This tutorial
will cover how to illustrate wonderful, lifelike
eyes using Photoshop 6.0. Unlike my older
digital realism technique, this one is more
detailed, and likewise, more time consuming.
For this particular tutorial, we will be using
mainly one tool, the airbrush. Ready? Lets
begin!
Tools you will use:
Airbrush
Smudge
Tool
Settings:
1px brush size
2px brush size
Step
1
Sketch out
your image, either in Photoshop, or with a
pencil. I will not go over cleaning up scans,
as I assume you already know how to do that.
If you choose to sketch in Photoshop, your
sketch should be somewhat clean, like the
one above, though it doesn't need to be perfect.
Step
2
Now, using
the paintbrush tool, with a brush size of
13px, block in your fur colors, and eye colors.
Do not worry about the pupil, we will add
that in later. For the fur, use the smudge
tool to smooth the area where the colors meet.
This will help later, when you add in fur.
Step
3
Now, using
the airbrush tool, with a size of 1 px, I
select a a slightly darker brown, and I begin
detailing in the eye. Note the placement of
the coloring. It is not perfect all around,
because in nature things are rarely perfect.
Everything is full of blemishes and imperfections,
including eyes. This particular eye has some
darker spots, streaks, etc.
Step
4
Using an
even darker brown, I work to re-enforce my
previous design. Now the eye is starting to
have texture, and some slight variation.
Step
5
Using yet
a darker color, I add in more subtle details,
mainly around the rim of the iris, and in
the pupil area. A few flecks of this darker
color are added to the iris in some spots,
purely for variation.
Step
6
Now using
a color much lighter than our original base
color, I start adding lighter marks and streaks.
Now our eye is starting to look more like,
well, an eye!
Step 7
Using a
VERY dark (almost black) bluish/grey color,
almost black, I detail only the rim around
the iris, and the pupil.
Step
8
It may look
like I have skipped a few steps, but all I
have done is added a highlight to the eye.
Remember, highlights are almost NEVER pure
white, with the exception of the white 'dot'.
Note the blue reflection in the eye. That
is the sky. Eyes are very glossy, and therefor
will reflect the color of the sky abit. In
this case, the sky was pure blue, therefor
the reflection is blue too. I also added a
few flecks of white near the bottom, just
to enhance the effect.
Step
9
We now begin
by using the same dark blue/grey color that
we used in Step 7 to add shadows to the skin
around the eyes. Keep in mind that this skin
isn't smooth, so make sure to include the
skin texture, be it pores, creases, etc. It
makes your image look more natural.
Step
10
Using a
lighter grey/blue, we now add highlights.
Again, this area around the eye is moist,
and will to an extent, reflect abit of color.
In this case, the same blue that is seen in
the eye. I can't stress this enough, highlights
are almost never white! I also added some
lighter brownish tones near the corners of
the eye, for variation.
Your
eye is now done! You can now work on adding
in the fur around it, and you are set! The
technique you just learned can be applied
to just about any eye, ranging from human,
to wolf, to tiger, or whatever else you can
imagine!
