Fur Affinity Forums
I noticed a thread by @ServylEirlys requesting help with shading eyes.
This is something I've been told I'm strong at. I can actually articulate and, more importantly, simplify a general process for easy breezy stylized eyes. I decided to make my response a thread for everyone's use.
I've put together a visual for reference and will explain as best I can what's going on for each step
So...
What we have here is six figures of a generally simple way to make an eye following the general shape Servyl presented.
Figure 1: The general shape is usually going to be some kind of almond unless you're really going for something even more cartoonish than what I have here. This is an exaggerated, kind of bulbous shape but it follows the same principal of a rounded body into tapered points. I didn't spend time on individual lashes for the sake of brevity, but that's something you can achieve with a bit of practice. Assume they're here if it helps you.
While this is mainly focusing on the shading of the actual eyeball itself, not the surrounding skin structure, there is one thing I want to make note of as it will boost your structure tremendously. You don't have to do this, depending on your goals, but notice how there's an indication of a "lip" on the lower eyelid. A lot of people miss this detail. Eyelids are somewhat thick pieces of skin as opposed to thin membranes with edges. This gives it so much more form and depth as opposed to just having the bottom eyelash right on top of the eye. It will work with almost any style.
Figure 2: We start with a light brushing in of the iris, the pigmented part of the eye. Just a solid color will do for now. Then we put a solid black dot about 40% or 50% the size of the iris for the pupil. Even with this somewhat obscured by the upper eyelid, keep in mind that the iris needs to be a symmetrical circle or oval or whatever style it is you're going for assuming you want something to appear human. So however it's positioned, remember where you're placing your pupil relative to what part of your iris is covered. Be sure to use a soft edge brush or have your favorite smudging, blending, or blur tool for the edge of the pupil. This will make it look more natural and less like a sticker There's no hard edges in the eye.
Figure 3: The eye gazing upward is going to mean that the pupil receives a very bold cast shadow from the lip of the upper eyelid and the eyelashes. I've also bolded the outer rim of the iris. The eye is not a perfect sphere internally. The sclera and cornea mostly smooth out everything on the outside. But the iris underneath is actually sort of a bulging structure of it's own, resting on top of the vitreous body behind it. So it has it's own subtle edges that can be darkened for a deeper effect. That's what the darkened rim is indicating and we'll tidy it up in the other figures. But it is not a hard crease or edge separating the two, so we will smooth this rim out later.
Figure 4: Now we can begin detailing our gradient values. With a soft brush (I like CSP's colored pencil tool) you just want to steadily smooth out and lighten up the shadows as they come into the centered light. Don't feel bad about spending a lot of time here. The cleaner it is the deeper the effect and you want to avoid peekholes in your strokes as it can give an unnatural looking "halo" effect around the pupil. So look closely at what you're doing and make your shadows a smooth transition.
Ideally you'll want to leave some brush strokes to give the illusion of those iconic "spokes" from the web like lining the iris consists of. That takes practice and a steady hand.
Figure 5: At this point we can shade our sclera. Again, smooth gradations. Keeping in mind that, for this example, the light is coming forward. With our shadow being cast by the eyelid, lashes, and brow, the brightest point of light is not dead center on the eye. So there's going to be more light towards the bottom and more shadow coming from the top. You can also take this time to add very subtle highlights around the lighter part of the iris vertically along the middle portion of the pigment. This is light being reflected off the iris through the cornea.
Figure 6: Finally, we can add the strongest highlights to the eye and round out everything. The catchlight is the where the bulging cornea is reflecting the most light. I have rarely ever seen this as a stark white dot if ever. So I'm detailing this as if the lashes are blocking some light or being reflected into the cornea however you want to view that. The light is being broken by sharp strokes. And then I blur the edges of the catchlight just a little bit to show more value. We finish with a very dim, soft reflective highlight around the bottom to show that very subtle bulging of the cornea I mentioned.
Additionally, you could put some very small, slim highlights right at the lip of the lower eyelid to show tears welling up. Not to show sadness, but just because eyes always keep themselves lubricated and tears roll down into the lid.
But that's all there is to it as far as my methods are concerned.
Do not take this as gospel.
Treat it as a springboard to learn how the eye works. There is so much more to rendering an eye than this. It is an extremely complex organ and there are millions of possible lighting situations that are very hard to put into words let alone replicate.
But I hope this helps some of you.
This is something I've been told I'm strong at. I can actually articulate and, more importantly, simplify a general process for easy breezy stylized eyes. I decided to make my response a thread for everyone's use.
I've put together a visual for reference and will explain as best I can what's going on for each step
So...
What we have here is six figures of a generally simple way to make an eye following the general shape Servyl presented.
Figure 1: The general shape is usually going to be some kind of almond unless you're really going for something even more cartoonish than what I have here. This is an exaggerated, kind of bulbous shape but it follows the same principal of a rounded body into tapered points. I didn't spend time on individual lashes for the sake of brevity, but that's something you can achieve with a bit of practice. Assume they're here if it helps you.
While this is mainly focusing on the shading of the actual eyeball itself, not the surrounding skin structure, there is one thing I want to make note of as it will boost your structure tremendously. You don't have to do this, depending on your goals, but notice how there's an indication of a "lip" on the lower eyelid. A lot of people miss this detail. Eyelids are somewhat thick pieces of skin as opposed to thin membranes with edges. This gives it so much more form and depth as opposed to just having the bottom eyelash right on top of the eye. It will work with almost any style.
- Bottom eyelash > slim space of skin > eye proper.
Figure 2: We start with a light brushing in of the iris, the pigmented part of the eye. Just a solid color will do for now. Then we put a solid black dot about 40% or 50% the size of the iris for the pupil. Even with this somewhat obscured by the upper eyelid, keep in mind that the iris needs to be a symmetrical circle or oval or whatever style it is you're going for assuming you want something to appear human. So however it's positioned, remember where you're placing your pupil relative to what part of your iris is covered. Be sure to use a soft edge brush or have your favorite smudging, blending, or blur tool for the edge of the pupil. This will make it look more natural and less like a sticker There's no hard edges in the eye.
Figure 3: The eye gazing upward is going to mean that the pupil receives a very bold cast shadow from the lip of the upper eyelid and the eyelashes. I've also bolded the outer rim of the iris. The eye is not a perfect sphere internally. The sclera and cornea mostly smooth out everything on the outside. But the iris underneath is actually sort of a bulging structure of it's own, resting on top of the vitreous body behind it. So it has it's own subtle edges that can be darkened for a deeper effect. That's what the darkened rim is indicating and we'll tidy it up in the other figures. But it is not a hard crease or edge separating the two, so we will smooth this rim out later.
Figure 4: Now we can begin detailing our gradient values. With a soft brush (I like CSP's colored pencil tool) you just want to steadily smooth out and lighten up the shadows as they come into the centered light. Don't feel bad about spending a lot of time here. The cleaner it is the deeper the effect and you want to avoid peekholes in your strokes as it can give an unnatural looking "halo" effect around the pupil. So look closely at what you're doing and make your shadows a smooth transition.
Ideally you'll want to leave some brush strokes to give the illusion of those iconic "spokes" from the web like lining the iris consists of. That takes practice and a steady hand.
Figure 5: At this point we can shade our sclera. Again, smooth gradations. Keeping in mind that, for this example, the light is coming forward. With our shadow being cast by the eyelid, lashes, and brow, the brightest point of light is not dead center on the eye. So there's going to be more light towards the bottom and more shadow coming from the top. You can also take this time to add very subtle highlights around the lighter part of the iris vertically along the middle portion of the pigment. This is light being reflected off the iris through the cornea.
Figure 6: Finally, we can add the strongest highlights to the eye and round out everything. The catchlight is the where the bulging cornea is reflecting the most light. I have rarely ever seen this as a stark white dot if ever. So I'm detailing this as if the lashes are blocking some light or being reflected into the cornea however you want to view that. The light is being broken by sharp strokes. And then I blur the edges of the catchlight just a little bit to show more value. We finish with a very dim, soft reflective highlight around the bottom to show that very subtle bulging of the cornea I mentioned.
Additionally, you could put some very small, slim highlights right at the lip of the lower eyelid to show tears welling up. Not to show sadness, but just because eyes always keep themselves lubricated and tears roll down into the lid.
But that's all there is to it as far as my methods are concerned.
Do not take this as gospel.
Treat it as a springboard to learn how the eye works. There is so much more to rendering an eye than this. It is an extremely complex organ and there are millions of possible lighting situations that are very hard to put into words let alone replicate.
But I hope this helps some of you.