Saturday, May 16, 2009
It’s important to understand a little bit about anatomy to be able to properly render human and animal features in our artwork. Traditional portrait painters have understood this, and those of us who work in the digital realm need to as well. So there are certain things we need to keep in mind when painting eyes, whether they belong to a dog, cat, man, woman or child.
The first thing to remember is that the eye is spherical – sort of like a cue ball with a colorful, circular lens mechanism slightly bubbling out from the sphere's surface, which can be seen through the eye opening of the face. And we need to be sure to use light and shadow to show this rounded form. The whites of the eyes (the sclera) should generally be shaded away from the light source and bright on the side toward the light source. The shape and direction of the catchlights in the eyes should also address the eye’s curvature.
Another aspect of the eye is its translucency. Light travels through the outer cornea of the eye, hits the colorful iris and is then reflected back out through the cornea opposite the entry point– a lot like light traveling through a colorful marble. Especially in eyes that are lit from the side you’ll notice this bright burst of color opposite the catchlight. Portrait artists can enhance this effect as a way to introduce some color and better render the eye’s translucent nature.
Another characteristic of the eye that we need to pay attention to is it’s glass-like reflective surface. Catchlights are the most important way to represent this quality. It’s important to remember that a catchlight is a reflection of a light source. If it’s an indoor portrait, the catchlight may take on the shape of a window or a nearby lamp. The catchlights in an outdoor portrait may be a reflection of the sun or open sky – or a nearby wall. There may also be moist areas around the rims of eyes that produce small but bright reflections.
I love painting eyes.
7 comments:
Those eyes are just beautiful Scott, thanks for the tips :)
Scott,
Thank you so much for creating your own site to contain your sample work and sharing special words of wisdom. I know you will be flooded with people accessing this site. I'm an Ex-student of yours and really appreciated your insights and especially your attention to detail and look forward to all of your input on this site.
Comments on site:
1. It is a little difficult to read the text with the color selected? You might consider using a little "brighter" color so that the reader doesn't have to strain as much to read.
2. I know that this is an early introduction but it is not fully intuitive to "select" the second picture to enter into the site and see your work. You may want to include a brief instruction so that this is more clear?
3. When you enter the site... and you begin to display your work, with supporting music... (excellent by the way)...it is not intuitive as to how you return to the original screen. I just closed the window... but you may want to include instruction on returning to previous screen without having to close window. As a suggestion... it would be wonderful if you would provide the capability to select one of the "images" as it is being displayed... and launch a full view of the work selected... with the capability to zoom in and really view your detail brush work, etc.
3. Your input on perspectives on "Eyes" is excellent and especially reflects "your attention to detail" with a professional and artistic perspective of all those DETAILS.
Thanks for sharing your excellent perspectives with all of us... you are a great teacher.
Please accept these comments as suggestions... only. I love the black background and your work will really show up with this black background. You have a really excellent start with your site... GOOD LUCK with everything you're doing... and really looking forward to your future DVD and additional classes.
Thanks so MUCH!!
Rich Barnes
Scott,
After a careful inspection of your site... my problems are with not being able to "see the text" on the screen. For example, I could not see the "Welcome" under the second image... and I can not read the "block of text" under your displayed images after entering the site.
Please ignore most of my previous suggestions... I just could not see the text on my screen.
The web site looks beautifuly laid out and really reflects your artistic attention to detail.
Thanks
Rich Barnes
Rich,
I really appreciate you taking the time to provide this great feedback on the website. I'm going to take a look at making the text more readable on the splash page - I've heard that comment from a few others as well. One thing to bear in mind is that this is a template site, so I'm a bit limited in terms of some of the things you mention - they are great suggestions, though. There is a certain amount of creative freedom when it comes to some of the colors, image design and logo design, but a lot of the site's design and functionality are prewritten and unchangeable. I really do appreciate your thoughtful and generous comments.
One thing I'm learning about this - along with everything else - is that a person really needs to view the site in multiple browsers on different computers with different platforms to understand how different viewers will see the site. I did view in various browsers on my Mac (and everything looked fine to me), but should have looked using some other computers as well.
Thanks again,
Scott
Any word as to when your DVD's will be released? Anxiously waiting (since last year). . .
:)
Beautiful, beautiful work and site. Come back often for inspiration. :)
DianeR
Wow -- this will be a terrific site to follow! I love eyes as well. I paint in Painter, not Photoshop, but am always learning.
It is a little hard to read, but I think it's the size of the type. And the blackdrop is so dramatic for your work.
Barb
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