Hey y'all! So, I was browsing around in the galleries and looking at awesome stuff y'all painted, like Ripperdactyls and Skinks and whatnot. And I noticed that noone of you has problems painting eyes. It feels like when I move my brush even NEAR eyes I splatter paint everywhere. Not only the eye socket next to the eyes but also the whole head, the feet, and the base, and my whole table, and my cat. I tried using a smaller brush. And then a smaller one. And then one I didn't even know existed. It is really really small. Sometimes I manage to draw ONE pupil (dammit I need a cyclops so I can stop after one) as soon as I try the 2nd my model's facial expression is something like this: https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4082/4803096392_6b6e72fe58.jpg Sometimes the model's eyes also look like something drawn by Picasso in his "I can't draw faces" phase. I ended up giving my whole army glowing eyes because I can't draw pupils. They eyeballs themselves are hard enough. I watched YT videos and it seems ridiculously easy. It isn't. How do you even hold your brush? I tried "stabbing" the eyes with the brush to make dots. But it is hard to hit the center and often the dot doesn't look pretty. I also quite often don'T manage to paint the whole eyeball, just a part of it. As soon as I try to fix it I paint the whole damn eye socket. I tried to hold the brush a little more slanted but then I hit the eyelids. And eye sockets. And more. I even tried using a tooth pick, dip it into color and draw the pupil that way. Failed. I am now contemplating using a needle. Perhaps that works. But how to make slit pupils with that? I am really ashamed of my models' eyes. I am haaalfway content with the rest. But not with eyes. Ok seriously, you have to tell me: How the **** do you paint eyes!?
I usually hold the paint brush really close to the bristles, as in hold the metal piece, finding a way to rest the paint brush so you are not shaking everywhere helps too. Don't get me started on Skink eyes, I can just about do normal eyes but with Skinks...
I have used tooth picks and needles before.... ha... skinks are easy, it's the Saurus that are hard. with their dang squinty eyes... have you tried a fine tip felt pen, like a sharpie... I have had some success with those. The basic thing I do is, first pain the over all eye color, then make repeated attempts to add the pupil... you can use an extra slightly damp brush to erase mistakes. and the third step is to repaint the eyelids the skin color because they are usually a mess from all the failed attempts.
And that's where it gets even worse for me! That's because I try to correct the eyelid, even when I don't hit the eye (yay for me!) the color is of course not shaded and looks too bright. So I grab my shade and... yes, you might have guessed it already... hit the whole eye with the shade as well so I have green eyes instead yellow....
.... I have pre-mixed my shade with my skin color on my palate to avoid the problem you described. it was fairly successful. oh another tip. hold your mini in one hand and rest your painting hand on your other hand, that way they at least shake in the same frequency and cancel each other out. Oh and try an focus your eyes on the tip of the brush, I find it helps.
I bet if you´ve tried everything it´s just a matter of practicing. Get the spare heads that come in the saurus kits and paint only the eyes without minding about the eyelids and such, just focus on the eyes. You´ll start getting better until you can paint eyes with out making too much of a mess. I you do this however, I don´t recommend painting 50 eyeballs one day, but rather paint 1 or 2 pairs a day for some time until you feel confident. Hope it helps Ps: I t took me about 3 years until I got properly looking eyeballs and pupils, so just take your time
This kind of thing makes me so sad that I don't have proper stereoscopic vision. Makes eyes really hard to do!
For me it is the other way round. I have very good eyes in every regard but my hands shake. Very annoying since I can see all those errors. I have a lamp including a magnifying glass but I use it only as a lamp. Really improved my painting though.
I have not that much of a succes with a fine line pen, it needs to dry a very long time. So I use a brush. I have a steady hand so that helps. But with a brush it is essential that the tip is good. and not some bristle sticking out. Using winsor brushes for that. And if I hit the eyelids ill paint them over. I agree with Aginor, if it's too small use a magnifing glass.
I hate eyes they are a complete pain for me as I'm not as young as I was, I use a fine pen for most of mine or a 00 brush. Easiest way is paint the ball all black then spot in white at each corner, make sure your paint is slightly watered down or it will dry before it hits the model. If you dot in the pupil you have to paint a black or brown line across the top of the pupil or the eyes look like they are staring/shocked.
Place your elbows on a hard surface hold the model in one hand then cup the other around it leaving your brush fingers free, you will gain stability and accuracy.
I usually do eyes with a 0 or 00 brush two or three horizontal strokes for the whole eyeball... next step would be to do the pupils with a 000000-000000 brush or a .2 or .1 ink pen... or if I want to do some more advanced stuff to use the 00 brush and add some highlights by adding white to the color and dot it with the tip of the brush on the part of the eye I want to be brighter... the right paint consistency is very important here... too liquid and it might flow too much of it out of the brush, too dry and you end up drybrushing the eyeball and ruining the tip of the brush with a big blob of dried paint... My technique is not for realistic eyes, though... I'm more after a magical or for those who AOS celestial look... for realistic eyes I think I'd use a similar method but using white in step one and give it a very light wash with sepia or agrax... do highlights of white (or leave it) and then dot a iris in with the 00000 brush... for the pupils I'd use a pen... .05 is the finest I have an allows me to do some shaping (magnifying glass would be useful here... often ended up with two different shapes of pupils on one model... or became way too big cause of correcting that...) .1 is a good size for dots or vertical lines... But usually I end up with cross eyed models when I do realistic eyes ... ....
My way to paint eyes: Put your elbows on the table to stabilise while painting. I also hold the miniature in my left hand (right hander). Additionally I press the tip of my left thumb against the tip of my right middle finger. You hold the pencil near the tip between thumb and index of the right hand. Sounds odd but it helps and get used to it. So you can minimalise shaking of your hands. Also holding your breath just before painting keep your hands calm. Painting eyes I do the following : paint the whole eye black, paint the inside in your desired colour leaving a thin black outline. Then paint a thin vertikal black line about 1/3 from the inner eye using a micron pen or a 0 brush. Add a tiny white highlight, done.IIf you like add a wash or glaze in a complementary colour. Hope this helps!