More Fairy Eyes

STEP 3
More Fairy Eyes - I'm showing the drawing of eyes in the final stage, but I may fuss with them a bit more later. There is also a second drawing showing the entire face (so far) to get an idea of how it all fits together.

For this detail on the eyes, I again used only pencil. I have an assortment of professional drawing pencils ranging from hard to soft lead. But frankly, most of it has been done with just a cheap mechanical pencil so far.

For blending, I just use my finger tip most of the time. But I also may use a pointed paper "stomp," a cotton swab (I like the Q-tip best), a cotton ball, eye shadow sponge, a soft chamois cloth, or just a piece of facial tissue wrapped around my index finger. The highlights are made with a gray kneaded eraser (like a putty eraser), which is pretty much the only kind of eraser I use for drawing.

The eyeball is a sphere, so it is shaded like a ball would be. It's set into a socket, and if you study yourself in the mirror, you will see the eyelid and shadows under the eye are all part of that sphere, and get shaded accordingly. The eyeball also has highlights.

For fairy eyes, (like all eyes), the colored part of the eye (iris) is not just a flat color, but has darks and lights, and a little glimmer. The very outer edge of the iris is usually rimmed in a slightly darker shade. The inner corners are also darker.

The upper eyelid and eye lashes also cast shadows on the upper part of the eyeball. Eye lashes are not just straight, spiky things that stick out like sun rays around the eye. They are curved, some longer, some shorter.

Next: - I think next I'll work on the mouth and the shading of the skin, which is still very rough at this point. Still don't have a clue what I'm going to do with the hair. Or costume. Probably some jewels for sure.

Mary