Paint Myself Pretty: eyes

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Golden Eye

Thanks to everyone for your sympathies regarding the hacking of my email! I'm glad to say everything has been reset and secured. So, I hope to never have that issue again. It's troubling to hear how many of us have dealt with this very thing :(

But, on to brighter subjects....very bright as a matter of fact :D

I have tried my hand at gold-leafing for the first time.
I love the way it looks!
...and perfect for Butterfly Effect's Theme of EYES this week.

Though, technically, I have just eye, not eye(s)...haha!
But, here is the whole piece.

"Make Magic"

7 x 9 inches on Chipboard

See the gold leaf in her hair and on the hat band...

Goldilicious :)

Eyes really are the heart of a painting, to me....and my favorite part of a face.

I've been told that I do them well, so I thought I'd share a few things I always do when I paint them.

Studies have shown that people perceive photos of women with large dilated pupils as being friendlier and more attractive....weird, huh? Makes sense then, I guess, that I prefer to make mine big.

This was taken before I filled in that missing part of gold leaf on the lash line.

Whatever side of the face that is towards the light will have the white dot of reflected light on it. I, then, make sure that the iris is lighter in hue in the opposite corner. I choose a darker color....a deep purple here, and use it to darken the rim and the lines within the iris. I make a thicker line just under the lid for the cast shadow. I tried putting smaller dots on the light side this time, too.

I've also tried on other paintings, a faint white, smudged line to imply moisture....both vertically...