Watercolor - Let's Paint Dog Eyes!

1. 01 - Watercolor - Let's Paint Dog Eyes: Hello, everyone. And welcome back in today's class, we're gonna go over ta guys. The last class that I published when we talk about dog knows is how to create texture and highlight to make a really beautiful dog knows. Today we're going to focus on the eyes. Eyes are the soul of the artwork. When it comes to pet portrait, it's I do quite a few of these on a regular basis. So learning some of these techniques were very important to me because I think if the eyes aren't right, then it's just not right for the, you know, the pet. This is Cooper. These actually dog. I have illustrated many, many times, but I want to walk you through how to accomplish depth, highlight, and then we're gonna work our way into the for. But during this class, we're going to focus on the eyes and eyes are so so important. And I hope that I could give you just a little advice about how to approach dog eyes. Don't let them intimidate you. They're not as difficult as some might make them. So get ready. Let's go 2. 02 - Supplies Used: I do want to go over some supplies. This is gonna be a fairly simple supply run here. I've got two brushes. I've got a fine tip zero and a number two. And these were both Master Touch Brand. They come from hobby Lobby. Pretty faithful little brushes. I don't tend to spend a lot on brushes. I just have never done that. So these air kind of my go to. So for the eyes were gonna focus with thes two brushes the next. And I will have these on the screen here, the colors. But we're gonna use a black wash, a white quash, these air hole buying artist brand they reconstitute just like watercolor. Which is why I love them. We have a American journey, Buff titanium. I've got an American journey burnt number. I have core by golden burnt sienna. And down here, you really can't quite tell what the's are. But one is a Payne's gray, also by core and then a blue. And I would suggest just some sort of blue. We're gonna put a tiny bit in the eye. It's not too big of a deal, and then these other two are just a carbon black by core and I think, another type of black. But you really don't need to go to crazy with that many blacks. And also, depending on the dog we're gonna be working on your color for the iris is gonna change. So don't worry too much about that. You're gonna wanna have some paper towels. Then we'll have a little bucket for some water. I have gone ahead and take down my paper. I'm using £140 cold press. I believe it's Kilimanjaro again. Feel free to use the paper you have available to you. These can also be done on water. Clear board, lots of different options you have for that. I've done these on £300 paper as well. £140 paper. I like to take down just so that doesn't get so much buckle. And that will really be when we get to the main part of the body, not necessarily just ice. So with that, let's get started 3. 03 - Get Started: we're going to start with the rim of the I, um, this dog, if you can't tell, is a basset hound and bath hounds tend have really dark areas around the eye. So for this demonstration, I am gonna go ahead, fill in this area here. I'm not gonna go past it. That's part we get into part of the for on the face that does. We do start to get into the for here. But I am gonna go ahead and fill in this section and fill in this section with going to use a little bit of that carbon black Martina goes dark. The quash tends to be opaque, more opaque, which I love to use for the really deep blacks, like the people and around the water line. So for this, I am going to use going to start with a wet on dry meaning. I've got wet paint. Oh, my brush onto the dry paper. I'm going to start out with the inside of the eye first and then work me way out. You're going to put a little bit. Just follow that line wherever that Maybe if it's the the outline here, like I'm doing or if it's a different dog right now, what I'm gonna do with this outside sections, I'm actually cleaner. Brush off just a little bit, bring some water. It's not completely clean, and that's fine. I'm just gonna drag around this I Boeing. I look like he's got two black guys by the time I'm done with this perfect. Because now, even though it's a solid line here, I can always go out and add little for marks to blended into the rest over here and grab a little bit more that carbon black. And when I made, you should have run it right along the edge to kind of feather it out. I typically work where I put down a dark wet on dry and then move on from there and the same thing with the other side. Follow the inside of the rim Here, Bathhouse 10 Have those the droopy eyes. This particular Bassett Pound is named Cooper, and he's actually a part of a book. I illustrated the Adventures of Cooper and you find that on Amazon by Susan Jones. She is very sweet, and I love I loved and still am loving, illustrating Cuba because he's got several more books coming out, but he tends to have more of the happy I feel or look, whereas some basset hounds and I kind of have that really extra droopy part. And they tested her, like pink or interest, you know, some we had. We had it used to have a dog that had eyes. Kind of like they just had the kind of that sad look. Um, and that's okay. You just have to kind of look and evaluate when you're painting on what type of ice structure there is. And then how you want to represent that in the painting? So his eyes have always been very happy looking okay. And see how that kind of feathered out it's It's drying just like that. Okay, Dad is step one. We're gonna move on to step two 4. 04 - Painting the Iris: All right, Step two. I thought I'd move us in just a bit closer. So you can really kind of get in here and see some of that detail. Now, I've still got that number to brush. Only I want to go into the iris next. So this dark kind of has a coppery golden brown iris. So I'm just gonna dampen a little bit of this color here, and I got a little bits. This one's a little more red and tone. I probably should have gone a little more golden, but again, that's really your discretion. As far as what type of dog you're painting, their eye color is gonna be a little bit different. So I'm just gonna go in here and put a little bit of that discolored water. You can do it completely with clear water first. So we're into a wet on wet technique. What I like to dio I like to skim around the edges here. So you have a highlight here, and then the edges were gonna be You want to have those colored in because he has a heavy island. I'm gonna go in here with a little bit of this black and catch the top part of that iris and go ahead and fill in a little bit of top there, Raise it up just a little bit more. We really get the feel for how deep? Set back the eyes. Now with the Irish, you do actually have a bit of a border. So I'm gonna go ahead and sweep some of that black along. Now, I am still using the black, um, bike warm. Just using the black water color. I'm not using the glass just yet. I will use that at the very end. Great. And I'm gonna do the same thing on the other side. Have a little bit of that burnt umber wash. Come over here, fill it. And if you ever need to pick water back up, you want to go over and just tap your brush a little bit and then bring it back over to your painting, Okay? Ready for a little bit of that color again? I'm gonna swing it up underneath. The people didn't leave quite enough white, but you always can go back in with the white wash if you feel like you got too close to the bottom lid. If there is a bit of white to see, you could always just go back over it with a little bit of white quash. It's part of what I love about it. All right, Now we're gonna go into some of this black water color and again, colors and brands. You really use what you have. These were just some of my favorite brands as faras the type of paint I use really? Just about any woodwork. Okay, now, most swing that dark. I guess I got a little bit too, too low. I'm gonna kinda You wanna go ahead and bring across that shadow because there is that shadow across because the lid is so, so much over that I cast a bit of a shadow. We're looking pretty good so far. Okay, You can always go in and kind of tweak the color of the iris. You can drop in some water. I tend to like the way it it drives on its own. When you go on edge, each piece test. So just kind of feather into the other paint. That's what I really appreciate. Okay, We're gonna head into the pupils next 5. 05 - Painting the Pupil: Okay, We're going to jump right in. Now. The pupils. I do like to use the black wash, so we're gonna just come over here, get a bit of it wet so I can get some of that thick, opaque color going And what the pupils I am going to do wet on dry. So I've got wet paint on my brush. Come riot on over here, fill out in. Sometimes I do like to leave that little white space for the highlight of the I. I think Probably go ahead and do that. Gonna drag a little bit of that black up and over. It's pretty simple things that that are effective to create the I mean, it's already looking like it has depth, so we can only just take it further from here, which is good news for everybody. If you're just starting out or if you've been doing this for a while, I think everybody can kind of benefit from just we. All sharing are different ways of accomplishing painting. Okay, what I like to do with that black washes Well, now I've been using this. Number two. I'm gonna go ahead and switch over to the zero. A little bit of water. One had switched my water bucket to the other side again. Find what's comfortable for you and your painting. All right, I'm just gonna drag a little bit of black right across the bottom. Lynn here, a little bit more over here. He's got a little bit of down and over. Not quite. Just a complete round eyelid. Okay. And you notice how this has faded down into the iris. That's usually the goal. I like a soft people. Having a completely stark and round I tend is just tends to not be as appealing. To me. I like very soft. Look, when it comes to, the eyes in the eyes are very important. When it comes to pet portrait, it's I am very convinced of that, because the eyes for Cooper here makes Cooper Cooper versus another basset hound. So that is very important to me. Okay, Going to swing over here to this side and go ahead and fill in that people again wet on dry . We're gonna go over a little bit further here with that black. It does take a little bit of practice to kind of get a feel for how much of that washing have on your brush again, Drag a little bit, cause I didn't quite get the edge of that iris last time. Just go ahead and fill it in. Now, clean off brush. After we talked about being soft here with eyes, I'm just gonna take a little bit a little bit of a damp brush, not very much at all and just sweep underneath. So we get a nice blend. Swing this in just a little bit. Doesn't quite go over us far. Okay, grab a little bit more like wash. Go run and race that lid following that water line dogs have water lines in their eyes just a little bit. Same over here, and we'll bring that crease out just a little bit. The cool thing about wash, you can lay it down and then you can go back over a little bit a white to kind of give it that edge, because the eyelid is rounded a bit. So you wanna indicate that it's a round shape versus just a solid shape. So I always come back in here with just a little bit of this white just to give it a little bit more of that three D effect. That's what I love about this stuff. Just makes my job a little easier. And again with wash. See how there's that harsh line. Just just wipe your brush off just a little bit. Still a little damp. Blend it on out. I talked about going back in with a little bit of the white into this. I hear cause I went a little too far. So I'm just gonna sweep some white right through there, right through there. Go up just a tiny bit. Well, I've got a little bit. About what? I'm gonna go ahead and make a little bit of a glow effect around the highlight. I'm just gonna take a little bit of that white around that stark white point again. I like a soft look versus more contract, if you like. A more contrast, he feel don't blend it out. Just leave it. Leave it the way it is. No big deal. I'm gonna start adopting. Um, Bob Ross is mentality on painting, you know, just it's it's your painting. You just you know, whatever you're feeling, go for it. Okay. And again, I'm just kind of fussing with that. I'm kind of tapering that white out. Those air looking pretty followed to me. Now, if you want to be fussy about it, you're more than welcome to kind of bring some dark down in here based on the photo that you're looking at using a little bit of that darkness, which is the black wash, is what I'm using to kind of add some shadow right here and on the other side again. A little water, a little brush fade that color out. All right. I feel like I don't quite have it dark enough around the lids here. Like I scoot my ipad much. I'll see this here for just a second. Braised that up. All right, I want to show you all something. Okay? You see where he's got the dark up here? Dark down here. Don't quite have it dark enough up with the tops. I'm going to go ahead and work on that. Just a little bit more tight. A little bit more of a lid again wiping my brush off here. Blend, blend, blend, Highlight. It's all about value until about shaped. Instead of looking at the eye for the eye itself. You want to be looking at Okay, Where My dark areas where in my light areas. And once you've put the darks with darks school and the lights were the lights Go Guess what. You've got a painting and it should look pretty similar to what you're trying to paint from . I want a dark in this area just a little bit since that I kind of sinks back, casting a shadow right there. Now when I go in to do the for all blend in more of the brown on that lid, which is what Cooper has. He doesn't quite have this really dark area. Appears got more of the light brown, which I can do with a little bit of the watercolor, and some are colored pencils, which will be very exciting. So make sure you tune in for that because that's going to be very exciting. But I just wanted to go over briefly how I accomplish dog eyes just in general, because it's good information to have, no matter what type of pet your painting, you know, concept is fairly the same. Now, one thing to make a note about I think is very interesting with dog eyes versus people eyes . Highlights tend to come opposite. So if it's on the right side of this, I it will be on the left side of the other I something to think about. And I didn't realize until I really started diving into more pet portrait's how effective that was in pet portrait painting. Okay, so now I mentioned we had a little bit of blue. We didn't get into the Paynes Grey too much. That would be I could add a little bit of pains. Let's see gonna go in here and back this out to any bit, go in here and grab a little bit of that pains. I could just sweep it right underneath. Just gives it a little bit of a different feel because I did add some pains grain to the nose so it tends to tie the two things together. We could have certainly used the Paynes Grey instead of the black around I It's just a nice color tohave when your palate at pretty much all times. All right now I mentioned that blue What? I'm going to dio get some of this white wash when I get a little bit of those blue over here. Makes just a little bit of that. You don't need much and you don't need a particular blue. Just something that you like. That's nice. It could be se lo se logins. Have a little more of the green in it. Um, it could be oppression. Um, really Any type of blue you want. So what I'm gonna do with that? I'm just gonna go right under here a little more blue than that. You're right under here on the other side. Yeah, I did get some blue down, and now you probably can't tell them and go back over it with just a tiny bit of white, The tiniest bit of white trying to get that blue to stand out. Um, this is really something. If the dog is sitting outside, it's a nice effect because of the sky reflection. Zoom in on this show You a little bit of that detail right there. Very subtle, but just that little bit of blue right there makes all the difference in the world. All right. I'm gonna leave it here for today. 6. 06 - Thanks and Share Your Projects!: I want you to practice. I want to see your projects posted your completed eyes posted in the project section. That would be super exciting. I will give you some feedback, for sure. And if there's anything l can think of that you want to learn, feel free to leave that in the comment section. And my plan is for the next class is we're going to go ahead and complete the rest of this stock, so it's gonna take a little bit longer, but I think that's worth it. And then I think in additional video I will talk about filling in the background, which I think is important and how you would pick colors and things like that. So I'm excited. Thanks for joining me. And I will see you all next class. Bye.