class to neutralize it. As I mentioned in the first class in this series, I like to begin with the white of the eye, just because this is going to be the lightest part of the face, or usually at least. Adding color to this area, which is clearly not white, makes it easier to see how much you need to amp up the color surrounding it. Right now it's going to appear way too dark, but at the end of this lesson, you'll be able to see that it's actually too light and we need to add more layers to it. [MUSIC] After applying that base color to the white of the eye, I'm mixing a more brown tone and using this to add some shading, and dimension around the edges. [MUSIC] By then adding in some more orange and purple, we're going to get a really nice color for the eyelid. We can go ahead and apply that. [MUSIC] Next, we can mix up some deeper shades of brown so the top one on my palette is mostly orange and purple, and then what is in the left of the previous colors, and then the bottom one has more turquoise in it. So it's going to be a lot more neutral and muted and it's going to be used for that right side, right next to the eye where the sky is reflecting onto the skin. Now we're going to be applying these to create the base of the skin and you just want to try approximately following the reference to see where you want them to be placed. The best way to do this would be to wet the entire area of that paper and then go in wet-on-wet. That way you can have a much easier time having the pigment flow nicely together and blend, and create nice transitions. What I'm doing, I wouldn't recommend, but I'm doing this to demonstrate something. I generally recommend using a softer brush when adding shading like this because it is easier to blend and just create those nice soft transitions. The softer bristles are going to have an easier time following along with the movements of your hand whereas a stiffer brush, although great for details, can be more difficult and challenging to maneuver around those different curves. For these initial base layers, I'm actually doing exactly what I don't recommend. I'm using my stiffer brush for adding shading or color to that larger area, which is the skin. Still working more strategically, or wetting the paper, and then applying it wet-on-wet, can help and I'm not saying you can't make this brush work, but it is going to be more challenging but I wanted to create a more spreadsheet-base layer because this is a perfect way to demonstrate that even if your first layers go down not as nicely as you would have liked. There's usually no need to panic it's normal for painting to go through this ugly stage. But because we are working in layers and glazes, the washes of color we're currently putting down are going to be lighter than what we want the end result to be. If you end up in a situation like this where your first layers just don't look right and don't look as nice as you would want them to, don't give up, just have faith in the process. I know all-to-all myself what it feels like to just be completely discouraged when you see that first layer go down because you imagined it being much more smooth, or you imagine something to look amazing right from the beginning, but things take time. With that being said, I do, of course, encourage you to do it the proper way or the better way to give yourself an easier time so wet that entire area before putting down the base color and don't work with brushes that are too stiff. As soon as I'm starting to add more layers later in this same lesson, I am switching to my softer brush. Next, we can apply the base color for our iris and if we look at the reference picture, we can see that there are areas where the iris or the color of the iris almost bleeds into that white. You can stay within the circle if you want this point just going with that extra color layer but, I'm using my brush to just blend out the edges and allowing some of that pigment to flow into the white area and then using my tissue to lift pigment and help dry off the paper so the pigment doesn't flow uncontrollably. [MUSIC] For the final bit for this first layer, we're just going to be adding some color to the waterline and the lash line. So I'm using that one more orangey shade of brown for the waterline and then adding in more purple and blue or turquoise to create a darker more neutral brown for the lash line. [MUSIC] For the rest of the painting process, I'm going to be using this palette, it's going to allow me to keep my colors separate from each other and also allow me to create some very watery mixes which we are going to be using for some of the layers. The two colors on top are going to be for the surrounding skin, so for this I'm adding mostly orange as a base. Then for the top one, which is going to be our brightest part of the skin or the main color, I'm mixing in some of the purple. Then for the bottom one of those two, I'm adding in some turquoise as well to get a more neutral and just deeper brown for some of the shading. [MUSIC] The third shade is going to be even more muted and just a deeper brown, so this is going to have a higher concentration of the purple and turquoise. Even though we can use, and we'll be using the different colors on different areas of this painting, this color was thought of as being shading for the eyelid. Just because this area is less orange looking than the rest of the picture. [MUSIC] You can then wet your paper and add some more color to the skin. For this layer, you want to focus more on getting those nice soft transitions and alter just a wipe away some of the pigment if it gets onto the highlights of the skin, so those lighter areas next to the right side of the eye or for the bridge of the nose. [MUSIC] Something that is completely optional but you can do if you want to add some texture is, use your tissue to just lift off small amounts of pigment in a dapping motion. Depending on your paper and how easy it is to lift paint off of it, you can do this when you first apply the paint and the paper is still wet or you can wet the paper like I'm doing here, and then just using the tissue to come back in and lift some of that pigment. This is something I'm going to be doing a bit of at the very end, but at this stage, if you want, you can play around with it as we asked, I'm going to be able to cover it up. Next, we can add some deeper colors to the darker areas, so that is going to be that right side of the face, the base of the eyebrow, and under the eye. On the right side as well as under the eye, I'm working wet and wet to allow for more blending and bleeding off the pigment and then for the eyebrow I'm working wet on dry to keep it in a more controlled shape. You can, of course do it either way depending on your own preferences. [MUSIC] If you are working on multiple layers in the same area, remember to allow your paper to dry in between, just so that you don't end up pushing away the pigment before it sets. [MUSIC] Under the eye, I'm also cleaning and wiping my brush and then using it to lift pigment to create almost a texture of those lines from where the skin creases. This is still so early on that is not really going to be visible on the final painting or later on the process, but it just helps me visualize what I want to do next or where I want to add my shading. [MUSIC] Once dry, I went back in and added some more shading to that crease area or under the brow bone. [MUSIC] I also deepened the shading under the eye and already you can see how that texture from the brush basically disappears. [MUSIC] At this point, I am also decided to just lift off a tiny bit of pigment from that top section of the brow bone where we're going to have the brightest highlights and then added a tiny bit of shading to the eyelid. [MUSIC] We're going to apply one final wash in this section on lessons. For this, I'm wetting the entire paper and going in with those top two shades, and if you have any areas where you just have slightly harsher edges than what you want, this is the time you want to create those transition shapes. As an example where I lifted off pigment at the brow bone, the transition between the light and darker area isn't really soft enough, so this is one of those areas where you want to focus on getting some nice mid tones in-between the lighter and darker shades. [MUSIC] Watercolor dries lighter than what it appears to be when it's wet, so right now it does look quite intense and a bit crazy, but once it's had a chance to dry, it's going to look a lot less crazy. Under the eye to the right, you can see how I'm just dabbing in pigment rather than adding a brushstroke and so, this is a way to just still get that pigment onto the page, but in our less intense, more concentrated version than if you were to apply it using a full wash. If you do it at the right stage where the paper is still wet enough for the pigment to spread, but dry enough for the pigment not to spread too much. You can also use this technique to add texture to the skin. 9. Adding Layers & Detail - Dark Skin: [MUSIC] In this section, we're going to build up more layers to improve on the form, the contrast, and the details. We're going to begin by adding some more detail to the iris and for this we're going to need a dark brown. I'm using that third shade, which is the more muted on neutral and tone down version of a brown. We're just going to go in and add some shading, more detail to that upper section of the iris. You can also start working on that cast shadow or shading from the upper lash line. Because if we look at our reference, there are some really soft transition between the lashes and the white of the eye. We want to add some shading to this area to give the eye the right shape. You can also go in and define the crease, the line under the eye, which was part of the original sketch, and add some hair texture to the eyebrow. You don't have to worry about defining the hairs of the brow just yet. We just want to begin adding in some of that texture. We can then add another layer to the shading portion for the brow bone. You want the darker and more concentrated color to be at the bottom of focus down where the creases, and then faded out up towards the eyebrow. Every now and again, you'll see me go in with a damp brush like I'm doing here and just blurring out some of those lines. Even though we still need to work on the shading we are getting to a point where there will be a bunch of these small adjustments. Next I mixed up a very dark on neutral brown, almost like a black color and I'm going to use this for the darker areas on the portrait. Now, if your color palette did include a neutral tint or a similar dark neutral color, you can use this instead. I'm then going back in with another layer to the lashes or lash line and fading that into that cast shadow on the white of the eye. The iris is still very pale compared to in our reference picture so we're just going to go in and add some more color to this area. For this, I'm using our main skin color, which is that top color. As that dries, keep an eye on the edges to make sure to blur out any hard edges forming. Really at this point, it's just a matter of going back and forth between these different areas, adding a few more layers, deepening the colors and values, and defining some of the details we've already established. I'm adding more layers to the crease, the lash line, the lower or bottom waterline, as well as adding in some more color and shading to the white section of the eye. I'm also starting to add some color to the corner of the eye to that exposed fleshy bit. You want to constantly refer back to your reference. Likeness is not particularly important for this painting in the sense that our goal is to paint a realistic eye in watercolor and not so much focus on painting an eye of a specific person. You want to try and get those same proportions, shapes, and values that you see in your reference. But if it doesn't look exactly like the eye in the photo, it's okay. In fact, if it doesn't, this is actually a great opportunity to try and figure out what it is that makes your eye or the eye you painted look different from the reference. Sometimes making mistakes can give you much more useful knowledge and experience that you can use in the future. Because this forces you to look for and pinpoint those differences. The more you paint, the better and faster you'll become at finding these differences, as well as figuring out the best ways to correct them. No matter how frustrating it can be to make mistakes, mistakes are never made in vain. I'm adding a few more layers to these areas, then deepening the color of the iris and then wetting my paper and adding in one more layer of shading to the skin. You can repeat these steps as many times as you feel needed in order to get the look you want. Just don't rush it. Enjoy the process. Being able to slowly build up your painting in all these layers is one of the reasons why watercolor can be so therapeutic. There is something truly magical about seeing some things slowly emerging from the page. But if you do get sick of waiting for the paper to dry in-between layers, you can always bring out your hairdryer to speed up the process at least a bit. Even though there are still details to be added and adjustments to be made. One of the things that stand out the most to me when it comes to differences between the painting and the reference, is currently the eyebrow. I'm just going to go back in and define that texture of the hair a bit more and try to improve on that overall shape. As we're getting to a point where we have the right values and shading on the skin, we can start adding some more detail or texture. I'm starting out by adding a few lines under the eye, then adding another layer of watercolor on top, which is going to help soften those lines. At this point, the paper has gotten to a stage where it's quite saturated from all the different layers of paint so anything you add on top is going to be much easier to blend. You should also be able to fairly easily lift paint off the paper, at least to some extent or some of the layers. I'm just going to have a look at the reference and then go back and forth and lift some of the paint from those lightest areas. We can use this technique to enhance the texture under the eye and we also definitely want to lighten the skin right below the waterline, especially near the inner part of the eye. If you do end up lifting up a bit too much of the pigment, you can always go back in and add another layer of watercolor. The frame I've drawn around the eye for my painting extends further than what I can see in the reference. I'm just winging it and inventing what's going over here on the right side. This isn't an important part of the painting. It just helps to make that eye look like it belongs somewhere. Maybe apart from a few final adjustments to the skin just to make sure that the shading or the shadows form the same way as they do on a reference, if you wanted to, you could really leave it like this and then just add the eyelashes. I'm going to still take it up a notch and add some more details, so in the next section on lesson, we are going to be doing some more of these micro adjustments and just add in a bit more texture and detail. 10. Finishing Layers & Details - Dark Skin: We're going to finish up this eye and for the first few minutes I'm just going back and forth over the same details on the same areas we've gone over multiple times, making these little micro adjustments. I'm adding the final bits of shading, adjusting the contrast or adding some more layers to the crease and a few other places. Anything I feel could use some more attention. Within these first few minutes, you'll also see me go in and add some fine lines. Just to give the skin a bit more detail. For this, I'm using the dried-up paint on my palette in order to be able to better add in these fine details rather than using a very wet paint mix which is going to soak up into your brush. While doing this, I want to talk about using references and using references that you've printed versus using a reference on your phone, computer, or other type of monitor. The thing with using a monitor to have your reference and to look at while painting is that a monitor literally close. You can't replicate that with a piece of paper or a colors. Column matching may be a bit more challenging or being able to recreate exactly what you see may not be possible. Whereas with a printed referential you'll be able to get a much more true to life or realistic version of what that subject should look like. That is something to keep in mind. One thing you can do if you are using a monitor of some sort to keep your reference on while working on your painting or drawing is to turn down the brightness. You can turn down the brightness to a point where the widest or lightest areas on your reference is not brighter than your paper or colors. That way you know that at least for the most part what you see in your reference is obtainable to do with traditional mediums. You will be able to see that at this point, I brought in that last column from our core scheme which is the neutral tint. Although this is not a necessarily color for this painting, I just brought it in to have easy access to that neutral, that core. I'm just using it to darken the darkest areas of the painting as well as paint in some of the eyelashes later, even though technically the eyelashes are brown but they are very dark. I'm using a mix of the neutral tint and some of the brown mixes but we'll get to that a bit later in this section. [MUSIC] At this point, I was pretty happy with the shading and the different values so I decided to go back in and lift off some of the paint just to add some texture. Now I'm doing this in a very subtle manner. It's not going to make much of a difference and if you do this you have to be careful not to lift up too much of the pigments but I am doing this just to add in that tiny bit of extra detail as well as correct the shape for the eyebrow on that top portion and some of the details under the eye. [MUSIC] Before adding any more detail to the eyebrow, I'm also just going in with my pencil and marking up where I want the hairs to go. I'm just correcting the shape or giving myself some guidelines and know where to stop when adding in those final details. Lastly, we're just going to go in with some of those finishing touches and fine details. If you want, you can bring out your white watercolor gouache wash and so we can use this to add in some of those more glistening details within the eye itself as well as add some more detail to the skin. I'm using a tiny bit on the eyelid just to add some more detail and texture as well as on the right next to the eye and to add some of the detail for the eyebrow because some of those dark hairs are being hit by bright light and so they are more bluish or gray in color. I'll also be using the gouache to add some details for the eyelashes so both to enhance some of the darker eyelashes and also for mixing with some of the watercolor to create an opaque paint that I can then use to paint some of the eyelashes that appear to be more of a light to medium gray color. For the majority of these details, I'm using the gouache in a more water down version so once it dries, it's not going to be fully opaque and so I do go over it multiple times to get the value or amount of detail that I want. But you can of course also use it in a less diluted form if you want some of those highlights to be brighter right away. Really you can go back and forth with these different steps and make adjustments as many times as you want to get it as accurate or as close to the reference as possible. But that also means that you can stop at anytime you want. We want to keep it fun if you get sick of adding details, just stop. Watercolor is known for being more loose in the style when people are painting with it, at least that is what you typically associate with a watercolor painting. You can use this as a fun exercise to just try and see how realistic you can go or to practice these different techniques. But don't feel like you have to add in a lot of detail if you don't want to. If you just want to try and practice adding in the different values or the shading, that's a perfectly valid approach. If you want and prefer, you could easily keep this a lot more simple and just rather than focus on getting in a lot of detail, put your focus into getting the right shapes, proportions, cause, and values. Details are not what make a portrait look like a certain person. What makes a portrait look like the person you're trying to paint or draw is having those features in the right places and for the features to have the right shape. For the nostrils to be the correct shape and size and for the pupils to be pointing in the correct direction. Those are some of the things that are important to focus on. If you want your portrait to be recognizable, details are just sprinkles. They're delicious, they look good but they're not necessary. Just focus on getting your painting to a level that you are happy with or a level where you can see that you have progressed. Anything aside from that is something that you can choose to play around with or practice if you want. For the final step we're going to be adding in the eyelashes and so for this I'm again just using the dried-up paint on my palette. I'm using the neutral tint as well as a few shades of the brown mixes and I'm using the gouache and just mixing this with some of those paint mixes and I'm then just adding the lashes approximately where I see them in the photo. I'm not being particularly careful about getting the placement or the color off them exactly right, but I am still using the reference as a very strong guideline. [MUSIC] That is it for this painting. Let's move on and paint an eye with light skin. 11. Sketch & Color Palette - Light Skin: [MUSIC] No matter this can turn, we still have to start off with the sketch. For this one, similarly to the other one, I start out with that basic eye shape or almond shape. I then added the eyelid as well as the fold under the eye. From there, I moved on to adding the eyebrow, the iris, as well as that fleshy bit in the inner corner. Because the light is going to mix it, so I'm not going to be able to cover up the pencil lines as well as [inaudible] mixes. I want my lines with this one to be a bit more precise. Once I was about happy with the placement of everything, I went in with my kneaded eraser and just lifted up some of those pencil lines before filling in with a more clean outline. As I mentioned for the first sketch, this class is really focused on the painting process so I have provided my sketches in the projects and resources tab. Feel free to use them to either trace or print them onto your own watercolor paper. If you want some more tips on how to approach sketching from a reference like this, definitely check out the second class in the series which is about sketching for portraits. Because the values within the eyebrow as well as that crease area are so dark, I'm adding more detail and darker lines for the eyebrow for this one compared to the other one. Simply because once you start adding in those dark cause and values, it's so easy to lose sight of your sketch. As for the eyelashes, I still don't care too much about the exact placement compared to the reference photo, but the eyelashes I do put down are all placed approximately where I want them on the finished painting because the light washes of paint we're going to need for the eyelid are not going to be able to cover those up. Now, let's take a look at the color palette I've chosen for this one. For this eye, we're going to need some pinks, greens, oranges, blues, browns, as well as a more muted on gray tones. We just go with a variation of our primaries which is pretty close to the standard [inaudible] We're going to use magenta, chromium, yellow, and helio turquoise. For that extra but not necessarily needed neutral, I'm choosing Payne's gray, just because this is a good, solid, bluish, neutral which works great for mixing grays and blacks. Of course, playtime, whether you use seeing the same or similar colors to the ones I'm using, have a go at mixing different shades to see what you can get from this color palette. You should be able to mix pretty much any color under the sun with these. Let's move on to the first layer of color. 12. Base - Light Skin: [MUSIC] Right off the bat, we're just going to get started with mixing our different colors. There are a couple of differences when you compare this image to the one with darker skin. On the one we just painted, a lot of it came down to value, so how light or dark something is, that was really what gave it form and shape. Although that is still true for this one, we still need our box and lights. We're going to have to pay close attention to changes in color. There are a lot more colors going on in the iris, as well as color changes in the skin. For this top color on my palette, I'm mixing the main skin color, which is rather a yellow base skin tone. We going to have to mix appeal orange, which is the base color for most skin tones and then we're going to add in some of the turquoise just to neutralize it a bit more. You'll also see how in some of the shadow areas on the photo or the reference, we're moving to want some more green tones, so you really don't want it to be too pink. [MUSIC] The second color we are mixing is going to be used for some of the shading and backup values in the eye or the skins. As an example, the skin within that top lash line, but we're going to be using this one just as a more general shading color and as a transitioning color in the crease area, eyelid, and under the eye. For this color you want more of a brown shade and you can mix a brown by mixing an orange and then adding in some of your blue object turquoise to neutralize it a bit, but you also don't want to add in too much of the turquoise or blue because we do want a nice warm brown. [MUSIC] For the third, well, we're going to take a look at right under the eye, where we have those pink shades. This color is going to be more heavy on the magenta and the turquoise, where you want a very pinkish tone. But we don't want it to be a true pink, so we're using the turquoise to drag it into more of a purple area and we then adding in some yellow to drag it into a more neutral area. [MUSIC] For this painting, you want to try and get fairly close to the colors you see in the reference. Simply because we are going to be working with much lighter values for the skin and we know that with watercolor being a transparent medium, with each layer of watercolor we add, we're going to darken our values and painting, even if it's just a tiny bit. Even though we can still change the tone or hue, by adding in one of our other primaries for a layer, it can have a greater impact on the final painting just because of values in the reference are so light, but we also want to keep in mind that it's not the end of the world. If you do end up changing the values of bit and you end up with a slightly darker painting, that doesn't mean you've done anything wrong. You've just changed the lighting a bit. I mean, artistic freedom is a thing, so don't worry about it. For the white of the eye, we're going to need a pale blue color. We're going to mix in a tiny bit of our yellow and magenta into our turquoise, then apply this and allow it to dry. [MUSIC] When working with very wet washes like this, you will likely see some hard edges forming as it dries, but once dry or almost dry, you should be able to go in with a damp brush and soften them. [MUSIC] For the base of the iris, we want to mix our pale bluish green shade. This color will still allow us to go back in later and change the central portion to a more yellow tone and add a more blue tone to the outer edges. [MUSIC] You can use your clean dried off brush to help lift any excess pigment. [MUSIC] To make it look a bit less flat, let's bring in some of the shading around the inner corner and the outer corner. To trench with some of that blue we mixed for the white portion of the eye to a different section of the palette and just add a tiny bit of magenta. [MUSIC] Let's move on to the skin. For this one due to the light values, we're going to be a bit more purposeful about where we place a different class. I'm going to take our second color, which is that warm brown and I'm going to apply this to some of the mid tone areas on the eyelid as well as under the eye. Here you also want to bring in some of that red or pink skin tone. We also have some directness on their brow bones, so feel free to apply that red skin tone to this area as well. [MUSIC] You can then apply thin wash of the first column, which is our main skin tone. [MUSIC] I'm applying this to most of the skin, but I am keeping it away from that red skin right under the eye, just because we don't want this area to turn to orange. [MUSIC] Next, we want to start building up that contrast from that very dramatic shadow under the eyebrow. I'm first mixing up a nice warm, mid-tone brown color. I'm using this as a transition shade between that very dramatic shadow and the normal skin tone. [MUSIC] Then to really get started on that shadow, we're mixing up a very neutral dark brown and applying that to a few of the darker sections on our eye. [MUSIC] Right here in the darker section under the eyebrow, I'm not being too careful about the color placement or making it look neat, because I am going to go back in and deepening those values with some extra layer, so we'll be able to fix any uneven edges or layers in this area later in the process. [MUSIC] When mixing up some more this color, I ended up adding a bit too much of the blue, so I ended up with more of a gray or black color. But whether you're working with a black or still working with the dark gray, you want to apply this to the pupil as well as the top portion of the iris where we can see the darkest bit of shading. I then went in and added a bit more texture to the eyebrow just to get a better sense of the shape. You don't have to be all that neat about this, but you do want to be aware of places where you have this skin showing through the hairs. Then right here near the inner corner, I chose to lift up some of the pigment. Even though I know that with this paper, once this has fully set, it wouldn't have been an issue. At this point, we can begin adding in some more of those tonal or color changes in the skin. I'm mixing some of that second column mix together with a tiny bit of the green from the iris. I'm applying this to that left side of the forehead, then dragging it down under the eye and up onto that side of the bridge of the nose. Then go ahead and deepen the reds as well as the shadow tones. Keep referring back to your reference to see where you want to place each of the colors. Even though we still have more layers to add, we are rapidly approaching the correct values, at least on that lighter portion of the skin. You just want to go in with thin washes. Unlike when we were working on dark skin, we're not going to have as many chances to cover up any uneven areas, so keep an eye on hard edges forming where you don't want them and make sure to blend them out. [MUSIC] Finally, for the face, I'm just going to go in and add some more contrast to that top line of the eyelid or the crease. As well as the darkest portion of the eyebrow. [MUSIC] 13. Adding Layers & Details - Light Skin: [MUSIC] Let's begin building up the layers. It always helps to get some of the strong contrasts in. I'm mixing together a few of the shapes just to get a nice deep brown color. I'm applying that to really get that deep shadow under the eyebrow in. [MUSIC] Because I'm working with a very watery mix here, I'm letting it sit before I blend out the edges. I'm doing this with a couple of layers and I'm also pulling some of that excess color onto the eyebrow itself just to create a better base color. Even though I am adding some more paint to the eyebrow, I'm only really adding paint to that dark shadow portion. I'm still staying away from that tail end of the eyebrow as well as in-between the eyes or on that top portion of the nose. Because once we add in those fine hairs, it's going to be a lot more difficult to go in and make adjustments to the shading underneath in case that's something we wanted to do. We are saving this bit for the final touches. [MUSIC] Now that we've added some of the deepest values in our painting, it's going to be easier to see how much more we need to amp up the rest of the contrasts. I'm choosing to go in and work on the under eye area, intensify that red skin right under the eye and add in some more golden brown shading as well. [MUSIC] Now that we've established all the different elements or areas of the eye, we just going to go back and forth and add in thin washes of color as well as coat defining some of the details. For the skin surrounding the eye, I'm mostly playing around with adding greens and pinks. When painting the skin, if you feel any area is becoming a bit cool pink, you just want to go in with the cover mentally color which is green. Likewise, if an area is becoming too green, you can go in with some more pink. Again, you just want to constantly keep referring back to your reference, following along with what you see in the photo. If you make mistakes, look at it as gained experience, knowledge of what to do or not do for your next painting. If you're new to this and you're not quite comfortable with the techniques, I highly recommend to either work in a sketchbook like I am or just consider it a study. Sometimes it's amazing how much our mindset can change when we consider something at painting versus a study, when thinking out something as a study, a sketch or an exercise, we often feel less pressure to perform or to do our best because we're just playing around. It's just a study. That doesn't mean the result is not going to be as good, and it might even turn out better because you go into it with this relaxed mindset. [MUSIC] At this stage, the white of the eye and the iris is starting to look pretty pale in comparison to all the shadings surrounding it. We're going to go in and add some more shading to these areas starting with the white of the eye, which is going to deepen some of the blue and purple tones. For then for the iris, you want to change it from this green looking eye and get in some of those blue shapes. [MUSIC] In a few seconds, there's going to be a change in the way my palette looks. Right about here. That is just because the mixes I was working with were so watery that I decided to let it sit for a while and allowed it to dry up a bit, especially for that blue shape, just to make it easier to build up a more intense color around that, out of the edge of the iris. For the iris, whether you want to work wet and wet on wet and dry, you just want to apply some color around the edges. You can also add in some of the detail, which is basically just a bunch of small lines going into what's the center. You can be as precise as you want, I'm choosing to be fairly random with this pattern because in this case it's not going to make much of a difference whether the pattern is 100 percent correct compared to our reference, or whether we just have a sense of that texture or pattern in present. [MUSIC] If you're asked colors as me and you end up getting paint on some areas where you don't want to just re-wet it really quickly and dab it off using your tissue. I accidentally did this on a couple of occasions where I was looking at my reference and wasn't paying enough attention to where my brush was. If this happens, no big deal, we can always go in with some gouache to help conceal it. [MUSIC] Last thing I'm going to do before going back and working on the skin for a while is add a bit more shading here at the top of the iris and add in a small amount of Alpha skin tone mix to get in some of those more yellow tones near the center. From here on out, most of what we've got left are all these little micro adjustments. We want to go back and add in some more contrast, add some more intensity to some of the colors and deepen the values. Just take it one step at a time and find a pace that works for you. You can use our work update all other place like I'm doing, or focus on one area or section at a time. As an example, the iris, the white of the eye, the eyelid, the space between the eyebrow and the eyelid, or the skin surrounding the eye, whichever way you think is the most comfortable or enjoyable way of working. As the painting is progressing, I'm also just allowing my pink mixes to slowly dry out on my palette. Even when they've dried out completely, we'll still be able to pick up enough paint for sunlight washes. But since we're not really going to add more washes that cover the entire square, and we're going to be focusing more on details, getting some nice intense colors, and being able to control the consistency of the paint for those details is as we discovered in the exercises earlier in the class, going to be a lot easier when we're not working with really wet mixes. Although of course, if you don't agree and you prefer working with those more wet mixes, feel free to do so. There's no wrong way of doing it as long as you are enjoying the process and feel like you're getting the result you want. I personally prefer going in with lots of layers and making small adjustments at a time. I find that to be the most enjoyable way of working for me. But if you want to go in with fewer layers and just more intense colors instead, you can definitely do that as well. If you want, you can also keep it more almost impressionistic like we did in one of the exercises. You don't have to focus on getting all the little details on trying to get this seamless blending if that's not something you enjoy. Definitely play around with different styles or techniques to find what works for you or what you think looks at best or to develop your own personal style or take on things. [MUSIC] Lastly, in this section, we're just going to go back in and deepen some of the values in the iris upward the main shadow portion is, and I'm also pulling some of that color down to help blend the edges of the iris because really, there are no crisp lines in a portrait. Most of the color or values we see on that upper lash line stems from the eyelashes themselves. If you choose to add these darker values to the lash line at this stage, just be mindful of this because we don't want to create a straight line almost like an island, a type look. We want it to look like the staggered term and did formed or created by the eyelashes and that shadow portion. [MUSIC] Finally, I'm just going to go back in and add a bit more shading the bridge of the nose, as well as on the cheek down in that bottom left corner. Just like with the eye with dark skin, if you wanted to, you can go ahead and add some eyelashes, maybe add in a bit more shading to the iris, add some more texture to the eyebrow hairs and call it a day. But I'm going to go through everything a couple of more times just to make those final adjustments. [MUSIC] 14. Finishing Light Skin & Class Project: [MUSIC] Let's add those final layers and details. We want to really take closer look at our reference to see where we need to make some adjustments, or adding some more contrast. A couple of the main thing I'm noticing is that one, the iris isn't quite pointing in the same direction, so I'm just going to be adding some more paint to the right side, and to make up for the fact that we are whitening the eye, we want to just adjust the pupil a bit, to make sure it's still centered. These layers are also going to help with those final values, and get it closer to what we see in our reference. We definitely also want to take a look at the eyebrow and adding some more detail. I'm pretty happy with the skin surrounding it, so I'm just going to take my pencil and begin adding in those hairs. At this point, if we want to, we could still adjust the skin because the pencil isn't going to be affected too much. Having that more clear shape for the eyebrow makes it easier to see if you need to make some adjustments in the shading surrounding it, so I'm just going to go in and add a few more layers to the shadow right here in the crease area before adding some eyebrow hairs using watercolor. Let's talk about the class project. For the project, I'd like you to paint a realistic eye. It can be based on one of the references that I've provided, or one that you choose yourself, but please do include it when posting your project. It's up to you how much detail you want to add to the eye, but your goal is to create depth with the use of colors and values. You can keep it smooth and blended, or make it more loose and expressionistic, it's completely up to you, but I'd love to see what you create. I'd love to also know which colors you're using for your color palette. [MUSIC] The hairs in the photo unlock all that crisp so I'm just going over it with clean water to soften it. Just use a light touch and be careful because otherwise you may smudge the pigment more than you want. But in any case, it may be helpful to go in with your tissue and just soak up any excess water. This can also help to lift up some of that pigment to help soften it. We can then begin adding in some more detail to the iris, which are shadows from the eyelashes. Again, I'm not being too precise with the placement, but having these darker sharp shadows within the eye is really going to help bring out the sense of that sunlight hitting the eye and the skin. For the initial shadows, I'm just using our blue mix but I'm quickly bringing in that Payne's gray. Our trio of course, are more than capable of mixing black, and the shadows in this area are not necessarily the same shade as the Payne's gray, but it's just a quick and easy way of getting some dark fairly neutral tones. In a minute you'll see me mix up a black on my palette for some of these dark final details. To mix a black, I'm using the Payne's gray, some magenta and a tiny bit of the yellow because that purple plus a small amount of yellow is going to give you a pretty decent black. Next, we can just start tackling those shadows or shading under the eye. I'm mostly going in with our main skin tone mixes, but I'm also adding in some blue and green to help get in some more of those color shifts. [MUSIC] Let's add in some of those final glistening details using wash. I'm starting out with that very obvious highlight on the eyelid, then moving on to the lower waterline, then adding a few highlights to the eyebrow and the surrounding skin. For that lower waterline I'm also mixing in some of our skin tone mixes just to help brighten the edge a bit. Then compare your reference to your painting and just add in those final touches. In my case, I still need to deepen the values of the shadows in the iris, add a bit more shading to the white of the eye, and just make a few final adjustments to the skin before going in and adding some eyelashes just approximately, I'm not being precise with the placement as well as the eyebrow hairs. Getting in these final layers, values, and details is what's really going to make your eye pop. But even though that is true, I'm still choosing to just end it after adding the eyelashes and the texture to the eyebrow. I'm not adding the shadows from the lower eyelashes, that you can see on the skin under the eye, and it also looks like this person has some freckles going on in the bottom right corner of our image, but I'm choosing to not nitpick because I know myself well enough to know that if I start going in with those final details in those errors I feel the need to go over everything again, and that's not the goal for this painting. Then of course, if you want to add more details than what I'm doing, I'm not going to stop you. You can add as many details as you want as long as you're happy with the result. [MUSIC] Let's end it here. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you create.