9.01.2010

Painting Blank Eyes

Here's a short tutorial today.  In the comments section of my most recent article on Bell of Lost Souls, Not Another Exodite Army, there were a few requests (one) for how I painted the eyes on my Slannesh themed Eldar.

CliffNotes: Brent takes credit for an idea Little Barrera had.

Basically, the eyes have no pupil...
...so.the effect is deceptively easy.


This is actually my favorite picture of the army, which is why I post it everywhere... tired of it yet?
I painted the skin then blocked out the hollows of the eyes using Charadon Granite.  Since I wanted the eyes to appear deep-set and unearthly, I went much larger than I normally would for a model.  Then I dotted a spot of off-white for the eye - one dot, perfectly circular, then move on.

Really, that's the trick.  Easy, no?  What makes it work is I'm not using high-contrast colors - I'm using dark gray and light gray!

Using black and white wouldn't work, since it's an unnatural effect.

I'd converted the Dark Reapers - not the Exarch, obviously - to appear grossly cybernetic and sadistic.  Some of them are biting down on a wire which appears to cut into their faces.


I got the idea from Little Barrera, who used yellow for the eyes of his Space Wolves... which was simply awesome!  I've got to get a picture of that for you...

That's that!  Questions?  Comments?

8 comments:

Unknown said...

That's pretty good I might have to try it for my Imperial Battle Psyker squad, thanks for the tip :)

Papa JJ said...

Those eyes are unnerving... thanks for the tip!

Grizzled Gorilla said...

Disturbing, very disturbing.
Actually, that is a fantastic effect; I really think it would be unnerving to play against and army led by an avatar with that blank look in his eye.

Herr Fernseher said...

Weird timing. I was just noticing a few days ago that GW's photos of Orcs and Goblins usually have blank red eyeballs. I may have to give this a go...

Granesh said...

Very nice tutorial, your Eldar still look excellent! However, did you think about using an Ice Blue or something? If you google things like cataracts or blindness, a lot of the eyes have a glossed over, shine that the blue would work perfectly for.
Good stuff!

Tom said...

Hey, where's the third competitive article? I want my list broken down dammit!! ;)

Papa JJ said...

I tried this out tonight with P3 paints using a mix of Thamar Black and Coal Black, followed by a dot of Underbelly Blue for the off-white pupil. The eyes turned out more oval than I was going for but I'm happy with the effect. Thanks, Brent.

Brent said...

Papa JJ - I'm really glad you got some use out of it mate!

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