Oil Portrait Painting for Beginners: Paint Eyes, Nose and Mouth Step by Step

1. Welcome to oil portrait painting: Hello, and welcome to this course on painting facial features. Portrait painting can feel complex, and much of that difficulty comes from understanding each feature. In this course, we focus on the eyes, the nose, and the mouth. You will learn how to simplify it, understand volume, and build each feature step by step. We will also look at how light affects these elements and how to create more realistic results through careful observation. The goal is to help you gain confidence and improve your precision before moving on to full portraits. 2. How to paint realistic lips: In this video, we are going to see how to paint mouth. These elements of the face can be interesting to work on individually, I think, before working on a full portrait. And with this subject, we will also see how to work on the tif because I see many mistakes from the beginners when they want to paint the tiff. So we will see how to tackle that. And for that purpose, I will be working on oil painting paper. The size of it is 16 by 16 centimeters. And for the drawing, I will use a grid. And as for the materials, that's my common material as usual. Now, let's get started. Let's take a closer look at the colors of the mouth. We can already see that the per lip is darker than the lower lip. On the pal lip, especially on the left side, we start to see reddish tones that lean slightly toward purple and even brownish shades. In the central area, the tones are a bit lighter, still within the range of slightly purplish pinks. And on the lower lip, as I mentioned, we find lighter pinks, still with hints of purple or paleness, but with much lighter variations overall. In the central part of the lower lip, there is a very bright zone, a highlight that appears close to white. In that area, the pink becomes very pale. And as for the teeth themselves, we can see that in some spots they have slightly yellowish gray, and in the back, the teeth appear much darker since they catch far less light and are therefore deeper in value. So there you have it. Now let's take a look at how to mix these colors. Let's start now by mixing the lip colors. And beginning with the upper lip, you can notice that this upper lip has shades that are a bit more red and purplish compared to the lower lip. So that's what I am doing. I start with a base of red to which I had a bit of ultramarn blue and also a little yellow, as you may have seen, since yellow is the complimentary color of purple and helps to tone down the intensity a bit. I am also going to have a little bit of burnt umber because it helps to give it a slightly more neutral look and also softens the intensity. That's why I like this color. Now I have a shade that feels quite satisfying, and from this space, I will create one version that's a bit darker and another that is a bit lighter, so I can work with different values. That will help me build texture and depth. And now we can move on to the lower lip. For this lower lip, the tones are a bit more pinkish and overall more vibrant than the upper part, less purplish, less muted. So that's the color I mix. And from this shade, I'm going to create a slightly darker version, since the first one I mix was quite light and intended more for the central highlights area of this lower lip. With these colors, I would say that we have a pretty good base for the lips. I am adjusting this one just a little bit. Of course, we can always make changes along the way and create all the variations if needed. But for now, I think that we are in a good place. Now we now start mixing the skin tones we will be using. We are working with fairly traditional shades the kind we often find in skin colors. So I start with this slightly orangy tone mixed with a large amount of white. I also add a tiny bit of blue to my color to tone down the orange. Burnteber also helps to make it less intense, a bit more neutral, a bit more brownish, like natural skin tones often are. And at this point, I think that we have got a pretty good color. It is a little orangy, but there are areas of the skin where the tone will be more kind of pink and less orange. So that's why I added a good amount of red to my mixture. But then I realized the red was too intense, so I added its opposite color, but I overdid it, especially with the blue. So that's why I went back and added the opposite color of the blue, which is orange, still keeping a noticeable amount of because this time, I want to get slightly pinker tones. And now I would say we have some really solid initial colors, and with a large amount of white, as you can see, I create a much lighter version. And finally, there will be areas of the skin where the color is a bit more yellowish, yellow, orange, really. So that's exactly what I did. I added a large amount of yellow to my mixture compared to the other colors. And with that, I would say that we are all set for the skin tones, and we can now move on to the colors of the tif. Now, let's move on to the colors of the tif. What I do for the tif is create a slightly yellowish color, because if you look at the front teeth, they appear somewhat yellow. So that's what I did. I took some yellow and added a touch of its complimentary color, the purple, a small amount along with a bit of burnt umber to neutralize the mix. But these colors still need to be very light. So I added a large amount of white to my mixture to capture the brightness and lightness of the tiff. That's what I am doing here. And as you can see, I'm creating several variations of that base color. As for the teeth further in the back, on the other hand, those will need to have some more grayish tones, something clearly darker than the shades used for the front teeth. So I create these dark grays using burn timber and ultramarin blue, and then we will be all set. We will be ready to start painting the mouth. So let's go. We are starting the painting, and we'll begin with the upper lip. There's no particular reason why I'm starting with the upper lip, other than the fact that when I paint something, I generally prefer to work from top to bottom. This way, there's less chance of accidentally smudging the paint with my hand. So I start by applying my colors, trying to be fairly precise. And you can see that on the lower part of the upper we find the darkest areas. And also, as we move toward the left, the left side is noticeably darker overall than the right side. And I am using a medium sized brush here, and I try to apply the paint carefully over the different color zones. I really aim to establish the dominant color for each area I am painting. In this case, I have placed my colors in the main zones first, and once they are in place, I can start blending them together to create a smooth base. That gives me a clean foundation to work on later when where I can add more detail. And at this stage, I would say that I have a good base. My colors are well blended, so now I will start adding more precise touch. As you can see, I am switching to a finer brush, and I am beginning to apply darker accents along the edge of the lip. You can really see that the lower part of the lip is quite a bit darker, so I try to place those darker areas carefully. I look at their shape, whether they form any specific patterns, and then I apply the color accordingly, starting with those deeper tones. And then I do the same thing on the right side. Even though this right side is a bit more in the light, there are still a few small tucked in touches we can add. As you can see, these aren't extremely precise elements. The details we add on the lip are more like small strokes placed here and there, which help create that lip texture and make it look realistic. At this point, I have moved on to a slightly lighter color for the other areas because I feel like I have added everything necessary in terms of the darker parts in that section. And finally, between those darker elements, I can now add some very small and much lighter touches. And it is the layering of different rosy values with slightly lighter and slightly darker strokes that helps me create volume in the lip. It not only builds the texture, but also brings out the tiny surface reliefs that are really visible and characteristic of this part of the face. Now, I would say I'm done with the upper lip, and we can move on to the lower lip. As we noticed earlier, during the color analysis, this leap is a bit more pinkish and most importantly, it has quite a few areas that are lighter than the upper lip. So that's what I am focusing on. In the central area, I started by adding these slido tones. Then as we move toward the sides, the color gradually becomes darker. So I adjust the color on my brush accordingly. When I apply the paint, I really try to stretch it out so that the blending between colors happens more precisely. This is especially important here because we are working on a smaller area, and the smaller the area, the more accurate the blending needs to be. So really, stretching the paint properly is key. And I also try to be precise to avoid going over the tiff area. But if you do go a bit over the line or make a small mistake, it's not the end of the world. It's always possible to fix it later. Now I feel that my color application is good. And as I apply my color, I try to kind of do some sort of blending because these colors I applied are really quite similar to one another. And so now I can go back to painting and it some detail. I am adding to this darker elements. And we can see that under the lower lip, these details are a bit more defined, defined as lines, slightly curved lines on the left side. So make sure to pay attention to their direction. And in the central area, we also have some smaller, more irregular features that are quite similar to the ones we added in the upper lip. So that's what I am focusing on now trying to add these elements like here, these kind of irregular touches. By the way, when I had these detail elements, the small irregular touches, I don't overthink it. I just observe the color, the value, whether it's lighter or darker, and then I add it. I look at the shape, whether it's more like a line or more like a dot, and then I try to do the same thing without stressing too much about it. There's no point in overdoing it with these details. Just a few well placed touches are more than enough to get a good result with your lip texture. Now with this fine brush, I can start adding a few very light touches to the center of the lip. You can see that there is a highlight that is really well defined. I can go ahead and add that in. I'm trying to be fairly precise with the marks I make. Now, what we also notice is that there are some slightly lighter areas on the side as well. I can start to indicate those, but they will be less bright than what I have just added here. So I adjust my color accordingly. Here, I can also see that these detail elements take the form of slightly curved lines, which helps to bring out more depth and further enhance the work we did earlier on the texture and the fine curve lines in this area. And so I am adding a few with this brush, but I think I'm going to continue the detailing work using the sword brush because that brush is really very useful and very precise for drawing the small lines that we find in this area. Let's continue, and I am adding the final small details element, and then we'll move on to the tif. As we saw during the color analysis, the tif fall from pure white, and I will begin by applying small touches of color with this precise brush to start laying down a base tone. Here on this particular tf, it's true that it's quite bright. So I think I can start by adding some color here and there using this tone, just applying small touches. Then we will refine it by adding slightly darker or lighter marks like what we can see in the reference image. You can clearly see that there are small touches, some a bit darker, others lighter that will help give the tooth a three dimensional appearance. In the meantime, what I can also do is clearly define the edge of the tooth by working precisely around it in the gum area, adding a slight pinkish tone like this. That's what I am applying with this fine brush. I really try to be precise so I don't spill over onto the tooth. And I try to blend it slightly very gently with it. I just want my two colors to barely touch together and barely blend into each other. And here between these two teeth, we can see that it starts out fairly pink, then gradually blends into the teeth to the point where you almost can't see the line anymore. So be careful not to create too harsh a line in this area of the toth. 3. Painting lips – final details and realism: So there we go. I would say I've done a good job working on the gums. Now, what we can also see is that there are some even lighter areas on these tooth. So those are the ones I am marking, and I will also be adding a few slightly darker touches. That will help the tof stand out and give it volume and believable appearance. Even though it's just a small area, if you simply apply one flat color to the tof, the result won't be convincing or realistic. So that's what I am aiming for here. Have just applied the first few touches on this tif, and they are looking good. So now I'm going to move on to the next tooth. With this one, you can see that the further we move to the left, the darker the teeth become. So for this particular too, I am adjusting my base color. It is a bit darker, especially on the upper part and on the left side, where we can clearly see the darkest areas. That is exactly what I have tried to reflect in this section. So there you go a solid application of color, and I will proceed with this tooth in the same way I did with the previous two. On this tooth, I've got a good color application. I try to make sure the colors blended well with one another, and now I am also going to add a few slightly darker touches. You can see that on the right side of the tof there is a small darker mark like this, which helps bring out the highlight in that area, the bright zone. And on the left side, I can also enhance the shading a little bit. I am adding a few small touches like this, and it helps make the tuf more believable. As for this tooth as well, I've just worked on the gum. Be careful here, too. Just because it is a small, separate area doesn't mean we shouldn't use a single color or single value. You can notice that there are also slightly darker touches on the gum itself, so they need to be included properly. And now we are moving toward the teeth that are a bit further in the back. And as I mentioned earlier, the further we go to the left, deeper into the mouth, the more the teeth are in shadow since they receive less light. So we'll have to adjust our colors to get the right values because even if the value differences between the floor tif we have just painted aren't huge, they are still there. And if we don't take that into account, if we don't apply those subtle value shifts, the result won't be convincing or realistic. And here on this tof there is a very strong highlight, a large and bright area. So that's what I have added. And now we are moving toward the tiff on the left, which are even darker. So I am adjusting my color, and I am using the slightly brownish gray that we can see in this area. Be careful because even though this tooth is quite dark, it doesn't mean there is one single value. You can see that in the center, there is a grade that is a bit lighter, so make sure to take that into account as well. But overall, this tooth isn't necessarily more difficult than the others. Here and the gum will also be darker since it is more in shadow as well. So that is something I will be adding next. As I mentioned earlier, the gum area here is going to be even darker. So I am darkening my red by mixing in some burn tamber and ultramarine blue to apply the color in this zone, dark enough to really make everything stand out nicely. I am applying that now and then we'll move on to the two over tif in the back, which we will paint in a similar way. We will do those two tif together. There is also that small area just beneath the tif, the little part of the tongue that is visible that we paint after. And as for the teeth on the right side, the process is exactly the same as what we have done so far. So those will be painted off camera, and we will meet again to paint a bit of the skin around the mouth. So for the TIF, I am continuing in the same way, always taking my time. I know that working on the TIF can be a bit time consuming and somewhat repetitive. We go one tooth at a time. There isn't a really quick way to do it. But it's really important to take your time and be precise. It would be a shame to have poorly rando TIF as you move forward. It's a bit like looking at someone who has perfect front teeth, and then when they open their mouth, you realize the rest of the teeth don't look good. It would be the same thing here. It would wound the overall smile. So take your time, work carefully and meticulously, and use a fine brush to get a good result on the teeth. So as I mentioned earlier, the teeth on the right side have been painted. Feel free to post the video and take your time to do that part as well. Then we can continue working on this mouth by painting beneath the teeth and along the sides. For example, on the right side, you can clearly see that it is extremely dark. We are seeing the back of the mouth, which receives very little light. So the colors there are quite dark. I am using this reddish brown color, and I can even darken it a bit more with some ultramarine blue and burn them bird to get something that is really close to the black. So that's what I'm going to do right now, mix this new color. Because if you look at the left side beneath the teeth, it's also extremely dark. So that's what I am applying here as well. And so using this fine brush, I try to be extremely precise to paint between the tiff and the lip what's peeling over onto the tiff. It would be a shame to ruin all that work. That said, if you don't go if you do go over the edges a bit, it's not a big deal. You can always repaint over it and fix the mistake. No worries about that. So I am now working under this tiff, and just be careful not to apply the same very dark color everywhere. You will notice that under the central tiff, the tones are a bit more reddish, so you need to adjust your color accordingly. These are small colour changes, nothing major, but in the end, these all make a difference. This make all the difference. That's what gives your painting a truly realistic feel. That's when you look at it and say, Yes, that really looks like a believable mouth. I can really recognize this person's mouth. And it's all these small elements, the subtle variations in color that you managed to observe that will make your painting even better. We are getting very close to the end of the math now, and if you have made it this far, let me just say, well done. You have stuck with it, paid attention to the details, been patient with the colours and precise with your burst strokes. And that's exactly what painting is all about. It's not a race. It is a steady process layer by layer, one careful touch at a time. You can really see how every small color variation, every soil shadow, every careful mark ends up creating something that feels alive. It's no longer just a mouth. It is a mouth that breathes that exists. So don't stop now. You are almost there, and it's often in these final stages that we refine things that we push the result from good to truly impressive. So keep that same energy, that same focus, and most of all, enjoy seeing your work come to life because you are creating something beautiful. So just keep going. Now we are going to work a bit on the skin surrounding the mouth. You'll need to pay close attention to the different values because it's clear that the skin tone isn't uniform. Some areas are definitely darker than others, and the hues also vary. So parts appear slightly more orange while others lean more pinkish. So it is important to be mindful of that. And I am applying my color with a medium size brush. I try to gently touch the edge of the lip, but at the same time, if you look closely, the lip doesn't actually have a sharp edge, a sharp border. The mouth and the surrounding skin are quite connected, and there is a kind of soft transition between the two. That's what I am going to work on now. I am laying down my color, and then I will try to introduce little bits of the mouth, some reddish pinkish touches that will spill slightly into the skin area. You can clearly see this effect along the upper part of the mouth and a bit on the lower part as well, especially on the right side, where you can spot the subtle reddish marks blending into the skin. And that is really important to add. If we draw a mouth with a harsh edge, for instance, if you draw a mouth that has a very harsh edge without any soft nets of blending into the skin, it lose credibility and realism. It's a bit like children's drawings where the mouth is outlined with a very dark pencil, and the rest is left almost flat, almost white. That sharp contrast ruins the realism. It is the same idea here. If we don't create a smooth transition between the lips and the skin, something will feel off. For example, my result here is already quite good, but it is missing those small elements, those faint touches that overlap slightly to create that natural transition from lip to skin. And so that is going to be my next step, and that's what I am going to add right now. You will see it come together with these very little strokes, the soil touches place here and there, and that's how I will make this sell feel believable and truly connected to the surrounding skin. So I hope that you enjoy this tutorial and that it was helpful for you. Now, what I recommend is that you try doing it on your own and practice with other mouths as well. The process will be exactly the same. You can work on a more closed mouth or on the contrary, a wide open one. You can also try painting a mouth scene from the side, one from a free quarter view, and that kind of variation is a great way to build up your skill, and this technique will remain the same for all these different mouths. So once you start feeling more confident, you can move on to applying this in a full portrait. After working on the tutorials of the eyes, the nose, for example, these other tutorials, you will then be ready to bring all these elements together and paint an entire face. There are other lessons in this course that will be very useful for that, complete portrait to paint along with me. So thank you very much for watching, and I really hope this tutorial was valuable for you, and I will see you again very soon with other videos. 4. Improve your skin texture with this exercice: In this short video, we will focus on something very important when painting portrait. The skin texture, we often see, well, you have to make this skin texture realistic or work on the texture, but how do you do that? And so we will see that with this video, how to work on the small irregularities of the skin texture and how to make it realistic. And you will see that we don't need much to make a skin texture realistic. A few well placed irregularities here and there will be more than enough to create something realistic. Now, grab your brush and let's get started. Then let's paint together. Let's take a look at the skin tones we are going to mix. I have selected four of them. The first one, which you can see at the top is a fairly dark skin tone. This particular shade is darker because it is in contact with the hair area. The hair blocks some of the light and creates shadows, so this area of skin appears a bit darker. Next, the second color I have chosen is the one we see in the very bright highlight area. You can see that it is very close to white, and to make the skin look truly realistic, we will need to a small touches of pure white in certain places since this area is very strongly lit. The last two colors I selected are two skin tones with slightly different values because as we move toward the left, the color gradually becomes lighter. And to move from the slightly darker right side to the very bright highlight zone on the left, we'll need a smooth transition and we'll need different values of the beige tone, these skin tones. So I have selected these four colors, but I like to create a few more variations than that just to ensure soft and natural looking transitions between these different tones. Alright, so let's get started mixing these skin tones. We are going to begin with a medium beige that we will find in many areas. For this, I am starting with an orange base color with some red and yellow and also a good amount of white, and just a touch of burn timber. This burn timber really helps give it that slightly brownish tone and prevents it from looking to orange. Orange is clearly the dominant base in the skin tones, so that's what I am aiming to create. And I am starting with a mix like this as my foundation. And I would say that now the color looks pretty good. But I think it's going a little bit more not enough towards red, so I am adding a little bit of it. Now, this base is looking pretty good. And from this one, I'm going to create something slightly lighter just by adding a little bit of white like this. And from this color, I can create something even lighter and even lighter value of this beige. But I am also adding a bit more of these free colors because I know that if I had too much white at once, the color can become a little desaturated. So that's why I created that. And I also noticed that my mix was lacking in yellow, so I adjusted that. And then, unfortunately, after adding too much yellow, it likes red, so I rebalanced it again. So now I've got some really interesting base color, and from there, I can start creating something a bit darker. Basically, I'm using the same base. It's just that I am reducing the amount of white in the mix. The color is still quite light. There is still a good amount of white, but proportionally, there is less of it now, less white. At one point, um, I realized that my color is leaning too much toward red, so I rebalance it by adding more yellow. But then I felt like the amount of burn timber was a bit too heavy. So I added a bit more of the other three colors to push it back toward a more orange tone rather than something too brown. And now that color is starting to look pretty good, I just just needed a bit more yellow, I think. And what I am going to do is create a new variation that I can also use for the other areas of skin. And still working from an orange base, we can see I am now going to create the color we can see just beneath the air. At the top, we can see a slight shadow cast by the air, which also helped create a smooth transition between the airline and the forehead. And this slightly orange tone works quite well for that. And now I am mixing this brown shade for the air. I'm not trying to create perfect and detailed color hair because that's not the focus of this video. I'm just mixing a basic hair color along with a slightly lighter variation. And once that is done, we'll be able to start working on the skin texture. Alright, let's begin working on the skin texture. The first thing I'm going to do is apply my base color as smoothly as possible. That means I am looking to identify the dominant color, the main tone we see in this area, and now we'll apply it with a flat brush, really stretching it out to create a nice and even surface to work on later for the texture. When I say dominant color, I mean that I look at the area and ask myself, if I had to extract just one color from the zone, which one would it be? Which one stands out the most? And in this case, I think that this beige works quite well for these areas. Later on, I will be able to layer other colors on top of it, because, yes, I agree these base color might be a bit too light for the entire area. There will definitely be darker parts within this section I am painting. But this tone is still very present overall, and now we'll be able to a darker touches on top later to bring the zone closer to what it really looks like. For now I am laying down a base with this dominant tone. Although, to be fair, it might not be the color we see the most in the area. I mean, for this example or for other examples. In this area, we will see both lighter and darker elements, and this color could be considered the middle ground between those two. That makes it easier to add a lighter or darker details over it later, since we are starting from a balanced mid tone. On the left side, now you can notice that I adjust my color because this upper left part is generally lighter than the one we worked on. So this new shade seemed more appropriate. And for the area underneath this area where we can see the highlight, the brightest spot, I felt that I need to use something even much lighter than what I was using right now. So this new color, I think is a good match. My colors are well applied. Now I can blend them by going back and forth like this. I make sure to wipe off any excess paint if I see too much building up on my brush, and I keep blending. But here, it's looking pretty good. In fact, this blending gives me a solid base to work on later, adding small touches of different colours, details, and really starting to work on the skin texture. Now we are going to try to improve the area of skin. On the right side, I had applying the fairly light base, but I can see that on top of it, there are some small, darker areas, and I am choosing to apply them now. Over the base color, because if I had to try to paint each little shape from the start, it would have been a bit too complicated. So here I am adding color on top, small and darker strokes like this. They are just rough rectangles for now, and the exact shape doesn't really matter at this point. What I will do next is blend these elements with small brush strokes like this. That's what will give the surface a more irregular and therefore more realistic appearance. I observe the area and I play small touches of color here and there to make sure it blends well with the rest. And whenever I notice it is blending less effectively, maybe because there is too much paint on my brush, I just wipe off the excess. And thanks to these slightly darker additions, we'll start to get closer to a more realistic and refined skin texture. What we definitely don't want is to leave it as it is now. It's not realistic at all. Skin doesn't have rectangular color blocks like that. So what I am doing is softening the edges of each element I added with this small brush to blend them smoothly into the surrounding areas. What I'm thinking now is that with the darker elements I added, I may have gone a bit overboard on the left side. So I'm going to fix that by going back in with a bit of my lighter skin tone. On my palette, I'm going to reload the brush with a lighter color and start painting over those darker areas I had added. This way, I will bring the value back to what it should be for this part of the skin, which is lighter on the left. But I'm still working in the same way using small, irregular strokes. It's almost like turning off your brain for a moment, stopping the overthinking, and just letting your and move freely. These brush movements are very loose, little dabs here and there, left, right, up and down, and that's how we start to create a texture with just the right amount of irregularity. This area we just worked on has really progressed. But we also noticed that there are a few slightly lightotuches in this zone. There aren't a lot of them, but there are still a few, and it's these little lightotuches we are going to add now that will also help make the skin look realistic. It's really the combination of dark mid tone and light elements that creates realism in skin texture. So here again, I am placing small daps of lighter color using irregular brush movements, little touches to the left to the right, just like that, and I am gradually creating a skin texture that feels realistic. Overall, for this section on the right, the work is nearly done. The skin is taking shape, and, of course, we are only working on a very small portion of skin, just a little part of the forehead, so it still feels a bit abstract. But if we compare objectively the skin area we painted with the reference photo, we can see that we can say that the right side is coming along nicely and looks pretty convincing, pretty realistic. So that's good. And I will be able to move on and do the same thing on the left side in just a moment. Now, for this left side, it is true that it is an area that is very much in the light. But even in this highlight zone, the very bright area, we can still notice a few slightly darker touches. So I go ahead and add them, applying them with the same brush, always trying to create that sense of irregularity, those small and slightly darker elements that don't have any clearly defined shape. So I just place them like this. However, what we do notice in this area is that some elements do have a more defined shape. For example, we can see that there are some wrinkles in the one. Those will need to be rendered more precisely using something like a line, and we'll do that in a moment. I noticed that in this upper area, there were a few slightly lighter elements, so I am adding them now before I forget. Next, we are going to finish up this highlight area on the left because even though I had painted it with a very light tone, we can see that there are spots that are even lighter, almost pure white. So that's what I am doing now. I am remixing some color and adding these slightly lighter touches. In this case, they look a bit like tiny dots, so I am placing them carefully, and I try to make sure they blend just slightly with the underlying color enough to keep them soft but still light. And I'm blending only a little because at the same time, all these skin elements need to feel connected. They form a single surface, and if there is no blending at all between these touches and the rest, the result might not look as good. Working on skin texture is truly a matter of patience. It's not just about laying down one color and moving on. For the result to be convincing, for the skin to feel alive, you need to take your time. You need to build it up gradually layer by layer, touch by touch. Sometimes you will spend several minutes on just a few square centimeters, and that's perfectly fine. It is in that slowness that the richness of the results emerges. By adding those darker touches, those lighter highlights, those soft blends, and subtle irregularities, you begin to achieve a realistic effect. It's exactly those tiny imperfections, those slight variations that make the skin feel interesting, expressive, human. So, yes, it is a demanding process, but don't see it as a chore. On the contrary, it's almost a meditative stage. You observe, you adjust, you step back and you revisit certain areas. All of that is part of the process. It's not about going fast and it's about getting it right. And in the end, every minute spent refining that texture is a minute that adds life to your portrait. You are not just painting a surface. You are painting a material, a volume, a presence. So if you are wondering whether it's worth spending so much time on a tiny bit of skin yes, absolutely, because that is exactly where the magic happens. And if you realize that all the other parts of your face, like the eyes, the mouth, the nose are well done, but the skin texture is missing, it's a real shame. The whole piece will feel less realistic. People will sense that something is off and it will be precisely because that skin lacks texture, likes the subtle detail that brings it to life. Area on the left is nearly finished. You can clearly see the little highlight standing out nicely. And to ensure a smooth transition on the right side as well, I have extended a few of those lighter touches into that zone so they pop out there too. You probably notice that I also added a few slightly darker strokes in between some of them just to bring out the contrast a bit more where it was needed. And now that the area is well worked, we can go ahead and draw the wrinkles we can see in this part of the face. These wrinkles appears in the form of lines. There are two that are quite visible. This one here I have just started and another slightly lower down. These lines are fairly consistent but not perfectly straight and not completely uniform in the thickness and value either. On the right side, they appear a bit darker. But as they move toward the left, you can see that certain sections become a little lighter. So it is important to pay close attention to that when painting them. And by the way, I forgot to mention it earlier, but when I was adding those little almost whitish touches, I was trying to place them fairly accurately based on what I observed. But I wasn't aiming for midi metro level precision. Just placing those irregular low touches more or less in the right area is clearly enough to make the result look convincingly realistic. Alright, so now on this wrinkle as well, I've just worked it in like that. Now I'm going to refine this lighter area a little more because I feel like there are some slightly darker marks in that zone that aren't standing out enough in my painting. So I am going to rework that to make the result a bit stronger and more accurate. Alright, and finally, we are going to wrap up with this up apart. This is where we transition into the bit of hair that is visible. You can see that in this area, the skin is slightly darker. So that's what I am doing here, working that area a bit more. We've got the shadow cast by the air that darkens the skin slightly and starts to create a nice transition. So I apply the color and then we'll have some areas that are even a little bit darker. At first, I had plan to save this particular color for the air, but it actually works quite well on the skin, too, to have those deeper touches in the shadow area. So now I can go ahead and paint the air just applying this brown fairly quickly, and that's pretty it overall. With the skin texture, we have covered the most important parts. We have seen how to create skin that looks realistic and believable without needing to work like a surgeon. By adding small and irregular touches here and there, and above all, by varying the colors we used, we were able to get a result that feels convincing and lifelike. And so that's it. This work on skin texture is coming to an end. I hope that this demonstration helps you better understand how to build a realistic result while keeping your brush strokes loose and free. And remember that it's not perfection that makes skin look convincing, but the richness of variations, contrast and irregularities. So take your time, trust yourself, and most of all, enjoy the process of painting. So see you very soon for next video. 5. How to paint a realistic nose: This video, we will focus solely on the nose. This is an element of the portrait that is one of the most difficult, and many beginners struggle with the nose because it doesn't have any outlines, any sharp edges, and it's only you work on light and shadow and more specifically on the values of the colors that you will be applying that will help to make it three dimensional. So in this video, we will look at how to paint a nose in a realistic manner. And for that purpose, I will be working on a 20 by 15 centimeters painting paper, we use my classic material. And for the drawing, I will use a grid as usual. On this image on the subject, you can a little bit see the eyes of the model, but we won't focus on them. We will be painting only the nose. That's the aim of this video. Now, let's get started. Here are some of the colors I selected for this analysis of the nose. Looking at the nose, we can see that it features tones with hints of red and orange, of course, with different value. There are quite dark areas on the left side, which help create a sense of depth and form. And it's precisely the importance we give to color and value that will make all the difference. It is through these colors and the work we are about to do that we will be able to create volume. Among the colors I selected, visible on the left, we can also see that there is a very strong highlight. And in the lower part, we find darker browns that will also help to build up the volume. And for the industrial area and its interior, we will be using extremely dark browns, almost black in some places. And so that concludes this quick analysis. Now let's move on to mixing the colors. Let's get started with this new tutorial and start mixing colors for the nose. So I'm going to create a beige that is pretty light, but right here, I realized that my brush was a little bit dirty. There was some gray. So I take only the white that is still pure and add some yellow to it and some red because this beige has some kind of orange base. And then I also add some burnt and bird because this helps me to get something slightly more neutral, more brownish, and therefore get it in direction of the beige colors. And then I proceed to some adjustments to my color. For instance, right here, I realize it's not orange enough, so I add a little bit of these two colors, and then I realize my color is not red enough, so I readjust it. When you mix the beige colors, the skin tones colors, it's always you always have to get this solo color and make some adjustments along the way. So I am constantly asking myself, I my color too yellow or not yellow enough, too red or not red enough? Is it too orange and needs to be neutralized a little bit thanks to BerteberO is it too dark? Like right now, figured it was too dark, and therefore I added some white. And then I realize my orange tone needs to be readjusted towards some yellow until I finally get the color that satisfies me. And right now, I think these colors is pretty satisfying, and I can use it to create something even lighter with some white. But I also add a little bit of red and yellow to it because when you add some white to it, it makes the color a little bit whitish, a little desaturated, and so I have to rebalance it by adding some orange to it. Let's continue now with this new color. At this point, I think I went to be overboard with the white, and what I would actually like to have is more more is a more intermediate tone, something between the two colors I just mixed. So I'm going to need to add more red and more yellow to bring it closer to something more balanced. I felt that the value difference between my first two colors was too strong, and the goal here is to create a smooth transition. And I think that now I have something that is a bit more in between, still leaning slightly toward the first color I made, but it looks pretty good. And of course, if needed, I can always adjust it again later. Now I am moving on to a darker mix, which I will use for the transition into the more pronounced shadow areas. The colors I mixed earlier worked pretty well for the brighter zones, but to head into the shadow areas, we need something darker than that. And this one looks about right. That said, I found that this color is turning to orange, so I'm going to a little bits of burnt and beer to make it more neutral and also some ultramirn blue to tone it down and make this orange less intense than what it is right now. This color looks pretty good to me. Now what I am going to do is create a slightly lighter variation based on it. So I am adding a bit of yellow, a bit of red, and some white to get something a little brighter. Actually, the color I mixed just before might work pretty well in shadow areas, although I think I will still need to create an even darker version later on, so I can really emphasize the deep shadows in certain places. And finally, I can mix a slightly darker brown, which we will find, for example, around the nostrils. There are some filly intense and dark browns in that area, and this one looks pretty good to me. So now let's start painting the nose. And as you can see, I have done a drawing using a grid to keep things precise. So let's get started with applying the collars. Here, I thought it would be a good idea to begin with this area. The central part of the nose is fairly light, and it felt like a good place to start. There's no real rule about where to begin when painting a nose. I could have started on the right, on the left, or even at the bottom, but this upper part seems like a natural entry point. So let's go ahead with the first color application. This area is relatively light, and the initial base tones I am applying feel like a good base to begin working in this zone. I'm also thinking that these light of base tones can be found on the lower part of the nose as well, so I can go ahead and apply them there, too. But as you can clearly see from the reference, this nose isn't made up of just one beige color. In every area, there are lots of small touches of different colors. Still, I feel like this base works well as a base. It will make it easier later on to come back and add slightly darker touches on top of what I am applying now. The goal is really to create volume solely through the application of the colors. That's why I pay close attention and try to carefully observe where the different colors are located. And whenever there is a change, I make sure to apply it. On the right side, there is something slightly darker to clearly mark the edge of that area. And again, when I use the word edge, it's not quite accurate because when we talk about the nose, there aren't any clearly defined outlines. It is the shadows and the different values that will express the contours. So, yes, I used the word edge, but for the nose, we don't really have any. Then on the left side, we can see the shadow is quite pronounced, and the transition into the shadows won't happen instantly with a single color. Well gradually become darker and darker until we reach the main shadowed area on the left, which is pretty strong. So I am starting with this color on the left side, and I would say that we can also see a little bit at the bottom of the nostril, a little bit on the right as well, and on the central part of the left nostril as well. So I'm going to apply it. And then there is this color that I can use for the main shadow, and it is really the shadow that will help us to create volume. So for now, when I apply my color, the painting may look very rough or messy and that's totally fine. It doesn't bother me. Later on, once all the colors are blended, we will move into more detailed work. So if it looks a bit rough for now, it's not a problem. I can always refine it more precisely afterwards. And Within the shadow area you have just applied, there is something even darker at the top. So for that, we use a brown that stands out even more. And even though things are still a bit messy, we can already see just through the way the colors are applied that this shadow doesn't happen instantly. There is a real transition from the main shadow area into the lighter skin tone. Another element that really helps make the nose appear three dimensional is the cache shadow of the nostrills. You can see that on the left side and underneath the entire nostril, there are slightly brown areas with various degrees of brown. Some parts are darker than others. But here, these brown works pretty well. To really define that shadowed area under the nostril. And overall, this area is quite dark. So I think I can also use this color right here as a transition because as we move away from the nostril in that section, it gets gradually lighter. But again, it doesn't happen all at once. And this color I have on my brush is also quite good for building that transition on the left side. Alright, then I can go ahead and apply this color, although I do feel like I could use something just a little bit darker here, so I might come back and adjust it later on. Right now, my color application is really rough in the sense that I'm not really spreading the paint evenly. You can see that in some spots, there are thick patches of paints, which means blending will be trickier, though not impossible. Still, I will need to spend a bit more time on the blending, wiping off the excess paint from my brush more frequently, but I should still be able to get a nice result with it. It's just that I am so focused on applying the right colors in the right place because that's really what helps create the sense of volume in the nose that I have kind of neglected the importance of spreading the paint smoothly everywhere. And you can already see that from the color application alone, the nose is starting to take on volume and look a bit free dimensional. So that's encouraging, and that will keep going in this direction. Now, I'm using a little bit of this dark color again to work on the nostril. We can see that the shadowed area is a bit darker than what I had previously painted, so I'm adjusting it here. And here as well, on this upper part of the nostril there are some dark brown tones I can add it, and little by little, the whole nose is taking shape and the application is almost finished. For the inside of the nostril, I can go in with my burnt umber. This color is really nice and dark, so I am quite happy with it. Even though it's true that when we look closely at the inside of the nostril, we know these slight variations in value, it's not going to be with the same exact same darkness everywhere, but we will be able to play with these subtle differences later on when starting working more precisely on that specific area. Now that all my colors are applied, in a different areas, I can start blending them together. The goal is really to create smooth transition between all these elements to make sure they are all connected and that the shifts between them become almost invisible. Although it's really the detailed work that will later help refine those transitions and make them look even more realistic. So I am using lots of small brush strokes, and you can see I am not using a very large brush for this blending step because the areas are quite small, and I need a certain level of precision to make sure each color stays in its proper place. That's really the key to good blending. I apply a multitude of brush strokes. And whenever I notice that too much paint is building up on my brush, especially in areas where the paint is thick, I wipe it off and then continue blending. You will also notice that I haven't painted two high night zone yet. That is because they are very bright and I felt it wasn't worth applying paint there right now. If I had painted them earlier, Blendek might have dull their intensity and brightness, and it could have made it harder to pinpoint them clearly. That's why I decided to leave them for now and come back to them later. This stage of applying the colors feel both short and long at the same time. In the end, it's only about 10 minutes. But still, spending 10 minutes, just applying and blending colors does take a bit of time. That's true. But I believe it is time well spent because we are really building a solid foundation here that will make the rest of the process much easier. Already, at this point, with the proper application of colors, you can see that the volume is there, and that's really the most important thing in painting if you want make something look realistic, especially when it comes to the nose. Creating that sense of volume and making it look three dimensional on paper is key. In here, we can clearly see that there is good volume. So this first step is done, and it is an important one. I am also taking my time with the blending because that is essential, too. It helps build a strong base. And afterward, all that we need to do is add small touches, just little details to enhance the area. I say just, but in reality, there will still be quite a few details to add. There will be many elements to refine. But the foundation is there. It is solid and well structured. And now we are going to move on to all the texture work and do it with confidence. Oh To begin this work on details and texture, I'm starting by reworking the shadow area because overall, it doesn't look dark enough, and by making it darker, it really helped create more volume and really make the nose stand out. Earlier, I had applied the base color that works quite well. You can still see it underneath if you look closely, you can see this color. But there are quite a few darker elements visible in that area over what I did. And right now, it's not dark enough. Here, I went a bit overboard with my darker color, so I'm correcting that. And this work we are doing now with these small touches serves several purposes. It makes the nose look more detail because we are adding all these little nuances, all these small strokes of color that enhance the realism and give the skin a truly rich and realistic texture thanks to the multitude of subtle elements we are adding. It also helps strengthen the transitions between areas. These little strokes of skin tones, these slightly darker touches that sit bright between two zones help improve that blending. And we can observe the same thing with shadows and darker elements. Shadows don't have clean, smooth edges like what we see now after the blending stage. What we actually notice is that the edges of shadow areas are broken up, irregular with lots of small overlapping strokes. That's also the goal of the work I am doing now by adding this multitude of small touches. 6. Painting the nose – final details: Since I am already working on some of the darker elements, I figured I might as well continue with the case shadow under the nostria. You can see that right along the edge, it's very dark, and then it gradually becomes just a little bit lighter, though it still remains fairly dark overall. And already, when you compare the bop and the shadow area we worked on earlier, you can tell it's not quite the same anymore after these details that we have added. The level of detail is clearly higher now than it was a few minutes ago. But once again, this is a process that takes a bit of time. There is something I often repeat during this tutorial and that I strongly believe in, which is that it's always better to take those few extra minutes now to add all these texture, all these tiny elements that will truly make the nose look realistic and the skin feel lifelike and vivid, rather than saying to yourself, Oh, I'm tired. I just want to finish this quickly. It looks fine as it is. Thinking like that often leads to regret later. When you look at the piece again in a few days, weeks or months and say, I only I had pushed it a little further, add it a little bit more detail, now it looks just kind of average, realistic, but not much more. And it is exactly these little touches that we are adding now that make all the difference. In the end, those few extra minutes aren't that much, but within the context of the painting, they are what will truly elevate the result. And to me, they are definitely worth it. So right now I am reworking a little bit the shadow because I felt that once again, some parts weren't dark enough, didn't stand out enough, so I am adding more touches to really make them visible. And form skin texture, just like we saw in the video dedicated to that topic, I really try to make small irregular marks, little touches here and there, which help create unnatural unevenness of the skin. Because if you zoom in closely on the photo, you really realize that this pigmentation is nothing more than irregular little spots that I don't really like that don't really look like anything in particular. And whenever I talk about skin pigmentation, I instantly look closely at my own hand to try and see all these tiny spots of color. And you will notice that there are lots of small color variations. On your skin, but they don't have any particular shape. Sometimes they look like dots, sometimes like short lines, but often they are just kinds of shapes that aren't geometric, more like abstract forms. And it's actually thanks to that abstraction, and I know it sounds paradoxical that we are able to create something that looks truly realistic. And after having darkened these elements on the upper part, I realized that this area of the nostrils needs to be also a little bit darker. And so I am reapplying some darker color. In the end, it's funny because when I look at my palette right now, it's not exactly this color I had imagined for the darkest area. If you remember the mixtures the mix that we make at the beginning, I had something a little bit lighter for the shadow areas. But it's only once the color is applied on the canvas that you can see, and you can tell if your color is right or not. And it's in comparison with all the other elements that are next to it that you can figure if this color is the one that you actually need or if you need to remix it and do some adjustments. And most of the time, I create some colors that are pretty close, but most of the time, I need to readjust them because what I see on my canvas is not what I imagine when analyzing the picture. He so now that the whole area along the bridge of the nose has been properly darkened, I realize that the shadow next to the nostril is no longer dark enough because if we look at the photo, that shadow is one of the darkest areas in the image, and here it doesn't stand out enough compared to the rest. The shadows I worked on earlier are now at the right value. So I can clearly see that this one next to the nostril isn't needs to be darkened a bit. That's also the purpose of these little brush touches I am adding, and that's why I remixed a slightly darker color to work on this area next to the nostril and inside the nostril. And to finish this slide, what I am going to add now are some small highlight touches. If you look closely at the photo, you will notice that these highlights around here, these very bright spots really stand out with pure white. And that's why I am now placing small touches of pure white, and I am barely blending with the rest. I am using just the tip of my brush to apply them very delicately. And under the nose, we can also emphasize the darker elements that shadow that rises and gradually becomes lighter as it goes up. And another thing I haven't mentioned yet is the eyes, which are slightly visible here. We won't be working on them because that's not the focus of this video. The goal here is really to focus on the nose specifically. I did find it a bit hard to have the eyes just sitting there like that, which is why we won't be painting them. We're simply going to concentrate on the nose area, and honestly, achieving that alone is already a great challenge. And for the second nostril, we can see that there aren't many dark elements. It is more exposed to the light and we don't see much of it. So here I worked with some moderately dark tones, and I can now add the slightly darker touch on top, which extends a little into the surrounding elements like this. That's great. And now we can move on to working on the areas that are a bit lighter, a bit brighter. So I am going to use some of the other colors on my palette. That will continue in the same mindset, adding small touches here and there, slightly darker than what I had applied earlier because overall, the color we used at the beginning is basically the lightest tone, discolor underneath, the lightest tone that we have in this area, aside from the highlights. So now I am placing these small darker color touches and I look roughly where they are in my reference image. I try not to do it randomly, and then I tap and apply small strokes here and there to enhance everything. What is really fascinating about the nose is that it forces us to move away from the instinct of outlining. Unlike other facial features like the eyes, for example, the nose doesn't have a clearly defined edge. It's painted purely through light and shadow and through all the subtle transitions between the two. So, yes, this exercise is about learning how to paint a nose, but more importantly, it is also an excellent way to train your eye. You are required to observe values, nuances, and even the tiniest shifts in color. There is no shortcut here, no magical line that defines the nose. It is through the accumulation of all these small touch all these are irregularities that you will succeed in giving it volume, making the skin feel alive, and creating something believable. So even if it takes time, even if it is a meticulous process, it is a moment where you are training your eye, your sense of observation, and your patience. And those are three essential qualities for making real progress in painting. And here on the central area of the nose, you can see that there are lots of small, slightly darker touches that help enhance the area and improve the texture. So I am adding a few of them now, and honestly, it's looking really good. We are getting close to the end, so keep going and don't ease up on this step. It is what will give you a beautiful rendered nose. This point, I'm kind of in the review phase, like when you go over an exam at the end. I'm looking over the different areas and asking myself if everything looks right, if there are any parts that could be improved. And right here, that's the case with this nostril. I feel like I can refine it a bit more. There were some small elements that didn't quite satisfy me, so I am going back in with a few brush touches to bring better harmony to the whole. During this sort of review, I'm checking whether the values are correct in each area, whether every element is detailed the way it should be. And based on that, I go in and adjust placing small brush strokes here and there where they are needed. Now, all I have left the highlights the really bright area. So I am going in with almost pure white. Actually, for the upper part, it is white that I have very slightly mixed with the skin tone, but for the lower part, I'm using a true base of pure white. That said, I am not going to make a big round spot with a hard edge. Once again, this highlight needs to blend in smoothly with the surrounding skin tones. So that's what I am doing. I'm blending this highlight into the rest of the skin colors. And what is really going to make it look realistic is that I will come back and add a few slightly darker touches inside it, small skin tone strokes. That will help finish it off nicely. But for now, I'm going to wrap this part up, and that's how this tutorial will end. I really hope that you enjoyed it and that you two were able to make some progress and paint these nose with a nice sense of volume. So thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you again with another tutorial very soon. 8. How to paint an eye in black and white, part II: So now the inside of the eye is painted. With just these elements in place, it might look a bit strange, but unless you see a major mistake in your painting, trust yourself and wait until everything else is painted before deciding whether your eye looks off or not. When I was painting, when I was painting my first eyes, I often thought, Wow, this isn't working. It looks awful. The eye is completely ruined, but I hadn't painted the surrounding elements yet. And once everything else was added, I realized it would have been right to it was right to keep going and trust the process. At first, it looked bad, yes, but it was simply missing key elements, the eyelashes, the upper and lower eyelids, the eyebrow. And all of these features help make the eye recognizable, especially in a portrait. So now I am working on the area where the eyelashes will go. Keep in mind, eye lashes are rooted in the skin. They don't form a perfect even row above the eye. There are small gaps and spaces, and that is that area I am painting now using a fairly dark band of color. You will also notice that the further to the left we go, the darker that band becomes. That is because there is a higher concentration of hairs on that side on the left, and also more shadow cast by those lashes, these hairs, making the zone darker overall. Now, we can't paint the eye lashes just yet because they will sit on top of the skin, and to paint them correctly, the skin underneath has to be done first. Otherwise, it would be nearly impossible to go back in and paint around each lash. So for now, I need to paint the skin in this area. It might be a little frustrating. You may be eager to add the lashes because they will dramatically change the way the eye looks, but we have to be patient and fully complete the skin area first. And as I apply the base color in this eyelid, I am also going to work on that texture after that, adding small skin details to make it feel realistic. And you may have noticed that I blend the skin tone very slightly with the area just below this area where there will be the lashes to enter a smooth and natural transition. An Now that I have applied these base color to the area, I'm going to work a little on the skin texture around the eyelid. Nothing extraordinary, just a few small touches here and there, slightly darker than the base color I use, and that will be more than enough to create a skin texture that looks realistic. So here I am picking some slightly darker tones. I carefully observe where the areas are that should be darker than the color I applied underneath. I also hake to make sure that these darker tones have the right value, that they are not too light, for example, or too dark, either. Once we have achieved the right skin texture, we will be able to add the eyelashes over it. But we also need to work on the skin area above the eyelid, because if we look closely at the photo, we can see that a few lashes actually go beyond the eyelid. So that area also needs to be worked on, and we are going to work on this entire skin texture in that zone as well. On the left side, I notice that my color isn't light enough. So I apply pure white over it and I blend this pure white with the color underneath. This way, I managed to lighten the line color a bit. Then I will continue and finalize the work. But overall, I would say that for the skin texture, we are in a good place. However, what stands out to me now, what doesn't look right, is that on the right side, the elements aren't dark enough at all. In the end, it is hard to distinguish the eye from the surrounding skin because that area hasn't been worked on enough. So I go over it again a bit and make sure it blends well with the skin area above. Now, let's move on to the skin area above. I apply my color while trying to place the right tones in the right spots. On the right side, it is a bit dark. The color I had applied was too dark, so I correct that. The area is also a little white, so I used the large brush, which allows me to cover it efficiently. I apply the color while making sure to spread it out well to avoid blotches that would make blending harder later between my colors. Then we can see that in the central area, it gets lighter and even lighter still toward the left side. So I apply those transition to get a nice blend between the elements and make everything look more natural. You. I carefully blend the elements together to create a smooth transition that is almost invisible. And now we can start working on the skin texture to make this area just as refined as the blow one below. On the left side, which is much more illuminated, we can see some slightly darker touches, so I am going to add some of those always with the goal of making the drawing more realistic. When it comes to working on skin texture, really don't overthink it. Don't try to achieve something perfect or impossible. If you zoom in on skin texture, you will see that it is made up of small, irregular marks with no specific shape, and that is exactly what I try to replicate. I work with marks that are random going off to the left to the right without any particular logic. All of that helps me create areas that look realistic and detailed. So that's what I am doing, adding these little marks here and there to develop the skin and make it look truly lifelike because skin, when you look at it, isn't uniform. You can really see lots of tiny pigments, lots of subtle variations in color. And that is clearly visible in the video where we specifically discuss skin texture and how to approach. In the end, if the surface isn't irregular, it ends up looking a bit too flat and you feel like something is missing from your painting. So it is important to take those few extra minutes to really work on the skin texture to make it irregular because it is that very irregularity that makes it realistic. You In the area on the right in the darker zone, I continue working by adding some slightly lighter touches. The dominant color here was this dark gray, but on that side, you can see a few lighter touches that really stand out. So that's what I have added as well. Now we can start working on the line that separates the eyelid from the brow bone. For this, I use the sword brush, which gives me great precision for painting lines like this. You can see that on the lower part, it is fairly thick and a bit lighter. But as we move to the upper part, it becomes noticeably darker, so I replicate that, too. It is tricky to paint it all in a single stroke, so I don't hesitate to do it in several passes. It might feel a bit choppy, but that is actually what helps me create a clean and precise line. Plus, the line itself isn't completely straight or perfectly even. You can see that there are some darker touches above it that had a certain irregularity to the shape. So it's really not a problem if the line looks a little bit broken like that. So I take my time and stay focused, and if ever the line doesn't come out exactly right, you can always go back over it, repaint the area that needs correction and remake this line. So don't worry if you make a mistake. Another thing we notice about this line is that some sections are way darker than others, especially on the left side. It looks noticeably darker than me. So I'm going to emphasize that area more, too. Above all, never assume that just because something like a line, for instance, is a single element, that it should have the same color throughout. That's not true at all. And this example proves it. Even though it is one line, its color and value vary along its length. That is exactly what I have applied here. And now that the line is in place, I can paint just above it and add a few slightly dark touches like this that really help it stand out even more and make my painting more realistic. Now it's time to paint the eye lashes. Our skin areas are nicely finished so we can move on to this step. For this, I'm going to use the swan brush again, and I will start drawing these long line since we can see that the lashes here are quite long. I've worked with the tip of the brush, so I load it with paint and then slightly flatten it to really be able to just use the tip. There are several important things to keep in mind. This isn't to add pressure to add pressure on yourself, but lashes are really crucial. They help finalize the whole eye. Poorly painted eye lashes can ruin everything. What we can notice is that on the left side, the lashes are extremely dark, thicker, truly black. So those are the ones I begin with. I can use reference points to position them accurately. For example, you can see that there is one that really lines up with the corner of the iris, so that helps me place it precisely. And from there, I will be able to draw the oars in relation to it. That is a method I really like to use to place them correctly. When painting lashes, another thing to watch out for is their color. Many of them are black, but not all. So are lighter, and when painting in color, the variation is even more noticeable. You will see that some are brownish while over are black. So when I paint the lashes, I really pay close attention to that. I also watch their length. It's important not to make them too short or too long because that's part of what gives the model its character. Another detail that matters is their thickness. At the base close to the eye, they tend to be thicker, and then they gradually become finer toward the tip. So I try to reflect that, as well. And most importantly, you can't just paint lashes randomly. You can't place them however you want or add an unlimited number of them. Need to observe carefully where they are and how many there are. It's actually a countable specific number, so they should be painted with precision and in the right quantity. If you paint them, if you paint however many you like, all black and evenly space around the eye, it won't look right at all, and the results won't be good and realistic. Your approach really needs to match the subject you are painting, and close observation is absolutely key. For example, on this subject, I noticed that in the center and on the right side, there are very few lashes. On the far right, there are none. So I shouldn't add any there because they simply aren't present, and that helps define the character of the model accurately. Once again, with eyelash painting, observation is one of the most important skills to get it right. And we can also see that between the figure lashes I painted, there are others that are finer and smaller ones. These should be added too in order to achieve a highly realistic and convincing result. 9. How to paint an eye in black and white, part III: Now let's continue with the lower eyelid area. Honestly, the eye lashes really change everything. They make a huge difference, and so it's really satisfying. Now we can move on to the rest. The work we are going to do on the lower area will really help improve the final results. So let's get started. And we begin by carefully applying the right colors in the right places. I am going to try to paint the entire area below the eye, as well as the side. The goal, once again, is to create a real developed skin area just as refined as the upper one. We don't want one area to be detailed and polished while the other looks unfinished. Both parts need to be equally well worked so that the result is just as realistic under the eye as it is above. And that's what I am aiming for. First, I apply the right tons in the right spots using this very large this large flat brush, which helps me cover broad areas. When I paint skin zones like this, I am not aiming for extreme precision right away. What I am doing is identifying the dominant colors in the area and applying them without overthinking. So here, for example, I noticed that under the eyelid, we have a relatively light gray. So that's what I apply. For the eyelid itself, overall, the color is fairly dark, so that's what I have gone with. Then we'll move on to working in the details and building a proper skin texture with small touches of lighter or darker colors that will really bring realism to the piece. Now that my colors are more or less well applied everywhere, I can start blending them to create a smooth surface that will be easier to work on later. So that's what I am doing. I make brush strokes, and whenever I notice that there is too much paint building up on the brush, I wipe it off with a tissue and go back to blending. Of course, at this stage, with the blending, I might not have the most accurate colors in the area yet, but that's okay. We will refine that later with a finer brush. For now, we have a solid base that will allow us to work nicely over it. Uh, Now that my areas are nicely blended, I can start working on them a bit more precisely. For now, the main goal is to try to identify the slightly darker gray areas because they are somewhat disappeared. They've blended into the rest and are harder to distinguish. So I am carefully going back over those areas to bring them out again very delicately. And after that we'll be able to start adding the details on top to refine the area ferer. At this point, I would say that the area is fairly well defined, and now we are really going to try to refine it even further with more attention to detail because there are a lot of small elements here, and to help me navigate within this area, what I can do is draw this line, this fold, which is quite clearly visible. That is going to serve as a useful reference point, just like the ones just below it. And thanks to this, I will be able to place the various details in this area more easily. There are lots of details here, and having those lines, those elements that stand out clearly really helps guide me when placing the final textures. And without these reference points, it will be a bit trickier to position everything accurately. You could still manage, but I find that having those landmarks makes the process a lot easier. And now again start working on the texture, focusing more on the small details. On the eyelid, we have a very distinctive texture, quite specific to this area, which appears as a series of tiny dots. I am going to add those here and there, little touches like this that will help give the area more defined and more realistic look. Okay. What we also notice about this eyelid area is that it doesn't really have a sharp and well defined edge that clearly separates it from the rest. Instead, we see little touches of detail and texture within the area that slightly spill over into the adjacent zone. This gives us a skin texture that extend across both areas. After all, the eyelid is still a part of the skin. It is a darker area, and if we were working in color, it would probably show different tones, but it is still skin. That's why it was important to add those little touches that extend downward into the area below to really emphasize the continuity between the two zones. Now I also feel like I can refine the area on the right a little bit. I hadn't worked much on that transition yet, so that's what I am doing here, working a bit more on the skin texture and continuing to a small detail touches to achieve a solid result. One very important element with these lines we see in the eyelid is that just underneath each line, we often notice a lighter area, a little highlight that really helps the line stand out. Right now, it's not really visible because I went over a bit too much and lost some definition. So I'm going to go back and rework that line. Then what will really matter is adding that subtle light to touch just underneath while keeping the area above the line a bit dark. And as I mentioned a little earlier, I've just carefully reworked the line underneath, and now I am applying these small touches, but be careful with these lighter elements, not to use pure white and not to overdo it. Sure, it needs to be quite light, but pure white doesn't seem appropriate for working in this area. A So I would say that this side area that we outlined earlier is now done. Now I'm really going to focus on the eyelash area because, yes, there are some lashes in this zone, but we are not going to place them randomly or in the middle of nowhere. First, we also need to work carefully on the area right here. We can see that there are lots of small shadows, little darker spots compared to what I did on the compared to what I applied earlier, sorry. And these are probably also caused by the shadow cast by the lashes themselves that make this area a little darker. In any case, they definitely need to be added in. Now, regarding the lashes that we see in this area, if we take the time to observe them before painting them, we can notice that they are fewer than those on the upper lid. They are thinner, lighter, and shorter. So we need to pay close attention to that and especially avoid drawing them in the same way as we did for the per lashes. If we reproduce the exact same ones, our results will be completely inaccurate and unrealistic. Once again, it is essential to observe rather than painting automatically thinking, ashes are supposed to look like this, so I will do them like this, dark long, thick and curved. No, don't do that. Here, you really need to pay attention to all the features that define these lashes. Observation once again is the key to paint them accurately. You are well prepared before painting these lashes. But before I start painting them, what I do is finish to work carefully on the skin area surrounding them. The thing is, I like to work pretty efficiently, and I figure that since I have been focusing on the skin texture for a while now, I might as well complete that task properly and apply the same approach to the entire surrounding area of the lashes. So I am adding small touches here and there to refine and finalize the look of this section of skin. Now it is time to start working on the eyelashes. I can begin by painting these ones here, the ones that extend down from the upper area. I hadn't been able to paint them earlier because I hadn't done the surrounding skin, but now I can go ahead and paint them. Next, we can move on to the lashes located within this area. You will notice that I am not really using pure black to paint the lashes at this stage, because as I mentioned earlier, these lashes are fairly light, and they are also quite fine. And I am working along the entire lash using just the tip of my brush, unlike the lashes on the upper eyelid, here we can see that these ones maintain the same thickness from base to tip. They are thin all the way through, and that's exactly how I am painting them. I am quite pleased with the results so far, and now I am going to go back and refine a few tiny elements in this area. Along the edge of the eye, for instance, there are some lines that help define its contour more clearly. And what you also notice between the lashes is that there are some slightly lighter touches. So I am going to make sure to add those as well. I will add these small lighter elements that will help the lashes stand out more and give them a bit more volume. Alright, now I am going to apply my color to the area above the eyebrows, the skin area we have there. The video is slightly sped up here because it's a very simple application, just like we've done many times before. So feel free to post the video and take your time to do it on your own. So now that my color is applied, we are going to move on to the eyebrow itself. I will admit maybe I should have worked on the skin texture beforehand, above it, like we did with the eyelashes, but in this case, it's a bit less critical. There's less need for extreme precision with the eyebrow. That's why I didn't necessarily worked on the skin texture above the eyebrow. So I really hope you will forgive me for that. But before I can paint the individual hairs that make up the bro, I first need to paint the skin underneath it, because if I don't paint that area of skin, the eyebrow will look wrong. It's definitely a bit bushy, but not so dense that you can see, and you can see the skin underneath. So it is important to paint that base first. What I notice about the skin here is that it is quite dark gray, even a bit darker than in the central area. So I am even a bit darker in the central area of the eyebrow, sorry. So I am laying down that base now, and then I will be able to paint the individual hairs over it. That's what I am doing now using the swelled brush as usual. I'm adding hairs with the right direction, the right value, and the right length. Once again, it is important. Though with eyebrows, we don't need the same level of precision as we did with the eyelashes. Of course, you still need a certain amount of accuracy, and we want the eyebrow to look as realistic as possible. That's always important. But there is less pressure to place every single hair perfectly. That's partly because there are so many visible hairs in the area. Earlier, when we were working on the per eyelashes, there were maybe ten main lashes total, so we really had to place each one carefully. Here, it's a bit more forgiving. We still aim for precision, but not to the same extreme. So I am continuing with that work now. And one thing that is also important is to create an irregular hedge, like I did on the upper part of the brow. It is less noticeable on the lower part, but still, you want some hairs to stick out from the main shape and break the symmetry a bit. And what we can observe with this eyebrow is that on the right side, the hairs tend to go upward. While in the central zone, they lean more toward the left. And that's what I am going to try to reflect here. And with that, we will be wrapping up the subject with the painting of the eyebrow. Oh. And that's the end of this tutorial. I hope you enjoy painting this black and white eye as much as I enjoyed guiding you through each step. You now have all the tools to observe carefully, build your values, create texture, and bring life to the gaze, even without using color. If you feel ready, I really encourage you to try the same exercise again. But this time in color, you will see that the same principle apply with the added challenge and joy of working with tones and subtle color variations. So go for it and most importantly, trust yourself. 10. How to paint a realistic eye in color, part I: Let's look at the colors of this eye in full color. So we are not just in black and white. We still see a completely black pupil. Then in the eres, we can observe that it is made up of many browns, various shades with particularly dark areas in the upper part and along the sides. In the central zone just below the pupil, we also find a dark brown, though not as deep as the areas on the sides that I previously placed in shadow. There is also a small area for God to select just to the right of that central part on the right side of the iris and also a bit on the left. In those spots, the brands are a little lighter and they will be necessary to paint the eye as realistically as possible. So those are the main colors for the iris. As for the white of the eye, we again see that we need to work with gray, Mton gray, slightly darker grays in the upper areas and places. And at the corners, both inner and outer, we need to make a sort of pink to represent the blood vessels that are faintly visible in the eye. Moving on to the skin tones, we can see that there are slightly orange beiges, ranging from darker to lighter depending on the zone. There is a fair amount of variation here. And finally, for the eyebrow, I had and selected a specific color, but we will once again be working with a kind of grayish brown, leaning toward black. So those are our colors. Now let's look at how they are mixed on the palette. Let's begin mixing our colors, starting with the skin tones that we will find around the eye area. These skin tones are going to be quite light, so I am using a large amount of white. Beige is often created by mixing orange with a small amount of burn timber. That's usually enough to get good beige tones. Here I have ended up with a really nice color, but it is very light because some areas of the skin around the eye are extremely pale or over the eyebrow. Now, I'm going to repeat the same process, the same mix, but this time, I really reduce the amount of white, so I get a beige that is slightly darker than the one I just made. To do that, I am simply adding a bit more of the three other colors, which naturally reduces the proportion of white in the mix. This way, I get something just a bit darker than what I had before because the difference between the two shades on my palette was subtle and I wanted a bit more contrast. And so that's what I have done. And now I am going to do the same thing again and add a little more of this free color to make it even darker like this. And next, I can create some even darker color. But this time, I will go with something even darker, like I said, to have different skin tones value, which will allow me to create a result that feels much more realistic overall. All these different values of the skin tones really helps to create realism within our painting. In some areas, it feels like there are pods that are slightly more orange. So that's what I'm creating here a slightly orangy tone, and then I'm going to use that color as a base to mix a lighter version of it so I can have some variation in certain zones. As for my skin tones, I would say they are looking pretty good for now. If I feel a need, I can always adjust the colors along the way or even create new ones if necessary. Now we are going to move on to mixing the colors for the eye. Here we have got a kind of brown that leans slightly greenish. Honestly, it's really hard to define exactly what direction this brown is leaning toward. So what I am doing is starting with a bit of each of the three primary colors, and then I adjust from there. At one point, I felt like the color I had was leaning too much toward yellow. So I added its complimentary color, the purple to balance it out. I also darkened the mixture with some burn timber because overall, there wasn't any area in the eye that was as light as what I had mixed initially. And now I am getting closer to a ton that works for the lighter areas of the iris. And from this color, I will now mix a darker shade by adding more burn timber. In this new mixture, I noticed that the color was leaning too much toward green, so I added the opposite of green, red to correct that. And then I'm going even darker by adding more burned timber again. And at this point, I feel like I have a pretty solid base for the colors of the iris. But I want to create something extremely dark, very close to black, but with a slightly greenish tint. So I'm adding a little bit of yellow to my mix for the deepest areas of the iris of this eye. However, for the pupil, I want some pure black. That's why I mix only burned timber and ultramarine blue. This gives me a solid black, and from that base, I can add a little bit of white to create different shades of gray which we will use in the whites of the eye. In this case, I want my gray to lean more toward blue than toward brown. So I'm going to add a little bit of ultramarine blue, as you can see. So now my gray is ready, I have been able to create several variations, and I am going to move on to mixing the slightly reddish colors that we see in the corner of the eye. I am starting with a base of red and a large amount of white. Since I don't want the red to be too intense, I am adding just a tiny bit of green, as you can see. And with these new colors, we are all set and ready to begin painting the eye. Et's get started. It's time to begin painting. As you can see, I used the grid to sketch out this piece. So here we go. I am going to start painting now. I am beginning with the darkest areas of the eye, the pupil in the upper part of the iris. That is usually where I start when painting an eye because black is a solid reference point. I know for sure that this area of the eye will be pure black. And when I apply the surrounding colors, mostly browns, I will be able to compare their values to that black and ask myself whether those browns are too dark or too light by comparison. That helps ensure that I place the right colors in the erays. And this is almost how I begin. Then we also have black in the upper part of the iris, and I am applying it now with a fine brush so I can be very precise, since we are working with tiny areas here, very narrow shapes. So a fine brush is ideal to apply the color as accurately as possible. I am using pure black, the mix I prepared earlier across this entire upper area. We'll also find a little bit of this black color on the sides of the iris, though in those parts, it is a little bit lighter than the black we are using right now above. So I am going to adjust my color here and switch to something slightly lighter for these side areas. That is the case on the right side, and it will also be true on the left. So again, I am carefully applying this darker tone in the right spot. That's it for the darkest areas of the iris. Now I am going to move on to the central part, and I will try to apply the right colors in the right places. Here, just below the pupil, we can see a fairly dark brown across the iris. I would say that is the base color. Of course, we will be adding some lighter touches over it later, but that shade does cover a large portion of the area. So I have applied it as my base tone. Next, on the left side, I can also see a fairly dark line. So I marked that in as well. And between this dark line and the central area I just painted, I will use something a little lighter. We can see that this area is overall a bit brighter, even though some darker touches will be added later. So now I am adjusting a little bit my color, making it lighter and adding some white because we can see that on the left side, it is a little lighter and a little less intense, it leans less towards these kind of orange greenish tones and shifts towards something more neutral. That's actually what we see in this section on the side. Then in the upper right part, we have a medium dark tone with a few darker accents. So I am applying that now, but I will need another shade to create a smooth transition between this area I am painting and the run above it. So that's what I have just done. And I am using a much darker brown and it needs to be blended properly with the color I applied earlier to get a good transition. And finally, on this right side, we see an area that is quite light overall. So I can apply that lighter color now. And later on, I will add a few slightly darker touches over it, as well. And there we go. I just a few minutes, the iris is nearly completed with the base color application is nearly completed for this whole area, and I've got a good foundation, and next we'll refine and develop it in more detail. Now that my base colors are in place, I can start blending in the areas where it is needed. For example, on the right side, I really need to work on the transitions there. But on the left, as I was applying the color, I was already blending the tones together, and they are well connected now. So I don't necessarily need to go back and rework that part. The few precise touches I added earlier are actually enough to start refining things. So what am I going to do now? I am going to go on a little detail hunt. I will start looking for all the small areas where I can add those tiny details, little elements that will make the iris look much more lifelike. That is especially true in the lower part around the pupil. There are a lot of small darker elements, so I am going to add those in now, and I am using a very fine brush for this. And at this stage, it is really important to pay attention to the shapes of the details, their color and value, how fake they are, how long, and the direction they go. So you can reproduce them as accurately as possible. This part of the eye, especially the iris is an area where attention to details matters the most. It is where the viewer's eye is naturally drawn first when looking at your portrait. It is what gives identity and life to the person you are painting. So do your best to place the details in just the right spot to achieve an iris and a texture that truly look realistic. And finally, on the right side of the iris, we can see a few small lighter touches that really stand out. And there are a few on the left side as well. So I am adding those now. And with that, I would say that we are done with the iris and the brown tones. What will really tell us whether everything looks right is when the rest of the elements are added, the skin, the eyelashes, the eyelid. Once all of that is in place, we will really be able to judge the overall look of the eye. In the meantime, you need to trace yourself. Unless there is something that clearly feels off or jumps out as wrong, just keep going and leave it as it is. Now we have this highlight in the eye that is very noticeable. It takes up a fairly large area, so I have mixed a much lighter gray for it. I feel like this very light gray makes a great base because everything else in this area is darker, so it will be easier to come back and add finer darker details on top later. Then looking at the pupil, we can see the reflection of the photographer, which is painted in black. But around that, there is a soft gray area. Since I already started on the nearby section with a light gray, I will continue in that same tone here where it's not very dark either. Later, I will come back and layer in the darker details all the both areas. And now I am going to paint in the black reflection of the photographer. Take your time here, make sure that you are using just the tip of your brush so you can be really precise and get a clean edge. This is a very small area, and it is important to capture this detail properly. 11. How to paint a realistic eye in color, part II: Next to the reflection in the pupil, you can see that there is a slightly grayish area, darker one. So I painted that as well using this slightly darker tone. Then in the reflection on the left side, we noticed that the gray has a slightly bluish tint, so I adjusted my mix by adding a bit of blue to get a shade that matches better, one that leans a little more toward blue. And at this point, I would say that the grays in the reflection areas are looking good. Next, we will be adding the eyelashes. But since I already have gray on my brush, I figured it might be as well used as it to start working on the white of the eye and begin blending it with the iris. What we can see between the white of the eye and the iris is that there is a real connection, a sort of soft bluish base that appears between the two. That is what I have tried to create it by carefully painting along the edge, gently blending the iris into the white of the eye. The goal here is to create a very subtle transition between the two elements. So I am applying the paint very delicately. And if too much brown from the iris spills over, it's not a big deal. You can always fix it by going back and layering more gray on top. What is important is that we have a slight connection between the white of the eye and the iris, and that is what I have focused on here. And now I can continue applying my grays in the area. Oh. Alright, so now I have applied the darkest grays in this area. Next, the rest of the section will be made up using some lighter grays. So I'm taking some white and mixing it into my color to get something lighter. I am using a brush for the application that is not too large, not too thick. And as I apply the paint, I am also trying to blend it with the darker gray above. Sometimes, depending on the area, I will do the blending as I apply the color, especially in narrow or tight spaces where it will be tricky to come back and blend afterward. So right now I am applying the color and making sure that the 2 grays, the lighter and darker one, blend nicely together. This way, I will have a solid base and a smooth transition between these elements, which will make it easier to add small details later on. I am also taking some red right now and mixing it into my gray to get a sort of in between color, a soft grayish pink before adding more distinct reddish tones to the corners of the eye. This pinkish gray works pretty well for creating a soft transition. And from that color, I can also mix a slightly darker version for certain areas. I felt like the pinks I had created earlier weren't dark enough for the edge of the eye in particular. So this new and deeper tone should work better for that part. Now I can really start adding detail to this eye, especially on the left side, those small blood vessels we can see there. There are a few reddish marks that are quite visible, but be careful not to make them too sharp, too harsh. What you will notice about these reddish marks is that they really blend gently into the gray around them. There is a soft transition between the two, and that is exactly what I try to achieve. At the top part of the white of the eye, you can also see some slightly darker elements. So I am adding those in just like I am doing in the lower corner of the eye, and it is really these little additions that really help to make the eye look more realistic. Each tiny detail, one after the other, adds its unsubtle touch and contributes to creating a son that feels lifelike. This is how you truly bring the eye to life by carefully observing and noticing all these small elements that we often overlook unless we are actually painting the eye. If I weren't painting this, I would never have paid attention to all these little things happening around the eye. They would have gone completely unnoticed. But because I want to achieve a realistic look and I want this to truly resemble the eye I am painting, it is the accumulation of all these subtle elements that make the difference. Next, I also notice that in this area on the right, there are some slightly lighter touches, so I am adding those as well, using the tip of my brush like this. I would say that the white of the eye is now complete, so now I am going to move on to the inner corner of the eye where we have those reddish and slightly pink tones. I'm going to start applying my colors there. It is really important to observe this area closely because even though it is very small, it contains a wide range of color. Some parts are quite dark, others are extremely light and almost white. And even though it is a tiny section, it still plays an important role because it is part of the eye, and when we paint the eye, it's really the combination of all these parts, the inner corner, the pupil, the white of the eye, the eyelight, the iris, the eyelashes, et cetera, that creates something believable. If one area is neglected or not as carefully handled as the rest, unfortunately, it's likely to stand out and make the painting look less realistic overall. So it is really important to treat each area with the same level of care in order to achieve a solid final result. Now I am also thinking that I can start working on the eye lashes seen in the reflection in the iris. Earlier, I prefer to focus on the lighter tones of the white of the eye and the inner corner. But now that those aren't done, I can move on to these lashes. I am paying close attention to their values because some of them are a bit darker than others, so watch out for that. Then I start painting them over the white. To paint over the white area effectively, I am making sure I am using just the tip of my brush and that I am barely touching the surface so the colors stays nice and dark. And now we can move on to applying the skin tones in the area above the eye because before painting the eyelashes fully, the skin underneath needs to be done. So that's what I am working on now. It's true that it can feel a bit frustrating. You have done all the inner parts of the eye. The Iteris, the white of the eye, the inner corner, and so on, but you still can't call the eye finish because the eyelashes aren't painted yet. And to paint the lashes, you first need to paint the skin in that area. It will be far tricky and honestly not very smart to say, I will paint the lashes first and then paint the skin between them. That will be extremely difficult to manage. Plus the skin tones will end up mixing with the black from the lashes, and it will create a messy result that doesn't look good. So you just have to be patient and accept that. For now, the eye may look a bit weird, a bit strange. It does feel a little hold to see the eye without the lashes, but that's how it goes. You need to go through that stage. And once we have painted the skin area, we will be able to fully focus on the lashes. And now I am also working on the area above the eye. I figure I might as well paint the whole arch of the brow along with the eyelid, especially because if you look closely, you will notice that some of the eyelashes are very long. They extend beyond the eyelid and into the upper area. So it is important to paint that section beforehand as well. And I am applying my skin tone, making sure to spread it out properly, and I am carefully observing the different values, noting which parts are lighter and which are darker. And as I apply the color, I can also blend it right away or I can choose to do that later. Both options are just fine. Oh My colors are well applied. I have created a nice blend between them. And as you can see on the left side, the tone is a bit more orange, so I hope that you have done that as well. And from that base color, I mixed a slightly darker version by adding some burn timber and now I am using it to add small details. Those slightly darker touches in the skin that help create texture. We are not just applying a flat layer of color before painting the lashes. We need to fully paint and refine the skin area, because if we don't paint it flowerhy now if I skip the details, I will end up having to come back and add them after the lashes are done, and that's going to be more complicated. So now I am adding details to the skin texture. You will notice that it is often made up of fine lines, some, some are diagonally placed, others are not curved, and that is exactly what I am working on. And honestly, unless you are aiming for a hyper realistic portrait where every tiny detail is rendered with extreme precision, this kind of certain work, just adding a few irregular and slightly dark touches is usually more than enough to create a realistic skin texture. Just some irregular touches like this are good. And especially if this is one of your first painted portraits, don't overthink the skin texture too much. Just do what I am doing here. Add a few scattered touches, and that is plenty to give your work a convincing look. Right now, I am also remixing a little bit of my colors to get a slightly pinker tone, and I am continuing the slow and patient process, adding small touches here and there. But keep in mind, once again, it is the accumulation of all these tiny touches that gives the final result, its realistic and cohesive appearance. If the eye is beautifully rendered, but the skin around it hasn't been worked at all, if it doesn't look like anything, then the final result won't hold up. Every element of the face and especially the areas around the eye needs to be painted with the same level of care because without consistency in the application, it is difficult to get a result that feels coherent. You Alright, so now I have done the same kind of work on the eyelid area. And now when we move on to painting the eyelashes, we are not just going to draw black lines. What we actually notice is that just above the eye, there is a whole area that is slightly darker. It is a brownish tone, not black, and it really needs to be painted. Because if you skip that step and only paint the lashes, or if you just apply over the entire area where the lashes will go, the final results won't look right. This kind of detail we are adding here is very important. Is one of those subtle things that if you are not yet used to painting portraits, you might overlook. And then you will feel like the eye looks good, but something is off. Something like something's missing. And that's often what it is. This slightly brown band where the lashes sit. So we need to make sure we include it. Now, the brown can vary in intensity. For example, on the left side, you will notice that this brown I am applying is much darker. That is because there are more lashes in that area, and it naturally cast more shadow underneath, making the skin darker in there. So pay close attention to that. We need to add the slightly darker zone before painting the lashes. And for this brownish tone that I just painted, I also wanted to blend naturally with the surrounding areas. So I did a bit of blending to help that section transition smoothly into the skin above. W Now I am going to take my swath brush, which will help me draw fine and precise lines, and we are ready to begin. So I'm about to paint the first eyelash, but wait, I actually made a mistake. Before we can really start painting the lashes, we need to paint the line that runs just above them. That line will have lashes crossing over it, so it's better to paint it first. So that's what I am doing now. I am trying to paint it as precisely as possible using my swell brush. It's never easy to paint lines like this, long, slightly curved lines that require a lot of control. So I am breaking it down into smaller section and doing it step by step. I try to load my brush with enough paint so that the flow is smooth, but I also don't want the tip to become too thick. So after loading my brush, I flatten it slightly to create a sharp point so that the very tip is really fine and pointed. This way, I can be much more precise when painting this line. And most importantly, this line stays thin just as it should. So I go over it several times, trying to follow any lines I may have painted beforehand, and if I go a little overboard, if it spills out slightly, it's not a big deal. You can always touch it up later by reapplying a bit of your skin tone over it to adjust the thickness or correct the shape of the line. So that's what I am focusing on now. I take my time and go over it carefully. And once this is done, we can finally paint the eyelashes. Something else you may notice is that just above this dark line, there are a few slightly darker touches. So I am adding those in now with my brush working carefully and precisely. These little strokes I am applying, I am also trying to make them resemble the slightly irregular skin texture we worked on earlier because it is still skin. It is just a bit darker than what we had before. So I am working that area carefully, trying to blend it just slightly into the darker line we painted earlier. On the underside, as well, there are some slightly darker elements, and I am adding those in too. And as you will notice, I am no longer using the sword brush at this stage. I have switched to the fine tipped round brush instead. It is a very thin round brush, and I find it better for painting the small skin texture and those small details. And now I am going back over the line a little to refine it because in some areas, I feel like it is not dark enough. And the long awaited moment has finally arrived, we can start painting the eye lashes. I will be using the swan brush again since this allows me to create long and fine lines. Now, if you look closely, you will notice that on the left side, some of the lashes are really dark, and that's what I am going to start working on. When painting the eyelashes, you need to pay attention to their value, to how dark they are and also to their color because not all shes are the same. If you paint all of them in pure black, it usually won't look right. You also need to focus on their trajectory, make sure they are pointing in the right direction, and that you place them accurately. For the lash I just painted right here, I saw that it was positioned roughly at the corner of the iris, and that helped guide me and position it correctly. Then there is also the length and the thickness to consider. Not all the lashes are the same thickness, and within a single lash, it's often a bit thicker at the base and then gets finer toward the tip. So you can play with your brush pressure to achieve that effect. And to make the lashes appear slightly lighter, you can also reduce the pressure you apply with your brush. And here I am adding a few extra lashes that are going to be even thinner, so I am being extra delicate with the brush to get them just right. And that's how we go about painting the eyelashes. Now, be careful not to make a common mistake I've seen often painting all the lashes with the same curve spaced evenly apart, all in solid black. That's not how it works. Instead, remember that each that sorry, instead, remember that eyelashes are unique to each person and that for every eye you paint, you need to adapt your approach. Pay close attention to the placement, the length, the shape, and all the characteristics I mentioned earlier. It's just like we did with the iris. We observed where the lighter and darker areas, where, how the color shifted and blended, and it's the same idea with the lashes you are adding now. Observe carefully before painting. That observation is what makes all the difference. So that's it for the eye lashes. They are done. And now I am going to go back over that purple line once more, because looking at the lashes now, I feel like the line isn't dark enough. When I compare the value of that line with the lashes themselves, I felt the contrast was too strong. There was too much of a gap. So I'm going to refine that a little. But overall, for the eye and the upper area, everything is looking good. You can really start to recognize the person, the eye, and that's very satisfying. Next, we'll do a similar kind of work on the lower area. Though on the lower eyelid, there is usually less to do when it comes to the lashes, simply because there are fewer of them compared to the upper lid. 12. How to paint a realistic eye in color, part III: Now let's move on to the lower area. For this part, I am speeding up the video slightly at the beginning while I apply the base color since there's nothing too complex happening here. I'm simply applying the color with a flat brush across the different areas. You can see that the lower eyelid is a bit darker, but don't worry we will take the time to work through the texture together in detail so we can render the skin properly and make it look realistic. I am applying this base term now, and take your time on your end and feel free to post the video if you need to before we get into more precise work on this area together. So here, I have done a pretty rough base application. With all the blending, it's hard to clearly see where the eyelid area is anymore. So now with a slightly smaller brush, I'm going to refine that a little bit. I am mixing in mixing a skin tone that is slightly darker than what I had applied earlier, and I am adding some small touches of color to better define the area. Actually, most of the time when I work, I start by applying the base colors in each area using a fairly large brush. That initial step is pretty loose. Then I come back in with a smaller brush to rework and define the zone more precisely. So I am not quite at the detail phase yet. I am still applying color, but this stage is a bit more precise. If I were to be this precise from the beginning, working only with the small brush, it would take much longer. Instead, building a foundation with the dominant colors of the area and then layering the smaller accents and variations over that feels more efficient to me. I don't mean I want to rush or cut corners, not at all. But we all have busy schedules with the daily life. And even though I love painting, I also like for my process to be effective. I want to be able to create a lot of work, and these small time saving habits here and there help me do that. And well, now I have defined the zones more clearly, and then we can start working on the details. And on this eyelid, you will notice that there are lots of tiny dots, small lines and subtle marks that create the unique skin texture in that area. So that's what I am adding now, small and darker touches. Be careful, though not to make them all the same darkness. You will see that some of these little dots and lines are only slightly darker while os are much more pronounced. And it is that variation in the browns that also makes the eyelid area look realistic. So that is what I am focusing on, adding those small touches here and there to create a nice and believable effect with all these subtle brown tones. And just below the eye area, I noticed that the color shifts slightly. Here, it leans more toward the pinkish tone, so I adjusted my mix accordingly. Now, it's true that when you are just starting out with painting, it can be difficult to catch all these small colour changes, all these subtle value shifts, and you may not have paid much attention to it, but under the eye, the tone is a little different. You might not be able to see these differences overnight, and that's completely normal. But over time with practice and with the help of videos like this one, with exercises and all the portraits you will paint, your eye will get better at noticing them. And step by step, as you try to focus on these details, you will start to notice color shifts more naturally. Your eye will sharpen and your ability to observe will improve significantly. And those tiny color variations and subtle details that you probably didn't even notice before starting this course or before you're starting painting at all, will start to stand out more and more. And even in everyday life outside of painting, something that can really help is to actively observe things around you. For example, if you see a vase, don't just say it is a red vase. Instead, take a closer look, trying to notice the subtle variations within the red, the colors in the shadows, the highlights, and the texture of the surface. Ask yourself, how is that texture created? Is it made up of small dots, fine lines, slightly darker mars, or lighter ones? And when you begin to observe the world with the eyes of a painter, you will find that all these elements become easier to notice when you are actually painting, and as a result, your painting skills will improve, too. So yes, observation is absolutely essential. Of course, mastering technique, brush control, color mixing, and so on is very important when it comes to painting. But the ability to observe things that most people overlook is just as vital. It is what makes your work truly perceptive and refined. You so now for the next few minutes, I'm going to continue working on the skin texture in this area. For example, on the left side, you can see that there is a sort of shadow from the upper line and the lashes. So I added that in. Something else that will be very important to add on those very light marks, almost white to that appear between the lashes in this area. Those highlights will really help the lashes stand out later. And next, I'm going to do the same kind of work I did earlier on the upper eyelid and brow area, adding small and irregular touches here and there. It is the accumulation of all these little touches that will give me a truly satisfying final result. So I am taking my time here to build up a convincing skin texture. It might feel a bit long, but honestly, it's all relative. It's just a few minutes spent refining the texture. And in my opinion, it is much better to take those few extra minutes now than to look back in a few days or weeks and think, Oh, I should have just spent a bit more time at that. It would have made such a difference. So that's why take your time, enjoy the process, and it's all these elements that you are adding that helps you create a better skin texture and a better eye and the better eye. And so now I can go ahead and add those very light marks I mentioned earlier right before we move on to painting the lower lashes. Now I can start working on the eyelashes. Before tackling the lower lashes, I'm going to finish the upper one since earlier I couldn't fully paint them because the skin area beneath the eye hadn't been painted yet. That's now done. So we can move on to the lower lashes. There are several things to notice about these lashes. First, they are lighter than the ones we painted earlier. I will mostly use the slightly grayish browns I have. They are also shorter, thinner, and fewer overall. So be careful not to overload the area. And again, it's all about observation. Don't just add a bunch of lashes simply because it's an area that has lashes, and especially not all the same or all dark, definitely not. Once more, the key is to observe closely. A painter's job is to be very attentive to the details that make the area look realistic. That's what I am doing here, adding these very fine little lines to create the texture and the lashes. In the end, just a few of them are enough. These few strokes are all it takes to bring the eye to life. That lower part was missing. And once the eyebrow is painted as well, the whole area will really come together. So now that these lashes are painted, I'm going to refine the area that is add some slightly darker elements, some slightly lighter ones here and there. And all of that will really help enhance the area, especially around the eyelid, we can see that there are some very defined lines that are quite visible. So I will be adding those in next. That will also help make them stand out. You can really notice this with the line just below the lashes. There is this very dark line, and just beneath it, lighter touches that help create some small areas of relief in that zone. So that's what I am going to focus on adding these little details which will really help complete the lower part of the skin. The hardest part of this area is done with the eye fully painted, and now we are entering a phase that is more pleasant and lighter. It's all about small adjustments and details that truly enhance the whole piece. These final touches may be subtle, but they are what really bring death and life to the painting. So take your time, observe carefully, and enjoy this step because it is now that everything comes together and the artwork is truly completed. And before I can paint the eyebrow, I need to paint the area above and to the side of it just because just like with the eyelashes, some hairs will go beyond the main shape and overlap the surrounding skin. If we want to paint those hairs properly, the area underneath needs to be done first. That's why it is always important to anticipate your step and ask yourself these kinds of questions, especially in the beginning. Later on, it becomes second nature, and you don't even think about it consciously anymore. But early on, it really helps to pause and ask, Okay, I am about to paint this area, but will that get in the way when I want to paint another one later? Or would it make more sense to paint a different area first? And by taking the time to think ahead like this, you make things much easier for yourself. It saves time, avoids frustration, and prevents you from getting stuck. Like, in this case, for instance, imagine starting the eyebrow and then realizing you can't paint the hairs that extend over the skin because that part hasn't been painted yet. It's not a huge problem, of course, but it would have been smarter to do the skin first. Here I am finalizing the work in this area. You can see that the skin texture still needs a bit of work with some slightly darker touches, some slightly lighter ones, and that's what will help me make the skin look truly realistic. And I will keep working on that until it looks right, and then we'll be ready to move on to painting the eyebrows. So I am also going to do the same work on the area above the eyebrow, but I will do it off camera because it's exactly the same process, ayer up. So I invite you to do it on your side, post the video, and we'll now move on to working on the eyebrow. Now, when it comes to the eyebrow, the first thing we notice is that the skin just below it, like we mentioned earlier, is slightly darker. And that's what I have applied around these slightly darker touches. Now, before painting the eyebrow itself, the hairs and all these little details, what I need to do first is paint the skin underneath. In this case, the eyebrow isn't very thick or dense, so quite a bit of the skin underneath remains visible. So that's what I am doing, painting the skin, using the actual color, we can see. And here under those very dark hairs, we can observe this brown tone, which is also fairly dark. It is simply skin, of course, but this part of the skin appears darker because it's partly covered by the eyebrow, and that creates more shadow in this area. That's what's made the skin here look darker. So that's the explanation, but ultimately, the reason doesn't matter much. What matters is applying the right color in this area and being precise. Then on top of that we'll be able to add the individual eyebrow hairs. Also, keep in mind the skin tone under the eyebrow isn't necessarily the same everywhere. You have to adapt a little bit to color. And adjust it. You may have noticed that in the central area, I use something a bit darker because overall, everything tends to be darker in that zone, the individual hairs and the skin beneath as well. Now that I have a mix of browns, some darker, some lighter, I can start working on the eyebrow hairs. Here I am really going to focus on detail, aiming to create a hair like texture in this area. And for that, once again, I will observe carefully. I will look at the color of the hairs. They are mostly brown overall, but above all, they don't all have the same value. You can see that some hairs are thinner and appear lighter, while other areas are denser with more hairs, and those will appear darker. So I will adapt accordingly. I am also paying attention to the direction of the hairs. On the right side, you can see that they go upward, while in the central part, they start pointing to the left. That is also something important to capture in order to make the eyebrow look realistic. So here I am starting mainly with the lighter hairs. And then gradually, I will work in some darker ones, and I will begin I begin with the lighter ones because it is easier to layer darker hairs over them later on. When painting eyebrows, though, it's not the same as with eyelashes. I am not trying to be precise down to each individual hair. With eyelashes, that level of precision was necessary. First, because we are working on the actual eye with the eyelashes, which demands more accuracy. And second, because there are so few lashes. If those few hairs maybe ten or so aren't well placed, it becomes harder to recognize the person. But with eyebrows, I aim for precision in terms of the general direction of the hairs, whether they go up or left and so on, and where their value, their length, but I am not stressing about placing every single hair perfectly. I try to be accurate, yes, but not to an extreme level like I did with the eyelashes. So that's how I approach the eyebrow and that brings this tutorial. This eyebrow will bring this tutorial to a close. I am finishing it now. Oh And that's it. This tutorial is about to come to an end. I really hope you enjoy it, and above all, that you took pleasure in painting this eye, both in black and white and in color. Maybe you already noticed some progress between the two versons more control over textures, volume or detail. If so, that is fantastic. And if not, don't worry. This kind of subject improves with practice. And I strongly encourage you to keep going. Why not try a profile eye or free quarter view next? The techniques is basically the same. Only the perspective shifts slightly. And if you feel ready to take things further, know that you also have access to full portrait tutorials, not just eye, so you can keep building your skills, gain confidence and grow step by step. So keep practicing and see you very soon in another course.