Watercolor Techniques to Paint a Realistic Eye

While my favorite thing to do is draw portraits with graphite pencils, I have been practicing with watercolors for a while now and my goal is to paint facial features first and eventually paint portraits with watercolors, because practice is the only way to improve. So in this video I will show you how I painted this eye with watercolors from sketch to finish. All of the materials I've used are listed under the video, I hope you will learn something and if you want to watch the full video in real time, you can join the watercolor course, which is also linked below the video. And before you start, you can look at the reference photo and swatch out the colors you're going to use. If you're a beginner with watercolor or with color in general, you don't want to make it too complicated for yourself. So I would just focus on three values, the highlights, the mid-tone and the shadows. So if your skin tone, let's say your skin tone turns out a bit more yellow, a bit more orange, you know, that won't be a big deal. If you have the correct values, your painting will look good. So brassy enough, maybe even lighter, so more water for the light layer and then the transparent red oxide. So I think I want to add more water because I want to see the lighter value. And then for the shadows, the raw umber violet, because I see kind of a bit of purple, a bit darker value. So for the shadows, you see that this is a layer on its own. But if we use this layer to start with and then add a layer of this and then go over this with the shadows, this won't look as purple because you will mix it with the other colors. You see that? That will change the color a bit. It looks less vibrant now, it's a bit more brown. So the sepia, the burnt umber, that's what I'm going to use for the iris. Let's put down the first layer. So I already feel that it doesn't flow that much and that's why I do want it to flow. Maybe I could use a larger brush because I feel like I keep on needing more water. Where it's darker, add this orange while it's wet. And the thing here is that I feel quite nervous doing this because working wet on wet is, you don't have a lot of control, but hey, they always say, if you feel nervous, just do it anyway. Otherwise, you won't know how it will turn out. I think after this, I'm going to let the layer dry. So I'm just going to, I'm just blending the edges here. Once we're going to layer the shadow color on top, it will blend in with that orange color and then give you more of a neutral color. And with watercolors, you can add as much layers as you need to. So now I'm going to take the sepia and go over the edge because you see that it's dark. Now it's flowing now, a bit too much maybe, but then you can clean the brush and blend. See the burnt umber is a beautiful orange brown color. If you followed the previous painting videos, you know that I create the crease line in layers. So I don't darken it at once. Remember it's going to dry up a bit lighter and if you think it's too much, just pick it up, dry the brush and pick it up, move it around. You can also let the layer, the yellow dry first and then add another layer. And it looks like it's getting too dark, but yeah, I'm never sure. So I'm going to lighten it just to be sure. This also looks too dark, but I know that it will dry up a bit lighter. Just to be safe, I want it to dry up lighter than that. I think, oops, that's too dark because I know I can layer over it. Then blending this, spreading the paint how I want it to flow. That's the scary thing I think about watercolors, but something I will need to get used to. Try not to dry it too much, but also not too much water. So kind of like in between, you'll need to find the right amount of a damp brush. That's the thing I'm learning that when you add the layer, try not to keep on going over it. And then I want to blend these because now you see they are just some lines, but they should be wrinkles. So always blend, dry your brush and blend with a damp brush. See how you can make it all look more natural that way. And with portraits, facial features, you want to make it look natural, so blend and blend and blend. This is the main shape now, but if you look in between the lashes, you do see some of the skin, so you don't want to fill it all in. And then hair or eyebrows or lashes, I also create them in layers. I think that's the best way to make it look more natural. We'll blend the edge. And now you can see that we almost lost the crease line because we darkened the shadow a lot. Crease line. But I'm going to add the crease line when this is dry because I wouldn't be able to darken the layer of the burnt umber and then darken the pupil. And up here. And then if you see a line, you can soften that or you can like pull the paint to create those lines. That's how you can also blend the edge of the iris a bit because you all want to make it look natural and soft. Remember, no hard edges. So then you have this color and then you can spread it around with more water. And it would actually, it was actually better if I had this layer underneath. And this is too dark. So quickly dry. This is also too dark. So I'm going to lift a bit. So check in your painting if you added too much paint, just lift if you need to. But remember, this is going to dry lighter. I'm also trying to keep that in mind. So I'm adding the raw umber violets, like the shadow color. So here in the middle it's darker. If it's not dark enough in your painting or the pupil isn't, you can add another layer. So you might think these steps are, could be unnecessary because I already created the wrinkles and then blended them. But I think it's easier to go step by step and work in layers. I think it's more safe that way instead of to darken right away. I have a bit of water. So I want to lift a bit and then you want to take a tissue and then pick it up. So that's how you can lighten the layer if you want to add a bit water. So if you have a certain area that you're not satisfied with the color, just lift. So you see how there's always a possibility to fix things in your painting. That's why it's really important to just keep on going. Because I see a bit more pink in the reference. So that's one thing I wanted to show you if you want to fix the color in your painting. This is a really strong pigment color, the transparent red oxide. So you want to be careful how and where you add it. So you see just a light layer, glaze it, but then blend. And if you have too much, just go over it, lift a bit like that. So I like this better. Well, it still needs to dry, but it looks, I'm not sure how it shows up on camera, but it looked a bit too yellow. That's how I see the colors. The raw umber violet is more pink, the transparent red oxide is more orange, and then the raw sienna is more yellow. So if you have your values correct with the skin, that will create depth in your eye drawing. So if you don't have those shadows dark enough, you only have the mid-tones, your painting could look flat, but don't be afraid to darken. Really light pressure with the tip of the brush to make it look as natural as possible with thin strokes. And remember that practice is key. So if you're still struggling a bit with the hair strokes, practice it on another piece of paper to get better and better, better control of your hand, better control of just using the tip of the brush with really light pressure. With drawing, I also always advise to use light pressure, that you don't press too hard on your pencils. With the brush, it's the same. Just use the tip of the brush with light pressure and yeah, it will help you to paint more naturally if you need to create smaller details. You can create lashes and layers as well. I think I want to darken the edge, then blend. Pull this into the iris so that it doesn't dry up like a hard, sharp edge. And remember to look at the reference photo, copy what you see. The lower lashes, they are light and thin, really light pressure. So you see now that you have the lashes that you can now focus on. Where can you darken? I'm going to darken with the Raw Umber Violet shadow color here in the corner. I'm only going to darken the edges here, then blend of course. Even though you added the eyebrow already, the hairs, you can still glaze and light layer over it. So I think the crease line is good now. And here, like the eyelashes, I think they stand out a bit. So what I'm going to do is like glaze a color over them, blend a bit. Careful, you don't want to scrub because you will be reactivating the paint of the lashes that way. Carefully blend here, maybe just a bit here. So you see that, how that will make the eye look round, yeah, 3D. Remember shadows are important, so you don't want the shadows to stand out with hard edges. And then darken a few here, just at the base, you don't want to darken the tips, just leave them lighter and thinner. I want to use the acrylic marker. This is quite bright. What I do is just carefully, you can use a Q-tip for that, you don't want to use your finger here in the corner. So if you're finished with your painting, you can critique your painting or you can look at it and think about the things that didn't go well or the things that did go well. You can take that with you, all of the challenges you had. Here we just used one color. If you make a picture of your painting, you turn it into black and white, you can check the values that way if you feel like you need to. And again, remember the colors, try not to let the color, the exact color scare you. So I hope the challenges I had and how I showed you how I fixed them, that you were also able to learn from them. I think I learned a lot by creating this painting and I'm looking forward to creating more and more. I would also love to hear any thoughts you have, how you are liking watercolor so far, if you're a beginner or maybe that you have experience with watercolor but portraits are new for you, creating facial features with watercolors. And of course, if you have any questions, just let me know and I'll see you in one of the next videos.