Painting a blue eye - Royal Talens
Painting a blue eye - Royal Talens

What you need

  • Rembrandt oil Titanium White (118)
  • Rembrandt oil Yellow Ochre Light (228)
  • Rembrandt oil Permanent Red Medium (377)
  • Rembrandt oil Burnt Umber (409)
  • Rembrandt oil King’s Blue (517)
  • Rembrandt oil Ivory Black (701)
  • Round (#1 and 2) and flat (#7) synthetic brushes
  • Tear-off palette
  • White spirit for cleaning the brushes
  • Talens bleached linseed oil (025) to dilute the paint

Tips

  • Before you start, go through all the steps.
  • If you want to work without solvents and produce a similar end result, you can work with Cobra water-mixable oil paint.
  • You also can try acrylic or gouache for this step-by-step plan.

Before we start

Make some mixes of our colours (as on the pictures).

A quick outline

Step 1

As always, everything starts from a quick outline of Burnt Umber (409) mixed with a medium (I use a linseed oil mixed with a white spirit in equal proportions).

The first pass is simple.

Step 2

The white of an eye is a base color mixed with a bit of blue. If you have 2 different colors on your palette (here we have a pink color for the skin and blue for the eye) you can add a bit of one to the other to create harmony. The iris will be done using only King’s Blue (517) and different amounts of White (118).

Step 3

Changing the background color can affect the mood and impression that the painting has. A dark one looks more epic.

Have fun with a shape!

Step 4

I took a big bristle brush and did that. Also, I’ve added some light blue to the eyelids. It helps to unify the picture. Then I took a small soft fluffy brush and started to blend.

Eyelashes

Step 5

It’s time for eyelashes! I painted them with a small brush that has a sharp tip.

The result

And here is the result! I hope that I’ve captured the beauty of the King’s Blue (517). Or at least I’ve tried. I hope that this tutorial was useful. Keep working and don’t forget to have some fun!

Made by @zarinasart