I believe you can capture the essence of your pet in a painting if you get the eyes right.
Painted on Italian paper, with water brushes in Corel Painter.
Eyes are as unique to animals — species and breeds within each species — as they are to people. Shapes vary. How they sit in their sockets, how far apart they are, their colors, how much light goes through and bounces back. Every eye varies. Even the two on each face vary somewhat…
What to Look For Before Starting to Draw or Paint
- Look at the shape of the eyeballs – are they round or elliptical?
- Are they the same size? Exactly the same shape?
- How are they set into the sockets? (Deep, or do they protrude somewhat?)
- What is the structure of the socket?
- Do the eyelids cover part of the eye?
- Are the lids thick, causing shadows on the eyeball?
- What is the size and shape of the pupil within the eyeball?
- Where are the highlights, dancing or dark, on the eyeball itself?
- Are there reflections bouncing back from the eye?
- Look at a profile view. Is there space between the lens and the iris/pupil? (This helps determine how much light passes through.)
Where are the Whites?
I have a saying at my house that I won’t put on the coffee until I see the whites of their eyes – my best coffee-drinking friends, that is.
But we don’t say that about our pets. Animals don’t have white showing. Their irises and pupils fill the eye opening.
Some Facts May Help Your Choices
If you do even the smallest amount of Internet searching, you can learn the how and why of your pet’s eye-construction. I like having this knowledge because it helps me see better, and ultimately paint better.
Some of what I learned about cat’s eyes for this portrait helped me make my painting choices:
- Pupils vary in shape as well as size, depending on the amount of ambient light.
- Cats see better at night. In bright light their pupils close to vertical slits. As the amount of light diminishes, their pupils round out and increase in size.
- Cats’ eye colors can range from blue, to pale yellow or tan, to deep orange or brown, to copper, to green. And any combination of these.
Resources, Online and Otherwise
- Take a look online at Cat Eyes – Up Close, for gorgeous photos of cats’ eyes. Notice the images reflecting off them. Pay attention to the side view (third one down) to understand how their eyes become such beautiful mirrors reflecting back their surroundings.
- A really good visual resource is Claudia Nice’s book, Painting Your Favorite Animals — not just for eyes, but for how to draw the direction of animal hair on various places of their bodies. She covers cats and dogs, horses, farm and field animals, birds, and small furry creatures.
- Melvyn Petterson’s pocket drawing series book, Cats – How to Draw Them, is also excellent.
Get to know the pet you’re painting. Even breeds of the same animal differ – not just in looks and hair length and structure, but also in temperament.
Like people, each pet has a story for you to tell with your brushes. Happy painting…
I welcome comments, questions, links to your own work from the comment section. Do you have a pet you’ve painted?
P.S. This post will appear in the July issue of Digital Paint Magazine. You may subscribe to this ezine, still a free subscription, and a link to each issue will be delivered monthly to your inbox.
Previous column tutorials are here. Feel free to download the PDF files.
Barb,
I just love your new site — and I so wish I had your artistic talents and abilities. I can not draw. I used to say I wasn’t artistic — but I am in other ways — I just can not draw! I love your work and even though I couldn’t begin to replicate any of it I enjoy it and your tutorials very much. Thanks for sharing. Kc
Thank you, Kc, and welcome to this new site! Art is about so much more than drawing — you are very much the artist with your words. And your daughter, with her camera, her compositional ability, and certainly her culinary skills! Art is the way we combine sensory data and then express it in a way unique to us. And then share it. Solving problems — art. Communicating ideas and concepts so that others understand — art. Telling a story that has impact — whether by drawing it or not — is art.
There, in case you wondered what I thought. Haha!
Barb
Wonderful post Barb! That kitty is simply gorgeous! I love your new site
Thank you, Anita! This will be a fun blog to work and play with.
Barb
I love your new site, Barb! Makes me want to paint a portrait on my little dog. Your sites are inspiring me to want to paint again and work on art. It’s in my plans but my business (and grandchildren) keeps me busy with not much time for anything else. I have a couple of embroidery files similar to your painting above. Thanks for the information. Jackie
Well written tutorial Barb. Your tutorial brings not only the eyes alive but the technique!
Hi Jackie. I hope you do paint your little dog. I have a friend who specializes in animal portraits in watercolors. She inspires me. As I handed her a printed copy of this post, she said, “Eyes. If you get those right the rest just falls into place.” I agreed. Some artists finish with the eyes, but that’s where I start. Then, as I paint the rest, the kitty in this case, and I communicate through the eyes. Silly? Probably, but not to another artist.
Thanks so much for commenting.
Barb
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Thanks, Bean!
Barbara I just discovered you blog and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Great information. Thanks.
Warm regards,
Francine
Hi Francine. It’s good to see you. Thank you so much for stopping by. I have much more to do to make this blog what I envision, so that it is worth the trip in for information. Bless you.
I have just had a peruse through your wonderful new site, as well as your tutorial Coffee site and they are just full of good words and works. I have just started a blog site –with Thanks to Anita & Bean above– and hope to have threads of interest such as your tutorials run through out. Your blog is a delightful offering, Barb.
Thank you, Marg! I will visit your new site as well. Anita and Bean are outstanding teachers, aren’t they?