When it comes to working on eyes during the wood carving process, there are several options. You have to decide whether you are going to carve the eyes completely or carve part of the eyes and paint the rest. A wood carving friend of mine, Steve Reed, has a great method of painting his eyes on his wood carvings. I wanted to share his method with you and he has graciously allowed me to share his eye painting tutorial to help others learn to make their wood carving more realistic with painted eyes.
The first photos show my BLO mixture. It is BLO with a little raw sienna and yellow ocher mixed in. Apologize for the lighting, it’s not really as orange as it appears. I first coat the entire carving with the base coat, then wipe it off with paper towels. I then proceed to paint the eyeballs with Delta Light Ivory using a 0 size brush. Normally I put about 3 – 4 applications of the light ivory, full strength.
Next step is to add the iris to the eye. For this piece I’m using Delta Wedgewood Blue. It gives a nice grayish-blue eye. These 2 photos show the eyes with just the Light Ivory, then with the addition of the Wedgewood Blue.
The next step is to add the pupil to the eye. I use Delta Black, full strength. It’s always better to have the eyes “looking” somewhere, at least for me. Either to one side, slightly up or down. Otherwise, the eyes have kind of a “spooky” look to them. After the pupil has been added, I add the “sparkle” which is a dot of full strength Delta White.
The next step is what I like to call adding the “wow” factor. I use a Micron .005 artists pen (black) to outline the iris and to add a shadow line under the eyelid. I also carry this shadow line into the corners and just barely onto the lower lid as well. The first pic shows the pen, the second shows the Elf’s right eye completed.
Here is a pic of the completed eyes. At this point you can call it done, or alternatively you can wait for the eyes to dry (couple of hours) and paint with either Modge-Podge, or a clear varnish, to give then a “wet” or glossy appearance.
That’s all there is to it! I should point out that I used the same brush for all the steps, so this method is both quick and easy, at least for me!
You can see more of Steve’s work in his Woodcarving Illustrated Gallery and on his Etsy Store Sold Items.