Design Tutsplus Com Tutorials How To Paint Realistic Eyes in Photoshop

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DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION > DIGITAL PAINTING
How to Paint Realistic

Eyes in Adobe Photoshop
by Alice Catrinel Ciobotaru 13 Feb Di culty: Intermediate Length: Long Languages:
2015 English
Digital Painting Adobe Photoshop Human Anatomy Portrait
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What You'll Be Creating
Anatomy. It seems so simple, yet it's so complex. It is the bane of every artist
you just cannot go over a certain level of professionalism without having at
least some notion of anatomy. Most people never thoroughly study it, and that
leads to shaky art foundations that leave them permanently unsure of their
own artistic strength.
That is why it is wiser to dedicate a little bit of your daily artistic time to
studying anatomy. It might seem overwhelming at rst, but if you break it
down into pieces it becomes actually fun and easy to do!
1. The Basics: Functions and Anatomy

All eyes, in humans, have similar shapes and setups: an oval with pointed
edges, eyelids, eyelashes, eyebrows. You can do a quick sketch of an eye and
any human being will recognize it as such:
In this picture we show the following elements, from top to bottom:
1. Eyebrow: they protect your eyes from dirt and drops of sweat running
down your forehead.
2. Eyelid crease: created by the eyelid when it folds over the eyeball. It
forms both above and under the eye.
3. The actual eye opening: the skin is parted to create an oval-shaped
opening for the eyeball.
4. The eyelashes: they protect the eye from dirt, strong light or sensory
perception. In art, they emphasize femininity.
5. The white of the eye: this is the main ball of the eye.
6. The iris: actually muscles, go gure! They contract or expand to allow
more or less light to go in the eye through the....
7. Pupil: the black opening in the center. We actually see through this thing,
since this is where the light enters to form an image inside our eyeball.
8. The lacrimal nodule: at the inner corner of each eye. We cry through this,
and it is a pinkish color!
9. The lacrimal nodule's skin crease: on the outside of the inner corner of
the eye, just next to the nodule itself.
2. The Different Eye Shapes

While the above is a quick sketch that can be recognized as a human eye, eye
shapes vary by race, geographical position and even age!
Let's cover the most important one: race. If you look at pictures of various
peoples you will de nitely notice differences.Let's go over a few more basic
shapes, to see the difference:
3. Various Angles and Perspectives
Here are a few angles to show how the basic apparent shape of the eye
changes with the angle it is viewed from:
4. Eyes: The Mirror of the Soul
We express a lot of emotions with our eyes. Regardless of our eye shape or
size, we as humans have instinctive ways of reacting to stimuli, ways which
involve modi cations of our eyes.
We squint in focus, we stare in stunned awe, we widen our eyes in amazement

or fearjust to name a few examples.
Below are several expressions that can be achieved by any human eye. Go
ahead and try quickly identifying each emotion expressed and sketch them
out. Practice them so that you can later give your characters more emotion:
5. Sketch Out the Eye
Now that we have some notion of the sheer variety that can be obtained with
a single eye, let's go ahead and start putting everything together.
Take the quick sketch we made above to actually start doing some serious
artsy stuff here and begin our journey to being the new Michelangelos!
Create a new canvas, name the existing layer "Background", and set your
foreground color to #dcb6a3 and your background one to #963931 .
Using the Gradient Tool (G) set to Foreground to Background, drag from the
left to the right to create a skin-toned gradient. Then take a hard, round Brush
(B), set its Size Jitter andOpacity Jitter to Pen Pressure, and set your
foreground color to #000000 .
Create a new layer, name it "Sketch", and sketch out a base shape of your
liking. You can use the initial one we did, or you can pick any of the ones we've
covered sofar!
6. Fleshing It Out: The White of the Eye
Step 1
Let's start with the baseaka the white of the eye.
Despite its name of "white", the eyeball is anything but pure white. It varies in
shades of light grey, beige and red, with various blood vessels running through
it.
To start on it, create a new layer, move it between your "Background" and
"Sketch" ones and name it "Eyewhite". Use a dirty white #ddc6bc and a hard,
round brush to paint the base color on it.
Step 2
Create a new layer above the "Eyewhite" one, andright-click on it and choose
Create Clipping Mask to the "Eyewhite" layer. We will use this layer to paint
the shading.
The eyeball is a spherical structure, so the center will always receive the most
light since it is a convex surface. On the same line of thought, the further from
the center we get, the less light will reach it due to eyelids/eyelashes
shadowing it, so you will have to use darker colors.
Thus, let's take the Brush Tool (B) again, set it to a hard, round shape, and
have its Opacity and Size Jitter turned on. Adjust the size as needed, and then
set your foreground color to #4f241e . Paint on the clipping mask layer, around
the edges, to create the illusion of light and shadow, and 3D.
Step 3
Take a darker tone, like #220b07 , and paint around the top of the eye white, to
create the intense shadow the upper eyelid and the eyelashes give.
7. Painting the Lacrimal Nodule
Step 1
Around this area, the skin doesn't cover the esh so we'll have a much more
pinkish tone. Remember, there is no clear delimitation between the eyeball
itself and the esh and muscles that keep it in placethey all react and fuse
into one another. So our pink will bleed into the white of the eye a bit, as you'll
see in a moment.
Set your foreground color to #853c2e and your background one to #5e2218 .
Using the same brush from before, paint around the inner edge of the eye with
the lighter color, and then shade with the darker one around the edges. Add a
few touches of pink into the white area as well. Below you can see the results
with and without the sketch:
Step 2
Next set your foreground color to #d77661 and your background one to white
#ffffff and lower the size of your brush. Zoom in and add detailed highlights
around the lighter areas rst using the light pink and then adding a drop of
white for a nal touch. This will give the appearance of moisture.
8. The Iris and Pupil Bases
Step 1
Go ahead and create a new layer and move it between your "Eyewhite" and the
"Sketch" ones. Name it "Iris".
Set your foreground color to #6b3826 and brush a round shape, following the
sketch.
Step 2
An eye with a white pupil is a bit creepy, so let's take a black #000000 and
paint a round shape in the middleagain, following your sketchto create the
pupil.
9. Adding in Iris Details
Step 1
It's time for a new layer! Place it just above your "Iris" one, and name it "Iris
Detail".
The iris and the pupil blend into each other, and into the white of the eye. More
simply put... they just love to mingle!
So set your foreground color to a nice #240b02 and, adjusting the size of your
brush, paint around the edges of the iris and the pupil to blend them together
nicely. While you are at it, also shade the topmost part of the iris, to show the
area where the upper eyelid and the eyelashes cast a shadow. Don't be afraid
to go over the edges a tiny bit.
Step 2
Set your foreground color to #54382a and your background one to #3f2315
and, adjusting the size of your brush to a pretty small one, zoom in and paint
random strokes of lighter and darker color around the brownish part. Try to
make them all radiate from the center.
Step 3
Next, we will add more details to the iris. Set your foreground color to #9b643f
and your background one to #511f05 and, lowering your brush size to only a
few pixels, paint in tiny strands of muscle detail. Switch between your colors
constantly by pressing the X key. Also feel free to add in your own sampled
colors, which you can easily sample using the Eyedropper Tool (I).
10. Painting the Eye Highlights
Since now our eye is a bit at, let's give it a few highlights!
Create a new layer, place it above your "Iris Detail" one and name it
"Highlights". Set your foreground color to white #ffffff and brush lightly at
rst and harder afterwards, to create a fuzzy large white dot. Repeat the
process to add a couple of smaller ones:
11. The Upper Eyelid: Folds and Creases
Let us step away for a second from the eyeball itself, and make some
progress with the eyelids and skin surrounding the eye. From my experience
illustration always works best when you can see the bigger pictureyes, pun
intendednot when you work on separate tiny pieces.
Step 1
So create a new layer above all your others, and name it "Skin". Take a dark
brown #2c0b02 and set it as your foreground color, and a light pink #d3a594 as
your background one. Adjust your brush size as needed and begin to paint
around the outline of the eye, always minding the original sketch.
Brush with the darker color rst, and then pressXto switch your swatches
and paint gently with the lighter color around the inner areas of the eye, where
the background skin gradient is lighter too.
Step 2
Following your original sketch, use the darker brown to paint the eye crease in.
Step 3
Next, set your foreground color to #2b130d and your background one to
#bc8370 . Brush rst using the darker color, around the outer ends of the eye
and gently around the creases, to make your outlines look less sharp. Again,
we are not working with precise and sharp lines and outlines here, but with
soft shapes.
Step 4
Next, set your foreground color to #d5a197 and your background one to
#fcead8 and fade out the sharpness of the creases even more, going from the
darker pink to the lighter one and constantly switching colors according to
need by pressing X. If needed, you can also use the Dodge Tool (O) set to a
soft, round brush and Highlights mode with Protect Tones unchecked, to
obtain shinier highlights. Don't overdo the dodge though.
12. Adding the Lower Lid
Step 1
Time to switch to the lower lid. We will paint it using the same techniques as
before.
If you nd it easier, you can go toImage > Image Rotation and rotate your
image 90 degrees, for an easier time drawing vertical lines. Or notagain, this
is up toyou.
On to the coloring itself! Set your foreground color to #9e5b4a and your
background one to #fecfbb . Brush lightly around the bottom of the eye, to
blend the dark outline in, and on top of it brush with the lighter color to paint
the highlights.
Step 2
We are going to re ne this rough lower lid.
We'll be working with four main colors: #260f0b , #642e22 , #c88a7c and
#eac0a9 .
I suggest you paint four swatches on your canvas, so that they are easy to
sample with the Eyedropper Tool (I).
Let's start by de ning the lower-right outer edge of the eye with gentle strokes
of #260f0b , and then move on to the minor crease to add a #eac0a9 highlight.
Step 3
Take a nice #d18465 and brush below the eye, as if with a real-life concealer.
You can go ahead and brush on the upper side as well, if you think necessary.
Then using the light #eac0a9 , paint around the outlines of the bottom-left eye
and of the lacrimal corner, to add a tiny bit of highlight, just like below. Notice
the second imageit is animated to show the difference between the previous
step and this one:
13. The Skin: Finishing Color Touches
The whole skin still looks a bit plastic, doesn't it?
Time to change that!
Pick up a nice brick color, like #c54432 , and gently paint detail color spots
around the eyelids, more on the bottom lid around the inner half. Don't make
them too visiblethis is not a zombie eye so it's not bloodshot. Just a couple
of gentle brush strokes to give it more life.
Once you nish doing that, switch your foreground color to a gentle violet
such as #937fa3 and your background to #b5544d .
Paint the eyeshadows close to the bottom inner corner of the eye. This should
help make your eye look much more natural and alive!
At this stage you can add other minor lighting details. Again, see below for the
jpg result and the animated comparison to the previous step.
JPG result:
Animated comparison:
14. The Skin: Finishing Texture Touches
The skin is still too smoothlet's spice it up a bit!
Set your foreground color to #f2c8a0 and your background one to #b5544d .
Use the "Skin Texture" brush provided in the .ZIP le to brush lightly around the
skin, constantly pressing Xto switch your color swatches. You should get a
soft texture such as this:
15. Painting the Eyelashes

Step 1
Time to create a new layer and name it... "Eyelashes", of course!
Set your foreground color to #1a0906 and your Brush Tool (B) to a hard, round
shape with both Size Jitter and Opacity Jitter set to Pen Pressure mode.
On the Eyelashes layer start drawing random lashes. Some points to

remember when drawing eyelashes:
1. They are never straight. Always draw them a bit curved.

2. They follow a chaotic order. Try looking up a reference image of an eye
with mascara on: eyelashes tend to stick to one another, they tend to
bend, to curl.
3. They are always thinner at the tip than at the root.
Step 2
Next, we actually need to give our eyelashes a bit of a 3D look. Set your
foreground color to #e7410e and brush lightly on each eyelash.
Step 3
Next, we need to add a few eyelash shadows at the outer corner of the eye.
Create a new layer and name it "Eyelashes shadows". Set it toMultiply mode,
and lower its Fill to around 70%. Then take the same brush from before, set it
to #1f0b07 and brush a few eyelashes around the lower outer corner. Then go
to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and give it a soft 1.5 blur.
16. Eye Details: Depth Shadows
Now that we have a more solid idea about our eye, let's go back to the eyeball
and iris, as well as re ning any areas that seem to need it.
Let's start that off by giving our eye more "pop factor".
Create a new layer and move it on top of your "Skin" one. Then set it to
Multiply mode.
Set your foreground color to #6f2719 and brush lightly at the bottom-left
corner to increase the amount of shadow. See below for a comparison:
17. Eye Details: Iris
Compared to the rest, the iris is still pretty at. Let's work on that!
Step 1
Take a small, hard, round Brush (B) with both Pressure and Opacity Jitter
turned on. Adjust the size to a small one and create a few radial strokes close
to the pupil, like so:
Step 2
To create a highlight, make a new layer and place it above the "Iris" one. Set it
to Color Dodge mode and lower its Fill to around 40%.
Next, set your foreground color to #f2c7b4 and brush a half-moon shape to
the bottom right of the iris:
Step 3
Create a new layer above the your "Iris Detail" one, set it toColor Dodge mode
and lower its Fill to around 30%. Take a soft, round Brush (B) and set it to
Dissolve mode. Brush lightly around the iris area. Then you can pressControl-
E (Command-E on a Mac)to merge it with the main iris layer:
18. Painting Finer Details
Time for the nishing touches!
Step 1
First we'll add blood vessels.
Set your foreground color to #5e2219 and take a hard, round Brush (B) with
both Pressure and Opacity Jitter on.
Adjust the brush size to 2 pxand lightly brush tiny blood vessels around the
corners of the eye, over the white of the eye.
Step 2
Now for some depth shadows.
Create a new layer and move it right below your "Skin" one.
Set it to Multiply mode and lower its Fill to around 80%. Name it "Shadows".
Set your foreground color to #3e1408 and with a hard, round brush with only
Opacity Jitter on, brush around the edges of the eye white.
Then adjust the size of your brush to a very small2 pxone, and brush over the
Highlight to create the illusion that the upper eyelashes are re ecting into the
pupil:
Step 3
Moisture glimmers.
Create a new layer, name it "Moisture" and move it above your "Skin" layer.
Then set your foreground color to white #ffffff and brush a few light points
along the bottom of the eye white:
19. Adding the Eyebrow Base
Step 1
It also needs an eyebrow, doesn't it?
Create a new layer, name it "Eyebrow" and place it on top of all your other
layers.
Set your foreground color to #47190b and take a hard, round brush with
Opacity Jitter turned on, and brush the rough shape of the eyebrow.
Step 2
Take the Smudge Tool and set it to a hard, round brush withSize Jitter set to
Pen Pressure. Smudge around to create a hairy detail look:
20. Adding Eyebrow Detail

Step 1
Next, take the Brush Tool (B) and set it to a hard, round brush withSize Jitter
set to Pen Pressure. Brush away detailing hair strands:
Step 2
Set your foreground color to #9a3d1e , give your brush Opacity Jitter set to Pen
Pressure and make it a bit larger by a few pixels, and then brush a few rough
lighting details. You can keep these strokes a bit random, soft and wide, to
add variety.
Step 3
As a last amount of detail, make your brush very small again1 or 2 pixels
and brush several very thin, very light highlight hair strands:
21. Eyebrows Blending With the Base Skin
Our eyebrow looks nice, but a bit glued on. To blend it more with the skin
around it, create a new layer and place it under your "Eyebrow" one. Set it to
Multiply or Linear Burn mode, depending on own taste. Then lower its Fill to
around 40% and name it "Eyebrow Blending".
Make your brush larger, set your foreground color to a dark, desaturated
brown such as #502520 , and brush around the edges of the eyebrow. Then go
to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and give it a soft 34 px blur effect to obtain
something like this:
22. Optional: Adding Makeup

Even more, we can now add makeup to our eye!
I for one chose soft autumn colors: #e88f04 and #572013 .
Step 1
For the orange, create a new layer above your "Skin" one, set it toColor
blending mode, and brush around with a soft, round brush. Lower Fill to taste.
Step 2
Next, the shadow. New layer, set it to Multiply mode. Brush the eye "tail" and
around the top-right upper eyelid. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur if you feel
your strokes are too sharp.
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Step 3
Create a new layer yet again, set it to Color Dodge and lower Fill to around
30%. Set your foreground color to #f7b283 . First take a soft, round brush and
set it to Dissolve mode, and then brush around to create the glitter effect.
Then grab the Makeup brush from the brush pack provided and paint a few
texture variations.
Awesome Work, You're Done!
That is it! You can now paint your own realistic eye. I hope you enjoyed the
little journey and learned something useful! Feel free to let me know if there is
any bump along the road that you'd like me to explain in more detail, and
happy artsing!
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Alice Catrinel Ciobotaru

Instructor/Romania
This is your regular zombie slayer turtle reporting for duty!Aside from the
very important mission of zombie head bashing, this turtle also deals
with professional game illustration, character design and UI creation.
Also enjoys dabbling in icon design, traditional mediums, 3D software
and kittens.
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Kattie 2 years ago
tnx for post) i`m just starting with photoshop ^__^

here is my result, based on your tutorial..)
Alice Catrinel 2 years ago
Waaah! That's awesome, thanks so much for sharing! -hugs- :D
Aleksiy Alekseychuk 2 years ago
Like <3 :)
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DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION > DIGITAL PAINTING

How to Paint Realistic

Digital Painting Adobe Photoshop Human Anatomy Portrait

1. The Basics: Functions and Anatomy

2. The Different Eye Shapes

We squint in focus, we stare in stunned awe, we widen our eyes in amazement

Time to change that!

15. Painting the Eyelashes

On the Eyelashes layer start drawing random lashes. Some points to

1. They are never straight. Always draw them a bit curved.

20. Adding Eyebrow Detail

22. Optional: Adding Makeup

I for one chose soft autumn colors: #e88f04 and #572013 .

Alice Catrinel Ciobotaru

Update me weekly Translate this post

Kattie 2 years ago

tnx for post) i`m just starting with photoshop ^__^

Alice Catrinel 2 years ago

Waaah! That's awesome, thanks so much for sharing! -hugs- :D

Aleksiy Alekseychuk 2 years ago

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO HELP KICK START YOUR NEXT PROJECT?

Envato Market has a range of items for sale to help get

Royalty Free Images

Over 9 Million Digital Assets

About Envato Tuts+ Teach at Envato Tuts+ FAQ

24,496 1,053 16,534

Envato.com Our products Careers

Follow Envato Tuts+

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