Simple Guide for Painting Eyes

When painting a realistic eye it is important to remember that an eye is round. Even if you cannot see the entire pupil or iris it must maintain the illusion of being round.

Shading is an important aspect of keeping the rounded eye illusion. For example, shading the white portion of the eye will focus the light source and create perspective.

The iris is made up of several shades of one color family and sometimes even a few flecks of contrasting colors. Therefore, painting the iris one solid color is out of the question.



Begin with two blended colors in the same color family. Mark your center and shade from that center point outward in keeping with the rounded cone effect. Add a darker outside ring that encompasses the entire iris.

Next add a somewhat uniform starburst effect to the iris for texture in both like and contrasting colors. Add a second smaller, more distorted/blended starburst effect just for texture in darker colors, inside the first starburst but larger than the pupil.

Add your black pupil making sure to keep it as round as possible.

Because the eye is covered with and eye lid, the lid will cast a shadow onto the eye regardless of your light source and should be shaded accordingly emanating from the lid.

The eyeball itself will also be darker on the outer edges almost like a shadow to keep the illusion of roundness.

Remember that placement of the iris, pupil, and lid effect the expression of your subject.

Note: Airbrush users…If you have adequate control of your airbrush spray area and use tacky frisket paper to mask the flesh tone area around the eye (to avoid overspray), you can get a really nice soft blend of white and gray with a focused, whiter color point in the center.