Paint Eyes Using Your Digital Art Program!

However, for your exercise, I will get you to do it on multiple layers. The reason I want you to do it in this method is that it allows you to really correct light and shadows easier than if you were to do it all on one layer.

Anyway, bring up your digital art program and create your first layer. I want you to fill it with a skin tone color of your choice. Personally, I use Photoshop. But any digital art program that has layers will do just nicely.

1. Outlining the features

You will need to learn how to do things in wholes when you paint eyes. As such, once you filled out the canvas with the type of skin color you like, the next step is to figure out where each part of the eyes goes.

From the example, I have outlined where the eye sockets are in relationship to the rest of the features like the nose, forehead, and the eyebrows.

This will be the basic grounds for which you will paint eyes. You must also remember that it will help you set the proportions correctly.

2. Painting the eye shape

For the next order of business, you will fill in the pupils. For that, I need you to start up a new layer. On this layer, label it as sclera or whatever name you wish.

I will get you to paint an object of the eye shape. Make sure that it’s a thick object so as you can’t see what’s behind it.

This will get you in the frame of mind of focusing on shapes rather than dealing with specific features. Make sure to turn the transparency on once you have figured out a shape that you would like to paint on!

Turning on the transparency will help you paint the pupil inside the sclera without worrying about going out of its boundaries.

3. Painting the pupil

Then, I pick a slightly smaller brush to decide the iris color of the eyes. Once I have done that, I pick an even smaller brush and put in the pupil itself. The thing you need to remember here is light.

If you’re doing a bright environment, make sure to make the pupil small. If you’re doing a dark environment, make sure to dilate the pupils as it opens up to allow more light into the eyes.

The next step is to draw where the light and shadows are. Depending on how detailed you want it to be, you can even draw the individual lines that make up the iris. Generally, there are light around the iris areas and the pupil area when you paint eyes.

But don’t just stop there! Remember to add details concerning the lacrimal glands and the lower eye lids. For the most part, these will be painted within the sclera. Remember to turn transparency on so you don’t paint out of the boundaries!

4. Paint eyes with more details!

You’re almost done!

Once you’re done the pupils, the next procedure is to paint additional details like the eye lashes and the eyebrows.

Again, start up a new layer and paint these features accordingly. Use a finer brush to paint the individual hairs. If you can, grab a mirror and look at how your eye lashes and eyebrows are shaped.

This means looking at the direction the lashes are heading towards when you paint eyes.

Of course, make sure to match the colors correctly. Though it may look black to you, use a brush with small pressure sensitivity so it blends well into the skin of your character.

Once you have finished your exercise, you should have three or four layers with different parts of the eyes. You can switch between each layer and refine them if necessary by repainting them. That’s the beauty of layers!

Obviously, you can merge your layers together and then do even more fine painting if you wish.

Again, this is just one way of learning how to paint eyes. After this, it’s just up to practice to find a technique you like. Keep up the motivation and good work!

Return from Paint Eyes to Paint Faces.
Return from Paint Eyes to the 2d Digital Art Guide.