1. Paint the eye-ball. Yes the whole ball.
The big round globe that is tucked into the
socket. This should probably be white but I like to use
a very like cream color.
2. When that is dry, paint the iris. You should use whatever
color your subjects eyes happen to be for this. I use
a shade about twice as dark as I think it should be. Keep
in mind at this point what your ENTIRE figure is doing.
Don’t point the iris straight forward if you are
making a running back who is cutting a corner. More likely
he would be peering to one side or the other. If you are
making a down lineman, point them upward as he would be
staring toward the other line but bent over he would have
to look up across his own brow.
3. When the iris’s are dry paint the pupil black.
The pupil grows and shrinks due to the iris adjusting
to let more or less light in. The size of the pupil should
be smaller than the iris and it should be centered on
each iris.
3a. You can also create artificial light by putting a
VERY TINY little dot of pure white at a point that is
identical on each pupil and even let it cover a part of
the iris too. This is not a must but will get you closer
to master status as you get better at it.
4. Now comes the hard part. Paint the upper eyelid and
any remaining portion of white that is exposed above the
eyelid. Keep in mind again what the player is doing. Do
you want wide eyes? Squinted eyes? Once again this is
where the mirror or photographs or for that matter a spouse
or friend comes in handy. Don’t just guess what
the eyelid is doing, replicate the look you want. Also
keep in mind that the eyelid is a cresent shape that starts
in the corner of the eye and sways gently upward or downward
depending on the lid and then meets the other lid usually
straight across from the starting point.
5. Repeat step 4 for this step but paint the lower lid.
Same idea, same techinques.
6. This is where I like to paint the eyelashes. Be careful
not to over do this part or you’ll end up with an
egyptian hyroglyph look. Try to keep away from black when
doing the lashes. Use a darker shade of the color you
would use for the players hair. The upper lash is much
more important and promenant than the lower lash so concentrate
on it.
7. The last few things are also what will push the look
over the top. First off mix a little bit of your flesh
tone with a tiny bit of purple or pink. You are looking
to create the effect that all the little blood capilaries
cause on your eye orbit area. Go back to your mirror and
look at your upper and lower eyelids. See that slightly
darker area above and below it? Most people have it but
some don’t. Try to create some shadow under the
upper brow and under the lower orbit using this paint.
Be very careful. When I say use a tiny bit of shade in
your mixture I REALLY mean a tiny bit. You honeslty shoul
dnot be ablt to tell much difference if any between this
color and the actual skin tone. Lastly I also like to
coat my eyes with a swipe of paint-on gloss coat.
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