How to Make a Flat Cat - Eyes

Well, kitties, we have finally gotten to my favorite part - eyes!  I always loved drawing them.  For today's lesson, I've drawn 6 eyes, trying to keep them the same so you could see how shading with different colors looked.  True to the spirit of this series of tutorials, I drew one eye then traced it!  I don't think I would have thought of it before.

I've outlined the eyes, smeared a background brown in with my finger. Surrounding colors influence how you perceive adjacent colors, so I didn't want you to see the eyes against a white background.  I colored in green with short strokes.

 I've smoothed out the green and added a dark contrasting color on either side of the top of the pupil, then labeled the colors for you.

I've smeared the strokes to make them smooth and pulled the color slightly down towards the bottom of the iris.

 I've touched up the colors so they go up to the upper lid.  Notice the green doesn't have enough contrast, the black is over powering and the grey is too light.  However, the brown, blue and purple work really well.

The light bounces around in the eye and the next lightest area will be at the bottom opposite the white highlight.  Here I've used a darker yellow since Oui Oui has yellowish green eyes.

I've added a small stroke of the lightest yellow to highlight that area.  Smear, touch up and add color as necessary.  (These really need smearing!)

That's it!  Isn't that incredibly easy?

I've colored Oui Oui's eyes just like above, using brown.  If she had brighter green eyes I would have used the blue or purple.  It looks like one eye is a little yellower than the other, so that needs fixing.

Did you notice how unsatisfactory black is?  I only use it if I absolutely have to, and that goes for mixing paints as well.  I use complimentary colors to mix a richer dark color.

When adding the second highlight, I would never use white.  White flattens your color, but a very pale yellow would work.  In fact, I've done some paintings where after I was done, the last step was a light wash of yellow over all.  Its just warms it up.

Also, I would try to use the paper as white as much as possible.  If you use a fixative, it is going to darken the white pastel, and most of the white will be lost.

I'm going to end the tutorials for the week on this note because there are a couple other things I'd like to blog about, and I'm going to take a break tomorrow to catch up on commenting and emails.  Monday I will start talking about the finishing and mounting process, then we will be done!  Yay!

Oh, and don't forget I have a drawing of MMM I could color.  Any requests?  An orange tabby, a meezer or something else?

To those kitties who say I make it look easy, I say, that's because it is!  Have a little faith in yourself!  It would be easy for you too.  I hope you try it.  Pastels don't cost much.  Practice on scrap paper first, or use an old coloring book.  Of course, its an investment in time, but believe me, its taken me longer to write these posts than to draw them.

BTW, MMM & Oui Oui have enjoyed coloring too.  Mica Moo just tries to inhabit the same space, and Oui Oui likes to walk across it when I'm washing my fingers.  I had to rework her left ear because of a kitty paw print in it.  She also likes to sit in the space where the drawing goes to keep it nice and warm while I'm taking a photo of it.  So its an activity you can share with your kitties!  Thanks for stopping by.  Purrs!