Introduction ^^ 🎈
HI HI HIIII! My friends called me Ray, please do so too ^^
I really like eyes. Eyes are often called the windows to the soul either in reality, novel and even in illustration. A well-painted pair of sparkling eyes can instantly bring life, emotion, and personality to our character. Sparkling eyes always connected to a bubbly person, or a person who is excited. Without the sparkles, something is really missing.
Hereby, I’ll walk you through step by step on how I like to paint sparkling eyes.
Let’s make those eyes shine! shimmer shimmer ✨
What makes eyes 'sparkle'???
I wondered about that before too before experimenting. Before we paint, let’s understand what gives eyes that sparkling look:
▪︎ Strong highlights (light reflections)
▪︎ Colour variation inside the iris
▪︎ Gradients
▪︎ Dark out lines for contrast
▪︎ Tiny star or glow effects
▪︎ Shine at the bottom of the eye
For me, sparkling eyes are basically a mix of light, contrast, and layering.
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Step 1: Draw the Eyes And Colour the Base! 👀
Draw your character's eyes! :D
Could be big and round, or thin and hot. Draw however you like, based on your own characters!
This brush is my favourite for sketching and lineart! Big thanks to who made it. Can get it for free on the CSP asset store.
In animation, eyes sometimes reflected a person's personality and they come with varieties, just like in reality.
I tend to draw them big and round for the bubbly characters, known for their cuteness.
Thin and focus for mysterious characters.
However it is, I avoid perfect circle, making slight curves on the iris so it feels more natural.
So, we will go with big and round this time yay!
Colour the base :3
Paint the base with your chosen main colour. I like red and most of my original characters have red eyes if not black.
I would avoid choosing the red on the very edge to avoid it being too saturated and too bright. In my opinion, it is easier to choose the colour to blend if it's a little bit dull hehe 😬
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Step 2: Add Darker And Lighter Shades On The Base 🎭
Add darker shades of your chosen colour on top of the base, the part where it is a little covered by the eyelashes. Leave the edges of the shadows to look sharp but not too much. Just blur it like 1/3 of the shadow.
Lighter shades on the bottom using airbrush. Make your airbrush size as big as the eyes’ width so it will be easier. just dap dap! ^^
… I like the colouring for the first one (it's looking a bit dull)…
BUT! I like the second one better!
Add darker shades that compliment your base colour.
I don't really have enough knowledge on the colour theory, but,
the tip I could gave you is just remember the three main colour, which are red, blue, and yellow.
▪︎ Add red on the shades that is warmer
▪︎ Add blue on the shades that is cooler
▪︎ Yellow as the lighting
If your base is already part of the main colours, like mine, we can add the colours that are beside our colour on the colour wheel. Or secondary colours such as purple, pink, or teal. For example, I use purple on the darker shades, and use light yellow on the lower parts of the iris.
Different hues make the colour look richer and doesn't look flat hehe <3
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Step 3: Add Pupils 👁
I use this for colouring, and blend/blur to make the gradient. If too lazy, just use the airbrush hehe!
make an oval, or smaller version of the eyes as the pupils. just follow the shape of your eyes. ^^ Make it a lot darker because a darker pupil makes the highlights pop more later and boost contrast.
please center it carefully too as tiny shifts can change the expression we intended to create.
The size of the pupils also important as bigger pupils indicated cute or shocked, smaller pupils indicated serious or angry.
I like mine to be less transparent on the lower part of the pupils. looking more lively yayy. Blurring or soften the edges slightly really helps it blends into the iris
using the same colour as your base, decorate your pupils depending on how you would like it. I like mine to look simple hehe. However, remember to change the layer setting into ‘Add’ or ‘Add(Glow)’ so it will pop and create more contrast.
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Step 3: Add Colour Variety 🌈
I really like to add turqoise and set the layer setting to hue as the vibrant, high quality contrast lighting. It goes together with lots of colour, especially red. So, adding them to the lower part of the iris add a pretty contrast to the eyes.
Can't leave the pupils looking flat too!
Add the same colour we put in the darker shades on the base, which is purple, on the top of the pupils. ^^
Don't cover the base colour fully!
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Step 4: Highlight/ Lighting 💫
Place highlights consistently in both eyes.
And remember! Less is more, do not overcrowded.
1. Highligh Around The Pupils
Use the colour of the lighter shades on the base to wrap it around the pupil, connecting to the lighter shades on the bottom of the iris. However, this time, set the layer setting into ‘Add (Glow)’ to add the glowing effect for the lighting.
2. Ring Light
This process reflected more highlights. How could sparkle exists without highlights, right? hehe
I usually just used the ellipse shape and erase some to make it like a ‘U’. Blurring the inside of the shape, I erase the shape with zig zag or line to make it resembles more like a lighting.
Then,
Using the droplet airbrush,
sprinkling the droplet on the lower part, behind the iris added the highlight. And now, it started to look shimmering yayy!
3. Add Darker Depth
add darker colour or pattern you would like on the upper part of the iris. This is to bring out the shine more, to create contrast.
4. The 'Cliche' Light
For the light, the cliche one, I like to use turqoise and a little bit of red. To make it turn into a nice light, set the layer blending mode into ‘Add (Glow)’ to mame it shine. Top it up with white if needed.
5. Sparkle Material
Using the sparkle material really does help me a lot. You can get the materials for free, so it really saves me hehe.
Do not add too much as we wouldn't want our eyes to look overcrowded.
Reminder again, less is more, do not overcrowded
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Bonus!: Make The Colour More Contrast! (Optional) 🖤❤️
This part is my favourite, but it is really optional.
It could be only black or use material. I prefer using the material as it added the texture on my art.
Set the material layer blending mode to ‘overlay’ and lower the opacity depending on what you like.
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Extra Bonus? 🃏
You can change the sparkle, depending on the emotions.
For example, for happy/excited, you can add a big bright highlights, stars and wide pupils. If sad, adding the smaller shine and watery bottom line really helps. For the angry one, you could use less highlight, sharp shapes and darker shadows. For the shocked one, strong reflection as the sparkle really helps to differentiate the emotions.
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Ending 🎊
And here it is!
Painting sparkle eyes is not about one single trick. It is more about layers, light and patience.
We can make pretty shimmering eyes with basics!
Base colours, shadows, highlights, contrast, voila!
Remember to avoid flat single-colour irises.
Don't forget contrast and don't add too many sparkles for it to stand out.
With practice, we will develop our own signature style for our little escape <3
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