My first eye!

S

shiny23

Guest
Ok folks been practicing dots and lines and the dreaded dagger stroke for hours apon hours, finally thought I would try " the eye" so here it is! All criticism welcome!
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No criticism here only helpful feed back;)

We all know how tedious it is practicing the strokes fir hours on end, so I personally encourage folks to have a go at little projects just break the monotony.

This is effectively your first artwork so I would say it's a pretty good attempt, it looks like an eye despite the absence of lashes as such but I would assume you found part intimidating which is fine, I am impressed that you fit to try some texture in the iris, I didn't do that on my first so that makes you better than I was at the same stage lol

What do you think you have learned here and what would you change, do have any questions as a result of this, we want to help get you where would like be so ask us the things that concern you, that way we won't overload your brain with too much info at once.

Your doing fine so far, your shapes are in place so just plod on as you are and get quizzing when you think you need it, the rest just plenty of practice and having fun.

Why not get in on the new paint pals and yourself a little goal to aim at? If you choose an image we will help you through it and if you want to keep it under your hat I will even guide in a PM, no pressure just fun;)
 
Thanks @Madbrush u are right the eye lashes did intimidate me hence why they are missing lol, the texture in the iris was just me trying to get it to stand out! What I would do differently is build the dark areas up A lot slower rather than trying to get it black in one pass, the one thing that I would change is the edge of the iris to me it's to dark and too thick same with the lower eyelid line! The biggest question i have is how to get more depth and shape in to a piece? I will look in to the paint pals and If I decide to take part I will definitely pm u!

Ps what would u change with the image?

Mark
 
Thanks @Madbrush u are right the eye lashes did intimidate me hence why they are missing lol, the texture in the iris was just me trying to get it to stand out! What I would do differently is build the dark areas up A lot slower rather than trying to get it black in one pass, the one thing that I would change is the edge of the iris to me it's to dark and too thick same with the lower eyelid line! The biggest question i have is how to get more depth and shape in to a piece? I will look in to the paint pals and If I decide to take part I will definitely pm u!

Ps what would u change with the image?


Mark


Lol, you've just answered this part yourself which I have to say pretty astute at the stage your, you clearly have an understanding of what you should be doing, again I'm impressed, slowly building up your is indeed the key, you can thin your paint more and lowercyour pressure to suit, this will allow you build up at your happy pace, this early in the game trying to get your colour/shading intensities right can be daughting, your perception is fooled by everything going around the area you may be wrong on, try covering up other areas of your reference so that you see only the part your busy with, this way you won't be distracted.

Depth is a whole other hurdle, although complicated it's not too difficult, simply put is has to do with focus and lighting, things in the distance will usually be lighter and out focus whereas things in foreground will be more sharp and nor darker but brighter, however since your working on the close up of an eye this doesn't help much, you will rely mostly on lighting and soft and hard shading as well as careful placement of highlights and shadows.

If you look at your iris texture you can see that it is a little out of focus which has the effect of pushing it back some suggesting an eye deep in the socket if you know what I mean, you have created the effect of depth there without realising it, if you wanted to bring it forward you wpuld simply make it sharper or less out of focus, to get a busier texture try doing a figure 8 texture all around the iris, by doing this at slightly different distances several times you see a pretty convincing texture magically appear, later you will discover the benefits of scratching and erasing which will help enhance these techniques even more.

Try to train your mind to understand you are not painting an eye, you are in fact painting series of shapes which when arranged correctly will createx the illusion of an eye being present, so study your reference and try to pick out the shapes needed to to this, you already have the main shapes but you will find there are shapes within these shapes.

There several tuts on depth already posted the forums, have a look at these to get good understanding of how it works, but don't worry too much about that yet, you will know when you need it.

I hope I haven't fried your brain lol
 
Haha fry my brain all u want man cause it's all knowledge and knowledge is power, I get what u mean about blurry in the back round and sharp in the fore ground. I had no reference picture to work from due to lack of a printer ATM but I will keep ur tip about covering every thing but the section I'm working on!
I will have to try thining my paint a tad more I shot that pic at around 20psi so I still have to get to grips with pressure and the characteristics of my airbrush. I think ur right I can see the main shapes and then they are all I can see I need to learn how to look past the main shapes to break the image down farther! Then start from the shapes with in to build up the main shapes to build the image if u know what I mean?

This is the reason I decided to join this forum because of ppl like u madbrush and everyone else who is willing to take the time to talk some one like me through the whole process and for that I truly thankful to everyone here!

Mark
 
No thanks necessary at all Mark, ever since the forum first started we have taken great pride in trying to help hone the skills of everyone who decides to take up airbrushing, we have all experienced the pitfalls and frustrations that can exist, as such we try to help newer artists avoid the horrors and achieve the fun bits a little quicker than we could, I have personally loved art since I was child, I have always done pencil drawings and got into airbrushing to paint my RC model planes but discovered how versatile the tool is and switched to art instead.

This forum has become so much like a huge close knit family that even the members from the last year follow our lead and share everything they have learned, but the ultimate buzz is all the success stories, I have had the privelage of witnessing the growth of many a great artist here, if you stick at it and stick around and keep those questions coming you'll soon be one of those cool stories and for all of us here that will be the ultimate thanks.

One crisis after another has left me such that it's difficult to paint at all but still if I get the chance to give anyone else at all a little push in the right direction then I feel that I'm at least doing something, I will be in on paint pals though because it's my favourite event on the forum plus I've never missed one:)
 
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So I read in the paint pals post man I'm in on it too so it could be me frying ur brain with pm s that is providing ur not the one picked for me to post it to lol.

I have always been creative tho it was more fabrication and building things, it was only recently I have decided to try my hand at any form of drawing or painting and have to say I wish I had started long a go cause it is my peace and stress reliever just even doing the pratice is enough to calm me down!
 
As MB says, one of the greatest things about this place is the fact that we're all here to help each other out, share our knowledge and encourage each other to do [ or in my case, attempt to do! ] whatever it is that we want to try.
We have all come from the same humble beginings, so we understand what the frustrations and the triumphs are all about.
My advice is, NEVER be afraid to ASK about anything that gives you grief.
Someone here has been through it as well, and can get you over it.:thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
So I read in the paint pals post man I'm in on it too so it could be me frying ur brain with pm s that is providing ur not the one picked for me to post it to lol.

I have always been creative tho it was more fabrication and building things, it was only recently I have decided to try my hand at any form of drawing or painting and have to say I wish I had started long a go cause it is my peace and stress reliever just even doing the pratice is enough to calm me down!

You can pester me as much as you like, if it means your in I can take it lol
 
As MB says, one of the greatest things about this place is the fact that we're all here to help each other out, share our knowledge and encourage each other to do [ or in my case, attempt to do! ] whatever it is that we want to try.
We have all come from the same humble beginings, so we understand what the frustrations and the triumphs are all about.
My advice is, NEVER be afraid to ASK about anything that gives you grief.
Someone here has been through it as well, and can get you over it.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Believe it or not just knowing that I can always turn to this forum for help, advice and feedback is giving me more confidence in my abilities ( limited as they are at the minute) to push my self and step outside my comfort zone and actually open a bottle of paint other than black haha!
 
Believe it or not just knowing that I can always turn to this forum for help, advice and feedback is giving me more confidence in my abilities ( limited as they are at the minute) to push my self and step outside my comfort zone and actually open a bottle of paint other than black haha!

Quick tip: never step out of your comfort zone, simply expand your zone by soaking up knowledge and aquiring new skills one step at a time, this means you will not bite of more than can chew:)
 
Ok folks thought I would test my self again with the eye and see if I had taken any thing u wonderful ppl had said on board so here is attempt no. 2
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Hey, if i was your paintpal and I got that, i would be very happy, especially knowing how you have taken the advice given, used it and improved so much already!

Looking at that (though it's always hard to tell in a photo) it is looking a little grainy in the fade/blended areas??? If so then I think you could still reduce more, (and lower the pressure to suit if needed) to give it a smoother look, and will also give you even more control over building up those dark areas, which have already improved dramatically. If it's just the photo giving the grainy impression - then like every sensible (or even non sensible person as there aren't too many of the sensible variety around here LOL :D) ignore me.
 
Ur right about the grainy ness it's not the photo lol thining my paint is a problem I just can't find that sweet spot, tho i recently bought an iwata eclipse so it's a new learning curve finding all its quirks!
 
The eclipse is an awesome brush, after a couple of months struggling with bad equipment, I got one, and it was my only brush for a couple of years until I recently got a micron. Even with the micron, I still use this brush as well. It will do you proud, and the better you get, the more you will get out of it.

Finding that sweet spot is a frustrating time, especially as the nature of the beast means that what worked yesterday, may need tweaking the next due to conditions, heat, humidity etc, or even the colour used. What paint are you using? That can make a big difference. For example if you are using regular createx you will have issues as it is meant for fabrics, through larger nozzles at higher pressure so can be hard to learn with, the Wicked line (which I use and love) doesn't reduce so well with water, as it has a mild solvent. Others will have more knowledge of other paint brands, but they can all act differently.
 
I'm using auto air paints, thinned 1 part paint to 3 parts reducer usually shooting around 10 to 15 psi, only had time to play with the eclipse for about an hour but from the second I started using it I could feel the difference from my Chinese copy ! Looking back I wish I had just got it from the start lol
 
I'm with you there. The months I had my crappy brush were just wasted time fighting something that was rubbish just to get the paint to flow, and so I couldn't concentrate on learning any technique. Then with the new brush it made things so much easier and it got fun rather than frustrating lol :D

I have tried auto air, personally I didn't like it, I too found it grainy, and on automotive it had a kind of sticky texture and took a long time to dry (used a hair dryer to speed it up). Of course that may be because I was much more inexperienced then too Lol. I think though at that pressure I would definitely reduce quite a bit more. I use Wicked (also in the createx line but suitable for many surfaces including auto as it's lightfast as well as fabric and paper/board, so an all rounder), but I believe has a finer pigment, and reduce I paint to 3 reducer at 20 psi as a base mixture with the eclipse, and then tweak from there.

Do you want to eventually do auto work? Reduction and tweaking the psi might get you a nice smooth flow, if not then possibly another paint might suit better as although it is still used, newer paints have over taken it for quality of finish I think.. E'tac EFX is popular for fine art, and I think the EFX Private stock is another all rounder (so also ok for auto work I think), and com-art is also popular for fine art. I can only comment on Wicked which when you find the sweet spot goes on satin smooth, and pops nicely when cleared. As an all rounder though it's not specifically perfected for any one type of painting, but if you want to paint on different surfaces is ideal.
 
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With the auto air I have been reducing around 10-1 with the high performance reducer, as above, the com art and eTac paints are a lot thinner and flow a lot easier, the transparent colours are thinner still.
 
Ur right about the grainy ness it's not the photo lol thining my paint is a problem I just can't find that sweet spot, tho i recently bought an iwata eclipse so it's a new learning curve finding all its quirks!

Some brushes have difficulty atomising paint either at low pressure or has been overthinned
I'm using auto air paints, thinned 1 part paint to 3 parts reducer usually shooting around 10 to 15 psi, only had time to play with the eclipse for about an hour but from the second I started using it I could feel the difference from my Chinese copy ! Looking back I wish I had just got it from the start lol

There is every possibility that you have a bad bottle of paint which when thinned is prone to particle separation, try spraying at a little higher pressure to see if that still happens, if do then that is probably the cause.

Another far out possibility is bad atomisation which could be the result of the head assembly needing cleaned or the nozzle not seating properly, but being a new brush I doubt this.

I made the mistake of mixing a colour using two different brands of paint, this caused instant separation even without thinning and I had the same effect you have, try a new bottle of paint but be aware that dome paints especially colours not used much remain on the for years sometimes so if you get a really old bottle you usually expect problems, old bottles are frequently sold off in special offer events, if you buy from a shop personally look at the bottle and if there is colours pigment on the bottom and white fluid on top, leave it there.
 
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