ART STUDY 001 - The Eye

[Randis ::]

Kitchen Art Study 001 This is a simple free art study workshop for Kitchen Art Forum members. Everyone is free to participate! This time the focus is on the Human eye. Here is a photo of my own eye, this shall be your reference for this study. The reason why everyone should use this specific photo: -It will make providing the feedback easier as i will not have to study individual references. - you will be able to compare your results with everyone else since everyone has the same subject, you can observe and learn from each other. Before you start painting, let us first have a quick look at this image here. As you see I roughly marked the main elements of the eye, the eye ball and the eyelids. When painting the eye it is very important to understand the very basic principles and properties on a human eye. The eyeball much influences the shape of the lids and the shading you have to apply to the skin. Looking at various photos of human eyes you will see how the skin curved around the eye ball, how deep the eye ball is set in the skull, the cheek bone, muscles, the flow of the wrinkles around the eye and so on… I usually start by painting the eyeball in the correct position on the face/skull, then i paint the eyelids. Having the eyeball it is easier to get the curves for the eyelids right as they follow the shape of the eyeball. First I would like everyone to have a look at this video, I did a 30 minutes study of this photo and recorded the process for you. ( i did speed it up, no worries) The video does not have any commentary, it simply will show you my approach. Link There are various ways and techniques to paint and to create details, you do not have to emulate what I did in the video. Give your best and try to paint the eye using the photo as reference. Do not only focus on recreation, try to understand the shape. As you see my picture is not a exact match, i choose to work with cooler colors and the proportions changed a bit but i managed to translate the shapes. Slightly different eye shapes are acceptable, all eyes are a bit different in their arrangement. This study assumes that you have basic understanding of human skull anatomy. Understanding the shapes of the face it is important to know what lies under the skin, in this case, bones, eyeball, several muscle groups (orbital/preseptal/pretarsal orbicularis oculi) fat, lacrimal gland. If you are not sure what is causing some of the shadows, you cam look up the anatomy here: http://medicalart-work.co.uk/images/face-anatomy.jpg - Do not abstract the shapes or colors too much, try to get as close to the reference as possible - Do not change the perspective of the eye. Post your WIP (work in progress), I will go around and give everyone feedback and directions. This Study, starting today will end on 25 March 2011. By the end hopefully everyone who participates will have a great result to show. Please start as early as possible as, no later than the last 5 days as I will no longer provide feedback after the deadline. TIPS Here are some tips for everyone in general - when working on your panting, have a look at what others have posted already and also read the comments, this way you may learn something that could help you with your study. - always start our with the roughest shapes and do fine details last - paint on separate layers, especially the details, this way fixing mistakes will be easier. - do not use black color for painting shadows, there is no black in the image, use a dark shade of Grey for the upper eyelashes and pupil. the rest of the hair is a dark brown tone. - observe the reference closely! Note that it is easy to confuse changes in skin colors and darker skin parts with shadows, human skin has various shades of color all over our body. When you try to recreate something on canvas by reference, try to break down what you see in some shapes. in this case you have also the advantage of knowing some of the invisible properties of the subject, you know that the eyeball is round, so you can first paint a circle (for guidance), then the eyelids. Then observe the rest and break it down in rough shapes for example: once you see it in simpler shapes, it will be easier to paint. Then you can break down the colors in shapes too no matter how subtle the changes are, as long as your eyes can pick it up, you can break it down. With a bit of training your brain will get used to it and you will get a good routine. Some people use helper to measure the since of the shapes. For example, you often see artists holding a pencil infront of their eyes when they observe a subject. I for example try to memorize the size of one shape in relation to another shape.. For example, the diameter of the iris is roughly half of the visible part of the sclera (the white of the eye) The diameter of the pupil is roughly 1 third of the iris. Try to see how thick some of the shapes are in relation to others. This is a good way to translate the shapes you see to your canvas.

[Luneder]

I had some free time. 1hr with hard round airbrush 1% spacing

[Lyno]

This is great, thanks !

[Vibeness]

[Randis ::]

@Luneder! Great result Luneder! You even did hit the proportions better than me here. you did hit exactly the same skit tones as on the photo, did you sample them? @ Lyno great start! your skin tones are a bit too saturated and have a lot of blue value, makes the skin all purple. Also there is no complete black in the picture, the black pops very strong. you painted a strong shadow on the iris and gave it a hard edge, the edge of the iris needs to be much softer. The curve of the lower eye lid is sacking a bit, revealing too much of the inside in the middle, makes it look like it's melting. The direction of the lower eyelashes go into wrong direction, the direction is influenced by the curve of the eyelid but you did split the m right in the middle. The upper eyelid does not reveal any red tissue on the photo. cheers

[Randis ::]

@ Vibeness Looking good! The blood vessels show a bit strong, i would tone it down a bit. If you have a case where the brush is not tin enough you can make things more transparent, it will have a similar effect. The iris needs a soft edge, observe the reference. The eyebrow needs to be extended to left and right, you made is only as long as the eye, that would be to short. You painted the shadow under the eyebrow too strong, in fact it does not look like the shadow, it looks like you stylized the eyebrow to save time. you broke the curve of the upper eyelid just above the iris, the curve seems to go up there.Observe the shadows closely, the differences are subtle but they tell us about the shapes. See what is causing the shadows above the upper eyelid (upper eyelid skin crease) Also the shadow under the eye are too strong, make sure not to mix up changes of skin tone with shadows.

[Rhunyc]

Here's about 30 min of work. I like studies when I have an image given to me to work with.. I always worry when studying on my own that I'm choosing wrong images that aren't the best examples.. Thanks!

[Lyno]

I did another one , I hope you don't mind Thanks for the tips!

[Randis ::]

@ Rhunyc Good start, but needs more work. You should start by fixing the shapes, have a look at the eyelids, they seem all edgy and don't really follow the shape of the eyeball. Picture the eyeball for what it is, a ball and then picture the lids wrapped around it. The iris should be round! The eyebrow is out of shape, observe the ref and spend some more time @ Lyno This is better! Please flip it when you post again, it makes it easier to compare. The edges of the iris need to be softer. It looks like there is a dark shadow under the eye, observe the ref, the shadow is not as strong but the color of the skin changes. Ty to find the right values so that the changes in the skin color don't look like shadows. Spend some more time and go into detail, its the small details that add realism.

[JakeyChan]