I like painting eyebrows on my reborn babies. I know many artists find eyebrows to be one of the hardest parts of creating a reborn baby and I totally know why. Eyebrows form and finish the look of a face. It’s important to make them look right for the whole face to look right. Eyebrows also have to look great in promotional pictures.
I was 11 when eyebrows first took my attention, I used to draw them very often. The first thing I would notice on somebody’s portrait would be eyebrows (in a couple of years it would be noses that I’d notice first ;-)). So I can tell that not only reborn artists have problems with drawing them correctly.
I absolutely love the Secrist tutorial on how to draw eyebrows, especially the 3D one. The Genesis thick medium extender does a great job adding texture and volume. (I think for young babies drawing is the only option to create eyebrows, rooted ones look too vicious.) I will be a bit brave now when I will say that there is one mistake in the Secrist way of drawing eyebrows. On their images the eyebrows look too even. Little brush or pencil strokes go one after another, covering the eyebrow area; they seem to have same colour and same intensity. Real eyebrows never look even.
Those are the pictures of toddlers and young children, not baby ones, but they show the shape much clearer. As you can see, most eyebrows start in shadow at the nasal bone, where they are almost invisible and very rare and thin. Then the hair starts thicker, and they form the familiar shape of an eyebrow. Closer to the temples, the eyebrows are surrounded by thick but rare hair that form an arrow shape. Sorry for being too literal.
This is my latest Nicolette. Her right eyebrow, to be correct. (Please don’t take the eyelashes close to heart, on this photo they have just been rooted, I didn’t trim and cut them yet.)
Round and oval shapes show areas where hair is “almost invisible”, which means they are rare (temple) or very short (nasal bone).
I usually start drawing eyebrows from painting the most visible hair, above the inside corner of the eye, doing quite long strokes which go along the eyebrow shape.
Those long strokes get together on the eyebrow.
Then I continue painting strokes, adding few little ones on top, closer to the temples.
After that I use tiny short strokes to draw the part of the eyebrow closest to the nose.
I suggest practicing on paper first, repeating the eyebrow shape over and over. That’s how I used to do anyway. It will give your hand a good idea about the eyebrow shape. I guarantee you good results with your babies’ eyebrows in a while after repeating this drawing exercise ;-)
Thanks for your tips and information. For me eyebrows are the worse part to do, I will try to do as you say. Nice blog and nice pictures!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your lovely comment, It's great you found this tutorial useful, I tried to be clear in this tutorial but if you have any questions please feel free to ask :-)
DeleteHello again, thanks for your answer, I have one question about the eyebrow's color. Which one do you use?? I want to paint with the secrist pencil but the thing is that almost all eyebrow's colors turn orange. Which color is the best? Thanks very much!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your question; it's a pleasure to answer. I use different colours, both pencils and paint (depends on the baby’s complexion and hair colour), and I agree, most of the brownish pencil colours start to look a bit orange on you baby. I think it’s because of the contact with the vinyl. I can suggest applying some kind of heat set texture medium first, before you draw the eyebrows, so it creates a barrier between your pencil and the vinyl. Say, you add skin texture to your baby before you draw the eyebrows. It will actually make it easier to use pencil, since the surface will no longer be that smooth. I hope it helps. Please feel free to ask more questions. Hugs Anna :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Anna I found this sooo helpful, as my babies eyebrows were turning orange, now with using the 3D Medium first to draw the eyebrows then heatset it, then apply my pencil or paint....hey presto, no orangey eyebrows, thanks for such a clear, precise and very easy to follow tutorial, Hugs Rosie xxx
ReplyDeleteThank you for your compliment Rosie :-) Those are bits of knowledge here and there that do the trick. By the way same things apply for the skintone and blushing - if not enough underskin layers are applied, any blushing will get orangy eventually, if nots straight away. Make sure u add tiny bit of blue to your paint mix to minimise it ;-)
Deletewhat brush do u use to get thin enough lines?
ReplyDeleteHi Serena, I use 5/0 sable brush, I also used to use nail art brushes. Those are cheap and do great job drawing thin lines :-)
DeleteThis is the most amazing brow tutorial I've ever seen. Thank you very much, now it all makes sense!
ReplyDeleteAww Jagoda, im really glad it helped you. Make sure you enjoy the process, then it will be even easier ;-)
DeleteHi I would like to know how to get the orang colour out of the eyebrows I made I used heats set paint and backed it after now they are very mustery yellow o please help me.
ReplyDeleteAmazing, Anna! Thank you so much for this nice tip :)
ReplyDeletemuito obrigada foi uma ótima ajuda,
ReplyDelete