Les oeuvres numériques de Zigo: Tuto Illustrator : Draw an eye

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Introduction

First of all I would like to apologize for my imperfect English, please be indulgent.
I decided to dedicate my blog mainly to the techniques of digital art in order to render a little that the web have given me in this area. But the Anglophone community of internet has also helped me a lot, so I thought that enlarging my audience to this community would be a just reward.

Here is the photo of a young woman (I do not know the name) found on the web in Christian LAY Tunisia catalog that I would like to use for making a tutorial “draw an eye” with the software Adobe Illustrator (CS5).

Eyes and eyebrows

Drawing eyes and eyebrows are plots often difficult for rendering the authenticity of the look. You can see the eyes in this picture which include the following:

·         The eye with the cornea, iris and pupil
·         The light reflections and shadows
·         The eyelid
·         Eyelashes
·         Eyebrows

The eye

My approach to the eyes is always the same. I start by drawing the cornea that I filled with a variable linear gradient as appropriate (7 colors here taken with the pipette (I) in the subject's eye, angle = 12.50 ° and feather 2 pixels):

·         Location 0%, RGB = 165, 88, 59
·         Location 6%, RGB = 180, 109, 82 (Distribution: 50-50%)
·         Location 13%, RGB = 189, 188, 183 (Distribution: 50-50%)
·         Location 20%, RGB = 227, 227, 224 (Distribution: 50-50%)
·         Location 41%, RGB = 227, 227, 224 (Distribution: 50-50%)
·         Location 85%, RGB = 172, 174, 174 (Distribution: 78-22%)
·         Location 100%, RGB = 93, 33, 17 (Distribution: 70-30%)

Read the post "Notation for color gradients" for more information.

Then I draw the iris using the tool "ellipse" that I filled with a radial gradient color (6 colors here taken with the pipette (I) in the subject's eye, feather 4 pixels, angle 0 °):

· Location 20%, RGB = 15, 21, 19

· Location 39%, RGB = 47, 84, 98 (Distribution: 37-63%)

· Location 51%, RGB = 95, 139, 150 (Distribution: 50-50%)

· Location 75%, RGB = 181, 199, 203 (Distribution: 50-50%)

· Location 95%, RGB = 47, 84, 98 (Distribution: 75-25%)

· Location 100%, RGB = 15, 21, 19 (Distribution: 50-50%)

You have probably noticed that the top of the iris is darker near the eyelid. That is why I duplicate the iris (over the first) in order to fill the second with transparency "Darken" and a linear gradient of 3 colors (angle = -86 °, feather 4 pixels):

·         Location 26%, RGB = 15, 21, 19
·         Location 43%, RGB = 95, 139, 150 (Distribution: 63,5-36,5%)
·         Location 66%, RGB = 227, 227, 224 (Distribution: 31,5-68,5%)

Then I draw the pupil circle black color (RGB = 0, 0, 0) and 4 pixels feather that I position after disabling display (Ctrl-click on the eye layer).

Then we have to resize the iris within the cornea. For this, I duplicate the cornea and the two are selected together (iris and cornea) and I use the "pathfinder" tool option "crop". This provides a good size of the iris into the cornea (you can also use a clipping mask).

We also resize the dark iris path the same way.

The light reflections and shadows

At this stage, the eye is too perfectly clear and we must darken the cornea as in reality by the effects of light and shadow. For this, we duplicate the path cornea to fill it with a linear gradient of 2 colors (angle = 93 °, feather 2 pixels) with transparency "Darken":

· Location 0%, RGB = 252, 252, 252
· Location 95%, RGB = 0, 0, 0 (Distribution: 85-15%)

Then I darken the bottom of the cornea by duplicating it in order to fill it with a linear gradient of 2 colors (angle = 93 °, feather 2 pixels) with transparency "Darken":

· Location 0%, RGB = 0, 0, 0
· Location 100%, RGB = 252, 252, 252 (Distribution: 17-83%)

The corner of the eye (bottom right) is slightly red and I use a path filled with color RGB = 180, 109, 82 Gaussian Blur 4.5 pixels as below:

The corner of the eye (top right) is slightly shaded blue and I use a path filled with color RGB = 165, 173, 176 Gaussian Blur 3.5 pixels with transparency "Darken" as below:

You'll also observe that the iris is filled with grains of dark or light colors. To make these disparities I use several techniques, but most often it is the one described below.
I creates two blends with a curved line and optional gradient = 12 steps, one inside and one outside, with small ovals filled with gradient’s values the same as iris (see above) but here linear, feather 2 pixels:

Blends are with transparency "Soft Light" and opacity 50% as shown in close-up below:

For the light aspects we can discern 3 light areas.

The first area under the pupil is a path filled with light color (RGB = 240, 237, 237), Gaussian Blur 0.5 pixel and Transparency "Hard Light" (see below):

Then the second area is on the pupil, 2 paths clear color (RGB = 240, 237, 237) and 1.6 pixel Gaussian Blur:

Finally, the third area is on the cornea, a path of light color (RGB = 241, 241, 242), opacity 25% and 1.2 pixel Gaussian Blur:

The eyelid

Drawing the eyelid begins with a path for the darkened area around the eye (to be placed behind the cornea), Gaussian blur of 2.5 pixels and with a linear gradient of 2 colors (angle = -81.5 °), as below:

· Location 26%, RGB = 132, 83, 68
· Location 100%, RGB = 210, 145, 124 (Distribution: 21-79%)

The makeup of the upper edge of the eye is a path (to be placed behind the cornea) dark color (RGB = 48, 34, 25) and Gaussian Blur 3 pixels, as shown below:

The drawing of the eyelid continues with 2 paths as "Charcoal - tapered" 0.5 pt. (from standard brush library), dark color (RGB = 26, 15, 8) and 0.5 pixel Gaussian blur as below:

The shadow under the eye is a blend consisting of two paths:

The first path is a linear gradient of 3 colors (angle = 180 °), feather 3 pixels as shown below:

·         Location 0%, RGB = 89, 48, 38
·         Location 43%, RGB = 132, 83, 68 (Distribution: 50-50%)
·         Location 100%, RGB = 210, 145, 124 (Distribution: 40-60%)

The second path is filled with a linear gradient of 2 colors (angle = -128 °), feather 6 pixels, as shown below:

· Location 0%, RGB = 163, 103, 84
· Location 100%, RGB = 242, 193, 174 (Distribution: 36-64%)

And finally the light reflections on the makeup of the edge of the eye are 2 paths of light color (RGB = 227, 227, 224) as shown below:

The first path with a Gaussian blur of 3.5 pixels:

The second with a brush "Charcoal - Thin" 0.75 pt. and Gaussian blur of 2.5 pixels:

The reflection on the eyelid is materialized by a path filled with color (RGB = 226, 172, 154) and brush "Pencil - Feather" size 1 pt. and a Gaussian blur of 3.5 pixels:

The outline on the bottom of the eye is a path of color (RGB = 89, 48, 38) as "Pencil - Thick" size 2 pts and feather 2 pixels:

A second reflection on the lid is made with a path filled with color (RGB = 159, 99, 75) and brush "Pencil - Feather" size 1 pt. and 3.5 of a Gaussian blur pixels:

Finally, the reflection on the bottom of the eyelid is a path of color (RGB = 227, 227, 224) and brush "Pencil - Thick" size 1 pt. and a Gaussian blur of 2.5 pixels:

This completes the design of the eye (cornea, iris, pupil, eyelid), it remains to draw the eyelashes and eyebrows.

The lashes

The bottom lashes are made with a single line (size 1 pt.) with the profile of width 4 (see below).

The lines are then decomposed (Object-Expand Appearance) in order to fill them with a linear gradient of 3 colors (angle = 0 ° and angle varies according to the desired effect for each of the eyelashes):

·         Location 37%, RGB = 48, 34, 25
·         Location 86%, RGB = 139, 81, 67 (Distribution: 44-56%)
·         Location 100%, RGB = 226, 172, 154 (Distribution: 50-50%)

The eyelashes at the bottom of eyelid are arranged and adapted in size, shape and gradient and then placed in 75% opacity with a Gaussian blur of 0.5 pixels.

Upper lids of the eyelid are made partly using simple lines (size 2 pts.) with profile width 5 color (RGB = 44, 21, 17).

For another part eyelashes are simple lines of color (RGB = 44, 21, 17) and brush "Pencil - Feather" size 1 pt. 50% opacity.

For the others finally eyelashes are simple lines color (RGB = 44, 21, 17) and brush "Pencil - Feather" size 0.75 pt. 100% opacity.

All the upper lashes are placed Transparency "Darken" and opacity to 60%.

The eyebrows

For eyebrows, I begin by defining the area of maximum density and materialized by a path filled with color RGB = 138, 86, 65, transparency "Darken" and 1.5 pixel Gaussian blur, as below:

Then I created a new symbol from a line (size 1 pt.) width profile 5. I was able to create a set of symbols with the "Symbol sprayer" tool. I then decomposed (Object-Expand Appearance) the set in order to color them. First portion become shapes of color RGB = 128, 78, 50 as described below: