Artists are often occupied with just getting the eyes “right”. Their main concerns are getting the features balanced and the painting as “realistic” as possible. In order to create really earth-shattering art with expressions that creeps up at the viewer, realism is not enough.

Here are some tips that would change the focus of the artist while he renders the eyes of his subjects in paint and canvas.

Rendering Realistic Eye Shapes

Unless the painting is stylistic, there are several ‘rules’ to understand in the structure of the eye.

Painting Realistic Eye Colors

Understanding Eye Position and Center of Focus of the Painting

Eyes, unless in a surrealistic painting like that of Salvatore Dali, are found in paintings of living figure – be it animal or human. In most compositions, the eye takes the central position. If the eye is not the main focus, the direction at which the eyes look is the point of focus.

In a portrait, for example, there are 3 ways in which the eyes on a figure can be positioned:

It would be necessary to decide the message of the painting before deciding on which of the above eye positioning to adopt. There is, in every portrait relevance, of eye position to the position of the viewer.

The Finishing Touches

Observe the eye. Its surface liquid and shiny. Add white highlights for the reflections made on the cornea and the tears.

The best way to fully understand the relevance of the eyes in a painting to observe paintings of the human figure. It will ultimately engage the viewer with appreciation of this subject.

Windows of the soul they are. Eyes are small areas in a figure, but they create and thus need the most attention.