How to Paint Dog's Eyes

So you want to paint realistic, glassy looking looking dog’s eyes? Well I have a time lapse video to share with you showing exactly how I painted a pair of eyes belonging to a little fella named Bart.

Painting eyes with watercolours, especially realistic ones, requires patience and layers. When I painted Bart’s eyes, I took my time, almost 30 minutes of painting. Truthfully, I had a few moments of struggle but with the following tips, I can help you avoid similar struggles!

Tip 1: Always paint from light to dark!

You can always add colour but it’s much more troublesome to remove colour if you’ve overdone it.

Tip 2: Use Wet on Wet for the Early Layers

The wet on wet technique is when the paper is damp and the brush is loaded with water and paint. I like to use this technique with eyes especially because as the paintbrush touches the damp paper, the colour spiders out and creates similar patterns that we see in pupils.

Tip 3: Maintain the Highlight

This might be the most important mark we make in an eye. The highlight is typically a white marking that indicates the surface of an eyeball is reflective. Depending on what the eyes are looking at, this can be various shapes or even tints. You can either leave the paper blank, use masking fluid or paint a highlight with white gouache at the end to create a highlight!

And now, on to the video featuring annotations throughout to let you know exactly what I’m doing as it is happening!

Oh hey there! I hope you found these tips useful! Need some inspiration on what to paint and draw? Let’s be pen pals and I’ll send you a free PDF with over 50 creative sketchbook prompts!