Moving the eyeball

Today I dealt with a problem highlighted by my electronic check. I had filled in the wrong outline on the eyeball, thinking a patch of shade was the edge of the eye, not the underpart of the lid. I had formed it in the wrong place.

This is the early stages, where I have painted over the bits that should not be eyeball coloured, and altered the upper lid. The shapes are all present, but they are present far too harshly, and need to be blended away and smoothed down so that they look like skin.

The good news is that the rest of the work I did supported the move beautifully, so that all I had to do was paint over and blend in a little, and the near cheekbone was suddenly in the right place. Interestingly, I painted the eye a little thin – and it looks just like me, narrowing my eye. Whoever would have guessed?

I have reached the point where most of what I do is now in half-day slots, and I am thinking about new projects. Moving the eyeball was about 4 hours of work, and I did a little on the hands as well, but from now on putting in details is likely to take up more time, and big areas of paint, less. I have the skin to complete, the background to paint, and a lot of things to finish. To be ready for the show in November I want to have several of my half-painted canvases or boards complete.