Eyebrows: Painting and Penciling Techniques

There are a few tutorials, but I also know that you can buy eyebrow 'decals', of sorts, from http://www.artistique.us/

... at this rate, maybe I should charge them for advertising so much >P

 

When I did my boy's facup, I took a pic of his face and took it into photoshop and drew a couple of different sets of eyebrows on to see what kind of a look I wanted.

Other than that... just a really, really fine brush....

 

I cheated a bit when I did my boy's eyebrows. I put a small piece of masking tape over where I wanted the eyebrow and tried drawing a few different styles using a sharpie. Once I got the shape I wanted, I peeled the tape off (I wouldn't recommend really pressing it on!) and cut out the shape using an exacto knife, effectively making my own stencil. Then it was just a matter of putting the tape back in place and drawing in his brows with a colored pencil. This way I couldn't accidentally get them bigger than I wanted or really screw up the shape. When I did the other side, I just flipped the tape over and stuck it in place with a few more pieces of tape. Now not only do his brows match fairly well, I think they look pretty good, too!

Hope this helped!

~Ann

 

Thanks, guys! There was no way I was going to try to free-hand my Raziel's eyebrows and this seemed like a good idea- I'm glad I could help!

I thought of something else that might help that's more of a make-up for people tip than for dolls, but I used it for my boy the same way.

If you have a hard time placing or shaping the brow, get something straight, a toothpick works well since it's smaller,and go straight up from the widest spot on the nose; that's where the eyebrow should begin. If you make a line from the outer tip of the nostril to the corner of the eye, that gives you a line to follow for how long the eyebrow should usually be. (I think you might have to modify that part for some face sculpts- for my Elf El I used from the corner of his mouth to the corner of his eye to get my line.) Then for the arch of the eyebrow, use the line from the nose to the center of the pupil for where the eyebrow should be highest. As far as how high the brow should be, an easy place to start is about one eye above the actual eye.

And now I think I'm all tapped out of eyebrow knowledge, so I'll shut-up before this gets longer! Hopefully it will quit raining here someday, and I can take some real pictures of Raziel to post so you can all see how his came out.

~Ann :grin:

 

Hello all ^_^

I have searched and found various topics on this but none of them seemed to help.

I wanted to know that when blushing/shading around the eyes if its best to do it in layers?

Do you do a light colour then spray and then use a darker colour closer to the eye socket, spray and so on? Or is it best to do it all in one.?

And whats the best think to apply chalk pastels with to give a really even finish - in all the posts i read i saw various suggestions but i would like to know your honest opinions
Ive seen sponges, makeup brushes, cotton swabs, fingers, fingers in gloves XD etc

Another question - on a personal note - do you prefer to blush first or last? I heard that shading around the eyes, the eyebrow location spots and the lips is best to do first and then applying the tiny details with acrylics and watercolour pencils - i guess its personal preference.....I have a real problem with keeping eyebrows even so i think maybe shadowlines and basic penciled in shapes will make it easier.

And now my last question - concerning eyebrows. I know some people use templates for eyebrows but do you have any tips for keeping eyebrows even? Thishas to be the hardest thing for me >_<

thanks for helpin advance

 

there is a link to my eyebrow templates in my sig. :3


I blush in layers only when I want the eyeshadow to be very dark... I just use whatever chalks were at the art store. I think they were $4? I use q-tips and make-up brushes to apply them.

 

I usually blush around the eyes first. I used a soft paintbrush to apply chalk pastels; basically a smaller version of a makeup brush. I used to put down the blush, then spray, then put down eyebrows/lips, but I felt that was too many layers of coating. Now I blush, do eyebrows & lips, and spray once.

To keep the eyebrows even, I usually start in the middle and work outward on both. I also use a pencil to eye where they'll lay, and put the eyebrows across the "bone" above the eye.

 

i can't seem to get the shading even either...but then again i'm doing it on a DoD face... with a q-tip (all the brushes are wet atm)... and they won't go on evenly T.T

aside from that.. or rather; funnily enough, i haven't had a problem with eyebrows... i believe the trick is to find the middle of the nose (up around the bridge) and dot the exact middle to halve the face... then use pencil to make three dot points from the start of the brow, the middle (arched part) of the brow then the end ...and join the dots! .. of course i learnt this in a girl's magazine when doing make up on my own eyes... but um... i never got the hang of dots and was more eve just doing them straight out...

another trick i learn is to tip the face upside down and draw them like that... you can get a better working angle because you are more rather copying than trying to "re draw" (as you would if the brow was face up)

..ANOTHER thing i learnt was that you should do the brow on the left first..because its easier to recreate on your right (this of course is best if you are right handed...) your eye and vision have something to do with it... but anyway..that's what's worked with me.


The only ones i actually do are the latter two.. because i'm not special enough to do all three XD

 

*snicker* I was wondering if I was odd for holding the face upside down when doing eyebrows XD I guess I'm not the only one then.

I prefer to blush first. I think it's easier to work the face into looking more natural and then imagine I'm just doing make-up on a very small face X3 Without blushing, I would just be at loss of what colors I should use and so on. Depends on what you wanna do of course, but I'm usually headed for pretty natural looks.

I have no smart way of doing eyebrows. I don't use patterns though, I kind of don't trust them. I just draw both of them at the same time, little by little, and compare, take snapshots and look at the head through mirror ( though if the head is unsymmetrical, you might just get more confused XD ).

Also, I always have the eyes in when I'm doing face-up ( probaply not a good idea if you use something like... airbrush... ) >_>;; Again, helps me get an idea on what I'm doing.

 

I thought I was the only one who does eyebrows upside down...

Also, I do my eyebrows first then seal it...since they are the hardest to do. When I keep messing up (and I do) I don't have to keep erasing everything I did.
I save the blush for last as it's the easiest to do.

Steph

 

I assumed everyone did brows upside down. ops: Well, at least everyone whose brows look halfway decent. Unless you're ambidextrous I don't see how else to get the brush angle right for good lines.

I do the brows first because I think they're the easiest to screw up, and if I have to wipe and start again I'd rather do it in the beginning stages. I place a few dots with pencil to mark the edges and angle points, connect them, fade the pencil a bit with a kneadable eraser, and then go over it with paint and then a little pastel to make the lines softer. I don't worry that much about perfect symmetry... None of the real people I know have perfectly symmetrical brows, after all. As long as the brows seem in harmony with the overall face shape, I think it's okay.

The best thing I have for getting pastel powder even is a small pastel brush. The name alone should be a pretty good clue that this brush was designed specifically to give excellent results when applying and blending pastels. It's a dense round brush that's cut to have a perfectly flat round tip. Dip it in the powder, knock the brush to shake off the excess, and scrub away for great even coverage.

I only do two layers of MSC, at the very beginning and end. If I make a mistake... well, I'm simply not allowed to make mistakes! ops:

 

my mom has this make-up called bareminerals.. all of it is a powder, blush, foundation, eye and lip color... so I've been useing that on me and my mom to practice face-up.
the brushes and the concept is pretty simualer :grin: basically I follow this order , foundation first, then countouring/cheek blush, eye liner, eye color, eyebrows, eye lashes, lips, then more contouring if it's needed.
always work from the lightest colors to the darker colors. because you can always go darker, btu it's alot harder to go lighter.
and I guess work on the big things first before doing detail.

there's my two cents for what it's worth

 

I want to redo my Lishe's eyebrows but I don't want to mess them up. I was thinking of drawing them on with a regular writing pencil. Does anyone know if that would stain or mess up the resin? If tha'ts not a good idea, what should i do before applying the paint?

 

I would imagine if you coat the face first MSC or testors to protect the resin, and lighly draw them it, it should be ok.

 

Wow, maybe I can actually help someone!

Regular pencils are made out of lead, of course, which makes them hard to remove. Maybe you should try a graphite pencil, sold in craft and art stores. I haven't used them on resin but I do use them while customizing the faces of action figures. Of course those dolls are make of some kind of rubber but I think it would work on resin as well.

The lead is very soft and not perminate. On rubber it just wipes off with your finger but on resin I'd use a qtip with a little water. Also if you get a line you like it's easy to paint over and doesn't show. It doesn't take a lot of pressure to make a line. I draw outlines for the eyes, eyebrows and lips and just paint over it.

Hope this helps.

 

Pencil 'lead' is graphite. Plus more (harder) or less (softer) clay.


I agree with the light strokes approach, but I've never had any trouble removing the pencilled in eyebrows I put on my gang before I got around to actually giving them face-ups. I don't mind bare resin, but eyebrows just improve everybody's looks & presence.

Ann in CT

 

Actually, what I would suggest is watercolor pencil. It's easy to erase (you just use water) and it blends really well. I know when I'm patching up Yue's eyebrow I use watercolor pencil and you can never tell it's a patchwork. ^^

 

Try removing the lines with a volks cleaning sponge in a little water... that seems to work fine. :3 Or a Mr Clean sponge... they're the same thing. There's also a link in my sig on how to make and use eyebrow templates if that helps you!

 

There are a lot of things I'm not good at when doing faceups -- eyebrows are by far the biggest problem area.

From symmetry to keeping the lines fine and soft, keeping the color light, it's all not working for me. Not to mention the impossibility of getting acrylic off once it's dried... I scrubbed so hard with the paint thinner that two layers of Testors came off as well! ><;;

If anybody's got eyebrow painting tips, please share them! ;O;

 

I do mine in water color pencil. n.n; Sometimes just to plan out the shape and sometimes to do the whole eyebrow. After I do the right eyebrow, I turn the head upside down and do the other eyebrow... that seems to come out more even. If you screw up you can just take a Mr Clean sponge and rub it off. :3 there's always the eyebrow templates in my sig too.

 

I agree with batchix. I do it with watercolor pencils too... It's easier to work with, but just have to be very careful because when either using the sponge or the water and get the doll surface wet and the MSC off, the pencil will have a harder time "sticking" onto the doll. >_< PAAAIIIN!

 

I was wondering..do you have to use watercolor pencils, or are normal colored pencils okay, too? Or do normal ones stain?

 

I use prismacolor normal pencils, and I've never had a doll stain yet.

 

So ya'll just draw the eyebrows right on with the pencil? I know that Leechy paints her eyebrows on by wetting the watercolor pencil lead with a brush.

 

Leechy doesn't use acrylics, I do. I use the pencils to sketch a guideline only, and the rest is with a small brush and acrylic paint.

 

I paint my eyebrows on with acrylics, and it usually takes me three or four tries to get them right on any head. ^^;; I pencil the shape I want with a white Prismacolor pencil, and then use a 0000 size brush for the super fine hairs.

To remove the paint? Mr. Clean Magic Sponge is a miracle. It won't take off coating unless you scrub, and acrylic paints don't stand a chance against it.

With the hairs, it helps to thin the paint down to ALMOST but not quite the consistency of water, I've found.

 

I do mine with watercolour pencil and no water, just draw right on the doll. I like the way the pencils go onto the resin, they seem more feathery to me, and it's easy to control the lines and wipe them away if you don't like the effect.

I'm personally really wary of ever advocating regular pencils because of the wax binder... I've had problems removing pencilcrayons from other surfaces before and having the colour come away but the binder stay behind. You can get good watercolour pencils for pretty cheap if you look around.

Ignoring the eyelashes I'm not sure I'm happy with, here's Kuro's new brows, done with black and purple watercolour pencils.

 

My Lishe came with arched eyebrows instead of the 'angry' type ones', & i really want the angry type. I have never attempted any faceup work on an SD, altho i have done some light customizing on other dolls (Blythe mainly). I don't wish to change her faceup at all, except for the eyebrows. I'm sure she's been sealed with something, so do i need to remove that before i attempt to give her new eyebrows, or should i just 'add over' what she has & then clean up the shape by lightly sanding (is that ok?) OR is this something better left to someone who is skilled?
Thanks for any help! :wink:

 

Sanding would be a bad idea. I don't really know how to do what you're asking about, but I do know that you shouldn't sand unless A)there is no other alternative to getting off a stain, or B)You want to change something about the doll(ex. widening eyes, flattening cheaks, ect...).

 

If you have a mr Clean sponge you can scrub at the offending eyebrows and get them off. However, sometimes it will leave a distinct line where the coating has been rubbed away. :3

 

Thanks!! I do have those-actually, i think i can work off some of the existing eyebrow, but instead of leaving the part curving around the eye, i'll need to draw it up at an angle. If this goes to hell, i'll be posting in the section for wanting a customizer-LOL ops:

 

Dunno if this is a silly question to ask...but has anyone tried to use a "template" to draw eyebrows so to make them look parallel?

 

Batchix made a whole slew of free eyebrow templates a while ago and I usually make mine own when I'm doing face-ups. I find it helpful in positioning the eyebrows straight.

 

Those templates are great. Here is the link.
http://www.g36.net/ocdesigns/eyebrows/eyebrows.html

I hope this is ok, if not I'll take it down

 

I love the templates. I use them all the time.

 

She's linked them from her siggy, too, so I doubt she'd be upset. But if you're really worried about it, PM her and ask.

 

No it's fine~ link away. :3 Just don't hot link the gifs is all I ask. Glad they're useful to people!

 

Thank you for the official permission. I am never quite sure of others internet ettiquette.

 

Thx so much! That's really helpful!

 

I just finished my first face up, and although I'm not entirely pleased with the result, for a first try it'll do. I was having some difficulty in painting eyebrows and eyelashes however. I used an 18/0 Liner (for the life of me, no store in this city carries a 20/0 Liner). Not sure if it's because this is still too thick a brush, or if I'm just not used to working with such a far away point, but I found it rather difficult to get neat, thin lines. I'm using Folkart acrylics with Liquitex slow-dri blending medium.

Although, I am thinking about using a few watercolour pencils in my next attempt. Has this worked out for people also? I'd like to get that light, feathery look. A prime example can be seen in the Face-up tutorial sticky.

 

you could try a lash from human fake lashes, the thick kind...it's thin and springy..just a random suggestion ^-^

 

Keikai was a mix of paint and watercolor pencils... keep your pencil sharp and you should be able to do a very good job =)

 

I agree. I was able to get a pretty good feathery effect from just using very sharp watercolor pencils.

Good luck~!! ^^;;

 

I do my water color pencils first, before MSC or anything. It goes on real smooth that way. Then after the MSC layer, I take a flat chisel shaped brush and brush pastel in a slightly darker(or lighter for blondes, which I have none) color over the eyebrows. :3

Result looks like this:
http://g36.net/ocdesigns/photos/ghaleon/may06_02.jpg

 

I can't imagine using anything but watercolour pencils for eyebrows - I just don't have the sort of small control necessary for brushwork. ^^; (The last faceup I did, in fact, was nothing but pencils and pastels, and I was a lot happier with the way it turned out - but that's just me).

I have 'real' lashes on the top lid, but this time I did paint his lower lashes. I dampened the tip of a watercolour pencil, and rolled it along the edge of the opening for eyeliner - then stroked very gently down from there for the lashes. It looks much heavier in photographs than it really is, and I don't have any at the moment that show off the true effect very well - but I should be taking some in better light tomorrow, and I'll try to get a couple them.

 

I actually butchered a 18/0 brush at first, I cut about half the hairs off. XD
Since then I've invested in several 100/0 Artetje brushes. They are insane. @_@ Stores around here don't carry anything smaller either. I bought a bunch of 30/0 from dickblick.com too, if you look around at online art stores (or even ebay!) you can find the brushes you need.

If you have your paint thinned down just right and do tiny, quick strokes. It takes a LOT of practise.
I used to do watercolor pencils..but I prefer the look of paints. =x

 

You can also draw the brows in with a watercolor pencil, and soften with a dry q-tip. If you do want to try and paint them on, you can get some cheap small brushes and cut away the bristles until there's only a couple left, voila instant tiny brush. ^^

I would reccommend you try using some artist quality acrylics in the future, as they have much stronger pigments and don't get streaky and lumpy like the craft type. I'm particularly fond of Golden liquid acrylics that come in small bottles, but you can find "student" acrylics by Liquitex (called "basics" I think) that are cheap and still better than craft grade.

 

I use a Zoukeimura size 001 brush that I bought when I bought my doll from Volks. I LOVE it, but there are certainly better alternatives than paying insane shipping for a few brushes (since I bought a doll, the shipping was the same, they just stuck the brush into the doll box).

About the Liquitex Slow-Dri Blending Medium... Is that a gel? I've never used it before, but for some reason I seem to think its a gel. Anyways, I use Liquitex Slow-Dri Fluid Retarder, which is thinner than water and thins down acrylics really well. As for actual acrylics, I use Liquitex Heavy Body (Heavy Body only because I use them for art mainly, not because Heavy Body is especially good for faceups) acrylics and DeSerres Extra Fine Acrylic Colour. I get both at Loomis (which you have in Ottawa as well, I believe?), and they're always on sale, it seems.

(wow that was long.)

 

personally for painting brows I perfer sketching very lightly in water colour pencil, then paint in the base colour for the brows in thinned paint. Then the usual layer the paint stuff.

If you are using a good sable brush I don't really see much need to get even smaller. I use a 2/0 brush and it served me really well. (least I don't have to keep reloadig the brush)
Before I got that I had to use a size 4 giant to do it, it can get lines as thin, just that I got some finger cramps after that XD

As for the blending medium, I think I have a bottle of that at home, its kind of thick, like the gloss medium right? I find it HARDER to use the medium to get fine line compared to watering down with water. It might just be my personal preference though. I am not too sure if the acrylic you are using would work well by thinning it alot, I am using liquitex high viscosity (Or heavy body on some packaging)

You might want to try getting the mediums the others are using if the paint start to break apart and not adhere well.

 

I need help. I read every thread here on eyebrows.... I've tried every tutorial tip I can find.... And still I can't get eyebrows right. I need serious help, and anyone who can enlighten me will be rewarded with all the cookies they can carry!!

I prefer to use acrylic paint for durability and clarity. I use plenty of medium to keep my layers transparent, and fluid retarder to keep it wet for blending. I use the tiniest brush I have, and plan the shape before I start. Still no luck. Here are my last three tries on my boy:






I really want to keep the rest of this faceup, and I like the shape/placement of the brows... But they're just too heavy for his face. How can I make them more delicate and.... well, eyebrow-like?!

Please help

 

Aww the last ones arn't too bad. Have you ever thought about using a template?
There's some here http://www.g36.net/ocdesigns/eyebrows/eyebrows.html
I have used these before and thy work really well
Hope this helps (cuz' I like cookies!)

 

I would try watercolor pencils. Acrylics do tend to be a little heavy sometimes. ^^;; But if you REALLY want to do acrylics, water it down some. Or you can try watercolors. ^_^

 

I've tried watercolor pencils on him before... My problem with them is that they take too much of the texture of the coating, and there's no way for me to get that ashy blond color he needs with my limited palette. My acrylics are already thinned almost beyond having color.... And it's still just too thick and heavy on his face. I need it to look hair-like... But somehow, that's just beyond me

 

I have to say, I agree with watercolour pencils.if you sharpen them to a really sharp point, you can get lovely fine lines, and they don't take off any coating either...( maybe just buy a few odd pencils that are a lighter colour that you need).

You can also then use a very fine brush to paint in hairs with wet pastels afterwards.

 

I thought the eyebrows were pretty alright, although too thick for my taste.^^;;

what's the tiniest brush size you have anyway?

 

hmm... the top layer of the eyebrows, the white, seems to be the kind of fine fluffy look that you're going for, it's just the solid blonde underneath that looks heavy.

Since you mentioned you thin them down until they almost have no colour... I'm guessing you're doing multiple layers?
I'd suggest going the opposite way... just thin them a tiny bit so that the paint flows well, and do the blonde in one layer only so that you don't lose your brush strokes... then add the white highlights when you're finished.

I also second the pencils, hit up an art store and you can get a couple shades of blonde and test them there for colour. I use a blonde about the colour you have there in your paint, with a darker neutral brown for shadows, and white acrylic for highlights.

 

Thanks for all the advice, guys ^^ I'm going to try a combination.... I love the stencil idea, and that saves the rest of his face, and I'll check out the school store (I go to MICA) for more pencils tomorrow morning to give it another go ^^ I'll let you know how it goes!

 

THANK YOU EVERYBODY!