The eyes bring your artwork alive!

A year ago, I took a class with a Moose Peterson, California's top endangered species wildlife photographer. I saw Moose's work the year before in a Photoshop World convention in Miami and I felt in love with his photography. As a result, I took one of his seminars in Yosemite National Park during the winter. It was an excellent photography seminar. A little bit pricy, but I learned a lot and I got to meet really interesting people from all over the place.

The one thing that stuck in my mind from the seminar is what Moose said about focusing on the eyes of an animal to bring the animal alive in the picture. I do agree with that and since then whenever I paint or draw a human face or animal face, I try to bring the eyes alive and make them expressive. The eyes tell you the story of the character. It tells you if the character is happy, sad, etc. It is what brings a painting alive. For example, I drew Mimi, my cat, playing in my yard. While the bold green color will attract you to the painting, Mimi’s eyes become the focus of the painting. This allows the painting to have a focus point from where the viewer can start discovering the painting itself. Mimi is looking at the viewer and the viewer is looking at Mimi, creating a connection between the painting and the viewer.

So next time you paint a person or an animal face and you feel it is missing something or it doesn’t have character, try to make the eyes your focus point and see if you see if that make a difference in the end product.