How to Paint Eyes
The look in the eyes is the most important part of a portrait. I spend a lot of time getting the eyes just right. Here's an example of how the eyes come together, from sketch to finished portrait, in Winnie the Corgi. If you're doing this tutorial, don't worry about following it exactly. This is my process, but there are many equally good methods. I used to get incredibly frustrated by those art books because I could never follow the steps quite right.
My sketch of the eyes meant to be more of a placeholder than an accurate drawing, so that I can get the size and shape right when I paint the painting.
Early in the painting, I map in the basic areas of light and dark with black paint. The black paint is diluted in some areas to make lighter shades of grey. The darkest parts of the eyes is painted in unthinned black paint. This is done quickly with a large angle shader brush, so I don't get bogged down in details, and instead focus on the overall look. In the early stages, it's especially important to stop and move back from your painting to take a look. You'll be surprised how different your painting can look depending on the viewing distance, and your working distance is very different from how it will look on a wall. The bigger the painting is, the more you'll see this effect.
Now that I've got the dark areas in and I'm still happy with the size and perspective, I begin adding color. Winnie has warm brown eyes, so I made a mixture of Burnt Umber and warmed it up with the transparent Quinacridone Burnt Orange. When I added this layer of brown, I realized that it was too dark. However, one of my favorite parts of acrylic painting is that you can always paint over mistakes, so I didn't worry about it. I made a lighter mixture of brown for the iris of the eyes, using my blending technique to give me a range of shades to pick from.
I applied the warm brown to the outer edges of her eyes. If you looked directly at her eyes, you would see that the brown goes all the way around a round black pupil, like in humans. However, I keep the top of the eye dark to better represent the light reflecting off the top of the eye. I then added the white reflections and adjusted the black areas around them. You'll find that the white spots can vastly affect the direction your subject appears to be looking. I usually play with the location a few times until I get it right.
To deepen the three-dimensional effect, you can add subtle spots of Payne's Grey, actually more of a blue-black than a grey, to the edges of the white spots. Although they aren't noticeable when you glance at the eyes, you can see them in the inner corner of the left eye (our left) and the outer edge of the pupil in the right.
I then add a touch of the transparent Zinc White around the pure white spots and the edges of the eye. Don't go overboard, start with a tiny bit and layer it with more coats if necessary.
You'll find that you need to keep adjusting the eyes with layers of brown, black and white until you get it. Don't worry about ruining it - if you just make tiny adjustments a little at a time, stepping back often to look at your painting, you can work towards the effect you want. And if you don't, you can always just paint over the eyes, let it dry for 20 minutes, and start again.
Once I was happy with the eyes themselves, I started refining the surrounding areas of her face, adjusting the shapes and colors of her fur markings. Once I was happy with the shape and color, my final touch was adding my fur texture with the rake brush. Here's Winnie's finished portrait:
