Angry tearful eye

Now those are some funky colors! Not sure how I feel about the color choice for the pupil itself (too much yellow), but I plan to add a glaze once this dries. And maybe some other flair. I'm trying to go for a cartoon flair but I'm still interested in pushing it further.

Skin

• Persian rose (Cobra)
• Permanent Red Violet Light (Cobra)
• Permanent rose (W&N)

Eyes

• Titanium white (W&N)
• Phthalo green blue hue (W&N)
• Naples yellow red (Cobra)
• Cadmium yellow pale hue (W&N)

Lil Ienzo

Small practice drawing of Ienzo from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. I haven't done much character art lately, especially anything digital, so I'm feeling a bit rusty. But it's fun seeing how my art is evolving as I continue to experiment. 

Can I just say, I love Ienzo's design because of his hair. It's such a cool color and I had to make sure I got that part right. That's mainly why I wanted to draw him. : D

Here's the rough color version. 

Two eyes

Underpainting: See this post

I will upload a separate image sometime later

Cartoon eye #3

Painted her alla prima. The goal is to paint with completion in mind. But some things will need to be added later and the existing paint needs to be dry for that. And of course I need to add the jewels, but that's for another day!

Got a bunch of Princeton brushes discounted from Michaels which helps with better paint coverage. I used my beloved filbert brush to get soft, clean blending. Overall, other than some color mishaps, I'm quite pleased with this painting so far!

Skin

• Base color: Persian rose (Cobra)
• Shading: Permanent red-violet light (Cobra), cadmium yellow deep hue (W&N)

Got the skin tone almost to my liking, but the blush/shading is too intense. Need to aim for lower contrast next time. I will try a lighter mixing yellow.

Sclera

• Base color: Titanium buff (Cobra)
• Shading: phthalo green blue hue (W&N)

I intended for the sclera to be a light green but the colors got muddied from traces of alizarin crimson on the palette. Plus titanium buff is too yellow. Next time I'll stick with good old titanium white with the green. And no cross-contamination! 

Iris

• Cadmium yellow medium (W&N)
• Alizarin crimson (W&N)
• Phthalo green blue shade (W&N) 

Once this paint is dry, I plan on adding more definition to the eye. I want it to be dazzlingly jewel-like. My favorite part about coloring eyes is adding the rainbow light reflections. See the previous eye to see what I mean.

Cartoon eye practice - acrylic gouache on canvas

I have been starting a lot of eye paintings lately. It makes for great iterative practice. The first eye painting looks nice so far, but the colors are too plain for my liking. 

For this sketch I wanted to get a little more abstract. Make it more like a design than a practical eyeball.

Acrylic underpainting works wonders!

For this next painting I used Holbein acrylic gouache. Painting gouache on canvas was an unusual experience. I'm glad I tried this out, but I wouldn't do it again. The texture of the paint isn't well suited to canvas in my opinion. The paint feels very soft even after it's dried, as if the slightest accident could deface the artwork. 

The perks of using gouache on canvas is the quick drying time. I was able to glue on the tear jewel right away. (I plan on doing this for all of the eye paintings.)

Definitely liking the colors more than in the previous painting, but still have a ways to go. Tried to keep the colors as pure as possible, with some mixing where needed. I want the colors to be more exaggerated and intense, this still feels in the realm of "normal".

Overall, I like how she came out. For my oil paintings, I plan on adding more detail once the first application of paint has dried. But with the acrylic gouache paint I can call it a day.

Mini cartoon eye practice painting

I love these little canvases because they can be painted in one sitting. I do plan on going over to add more definition once this first layer has dried.

Colors used:

• Titanium buff (Cobra)
• Phthalo green, blue shade (W&N)
• Naples yellow (W&N)
• Yellow ochre (W&N)
• Alizarin crimson (W&N)

I like how this is coming along so far, but the colors are far too literal. For my next eye painting I would like to do something more interesting. How about neon pink skin? Make those scleras REALLY green!

Find out next time... on Dragon Ball Z!

Mini practice paintings

These were drawn during a slow day at work yesterday. Setting up a good drawing gives me something to look forward to later in the day. The bigger one is 5x5" wood coaster from Michaels. Got a big pack of them for a decent price and I thought why not. The little one is a 3x3" canvas. The arts and craft store tells YOU what to buy. 

I alternated between the two drawings but focused on the flower. It is my second attempt at the trumpet flower, and this came out much better than the original. Credit to using new brushes (they had discounted Princeton brushes at Michaels!), actually using my reference photo this time, and being more mindful of matching colors to value placement.

Paint colors used for the flower:

• Titanium white (W&N)
• Persian rose (Cobra)
• Grayish blue (Cobra)
• Dioxazine purple (W&N)

Colors used for background:

• Emerald green (Cobra)
• Phthalo blue (W&N)

For now, the eye painting is still in the underpainting stage. I haven't decided which colors to use yet. I am thinking of doing a series of eye paintings in fun colors.