Painting an animal’s eyes is my favourite part of painting animal portraits. The eyes really capture the soul of the animal and it’s always the first thing you see when you look at the painting. Because of this, it is really important to get the eyes just right. So I created this tutorial for you to show you exactly how I paint animal eyes. I’ll be showing you how I painted the eye for this hare painting.
I have written the step by step instructions below, but if you’d prefer to watch the video tutorial for this eye painting then you can watch this below and on my Youtube Channel. If you’d like to get access to all of my full length video art tutorials then you can get these by joining my Patreon.
The full length version of this video is available on my Patreon if you’d like to watch exactly how I painted this bunny’s eye.
How to Paint Animal Eyes - Step by Step Instructions
You will need:
- Acrylic paint (colours will depend on the eye that you are painting)
- Canvas
- Paintbrushes (small pointed)
- Water
- Cloth/paper towel
- Reference photo (optional)
Step 1:
Start by sketching out the outline of the animal’s eye onto the canvas. Then, paint the lightest section of the eye, which is usually at the bottom in the centre. For this hare’s eye I am using mainly yellow and brown shades of paint, but I will also incorporate some of the pink and purple sunset colours to tie the painting together.
Step 2:
Fill in the remaining bottom section of the eye with paint that is a shade darker than the highlight. In this example, I am using a darker shade of yellow.
Step 3:
Paint around the edge of the eye with a dark brown paint and then blend it into the rest of the eye. This will create a shadow that will help to make the eye look more three dimensional.
If you watch my animal art tutorials you will see that I always follow these steps when painting eyes.
Step 4:
Fill in the highlight of the eye using paint that is a few shades lighter. Then, use darker paint to paint the shadow around the edge of the eye. This emphasises the rounded shape of the animal’s eye. I used a bit of purple and pink paint in this step to make the painting look more colourful.
Step 5:
Fill in the pupil of the animal’s eye with black paint, making sure to leave the section that is within the highlight. I added some sharp triangular shapes in this step to make it look like the hare’s eye is reflecting mountains. If you are working from a reference photo try to replicate what is being reflected in the highlight of the eye.
Step 6:
Fill in the highlighted section of the pupil with a grey shade of paint, so that it is noticeably lighter than the pupil itself. It can help to add a bit of blue acrylic paint into this to make it look like the eye is reflecting the sky.
Step 7:
Add contrast to the animal’s eye by adding a thin line of black acrylic paint around the very edge of the eye to create a dark shadow. You can also add some pure white paint to the very lightest section of the eye’s highlight. This will look like the sun shining in the reflection.
Step 8:
Finish the eye by adding the fine details (it may look like I have added loads of details at this stage, but that’s mainly because in this photo I have added the second layer of fur to the surrounding face. The details I added to the eye were just the really thin hairs above the eye and within the reflection. It helps to do this with a really fine brush.
I hope you enjoyed this animal eye art tutorial and I hope that you have found it helpful! If you want to watch more colourful animal art tutorials then head over to my Youtube channel !
