Painting Eyes with Oil for Vibrant Portraits
A course by Alai Ganuza, Visual Artist, Painter, and Illustrator
Learn to make expressive brushstrokes with colorful oil paint to bring portraits to life
They say the eyes are the window to the soul, and it's certainly what we are most drawn to when we look at a face. For that reason, illustrator and artist Alai Ganuza emphasizes the eyes most when it comes to her portraits. In this online course, she teaches you a deeper understanding of facial features and skin tones to bring striking and original portraits to life.
Learn how to paint your own eyes by mastering an expressive use of your brushstrokes, then discover how to apply everything you've learned to the rest of the face, hair, and body. Create a vibrant and playful piece of art that reflects the most unique features of the person you're painting.
The aims of the course are:
⦁ Understand the anatomy of the face and apply it to your drawings
⦁ Learn how to use colors in an expressive way
⦁ Analyze skin tones to achieve striking results
⦁ Paint eyes that convey a singular essence
If you want to delve deeper into oil painting, you may be interested in Alai's first online course Contemporary Oil Painting Techniques, where you learn to transform everyday scenes into authentic works of art.
What will you learn in this online course?
20 lessons & 27 downloads
What's included in this course?
Begin the course by getting to know Alai Ganuza, who talks to you about her career in the world of painting and shows you her main sources of inspiration.
After going over the course materials, dive into the basics of anatomy and see how to recreate volume in painting. Learn how to read colors objectively and enhance them for a more powerful result.
Next, focus on portraying the eyes. Prepare the support for your work and choose a reference photo to sketch, putting into practice all you have previously learned about shapes and volume. Once it's ready, move on to painting: start with the pupil, followed by the outline, and finish with the eyelashes and eyebrows.
Your teacher then explains how to apply all the concepts you have learned to the other parts of the face, even the whole body. Continue filling out your portrait by painting the rest of the face, the hair, and the background.
Finally, discover how to photograph your painting to get more eye-catching results. Alai closes with some useful tips on creating your digital portfolio and sharing your art with the world.
- 100% positive reviews (105)
- 3,962 students
- 20 lessons (3h 51m)
- 27 additional resources (7 files)
- Online and at your own pace
- Available on the app
- Audio: Spanish, English, French, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish
- Spanish · English · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch · Turkish · Romanian · Indonesian
- Level: Beginner
- Unlimited access forever
What is this course's project?
Paint your own eyes using a photograph, making expressive use of color. Your teacher uses oil paint, but you can choose any other medium you feel comfortable with, from acrylic or gouache to digital.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
Anyone who wants to learn how to paint portraits as well as anyone who has painted before, but wants to give their pieces a creative twist using lots of color.
Requirements and materials
You don't need any previous painting experience to take this course, although some basic notions of Procreate will come in handy.
As for the materials, these are some of the most important:
- - Acrylics and oils
A paint palette
Brushes and palette knives
Wood and gesso
An iPad with Procreate or a smartphone
Reviews
Alai Ganuza
A course by Alai Ganuza
Although her feet were firmly on the path towards a career in sciences, Alai Ganuza decided to pursue her passion for painting and, in 2020, she earned a degree in fine arts with a major in painting from the Universidad del País Vasco. Her work seeks to pay tribute to everyday life with a unique use of light, color, and expressive brushstrokes.
Alai began sharing her projects on social media each day via Instagram Reels, IGTV, and YouTube, creating a growing demand for her content. It was through these channels that she found herself transitioning naturally to content creation with an informative approach showing how painting can be fast, fresh, and open to everyone.
Content
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U1
Introduction
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About Me
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Influences
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U2
Preparing Materials and Mindset
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Materials
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Understanding Anatomy
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Understanding Color 1
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Understanding Color 2
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U3
Portrait of the Eyes
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Understanding the Reference Photo
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Preparing and Drawing on the Support
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Painting the Eyes 1
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Painting the Eyes 2
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Painting the Skin 1
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Painting the Skin 2
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Painting the Final Details
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U4
Apply What You've Learned to the Face or Body
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Apply What You've Learned to Portraiture 1
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Apply What You've Learned to Portraiture 2
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Apply What You've Learned to Portraiture 3
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Apply What You've Learned to Portraiture 4
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Finish the Portrait
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U5
After Painting
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Cheerleader Effect and Point of Focus
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Create a Digital Portfolio
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FP
Final project
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Painting Eyes with Oil for Vibrant Portraits
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What to expect from a Domestika course
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Learn at your own pace
Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.
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Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
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Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
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Certificates
PlusIf you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.
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Get front-row seats
Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.
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Share knowledge and ideas
Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.
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Connect with a global creative community
The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.
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Watch professionally produced courses
Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.
FAQs
You’ll learn how to paint portraits focusing on realistic eyes, brushstroke and color blending techniques, surface preparation, volume modeling, and how to share and sell your art on social media.
This is an intermediate-level course, perfect for those who already have basic painting knowledge and want to refine their portrait, color, and pictorial modeling skills.
You’ll need oils, brushes, a palette, surfaces like MDF, gesso, sandpaper, a craft knife, mediums, acrylic markers, and cleaning supplies. Alternatives and recommendations are provided depending on the technique.
The course covers anatomical modeling, color mixing, brushstroke use, surface preparation, color theory, techniques for painting eyes and skin, creating a digital portfolio, and strategies for sharing art online.
Yes, the course offers tips on sharing your work on Instagram, building an online art community, and strategies for selling art and portraits.
Yes, there are exercises and reflections to help you discover and develop your own style in portrait and artistic painting.
You’ll learn specific techniques for painting realistic irises, depicting curves, mixing colors, and modeling volumes with brushstrokes, both in oil and digital mediums.
Excelente artista y profesora! Alai es metódica, original y clara. 10/10
Un curso espectacular y todo bien explicada, Excelente tutora y muy buena técnica y facil de seguir el paso a paso
Súper curso de pintura saliéndose de lo tradicional! Lo hice porque su paleta se acercaba a la mía y porque quería mejorar en mis retratos y estoy muy contenta. Alai es un profe genial, explica todo súper bien. He estudiado arte y me ha encantado refrescar algunas cosas y aprender otras nuevas. ¡Lo recomiendo un montón!
Jestem bardzo zadowolona z kursu. Prowadząca wszystko tłumaczy w bardzo dokładnie i w sposób bardzo zrozumiały dla osoby początkującej. Kupiłabym drugi kurs tej prowadzącej.
Me encantó el curso y las explicaciones de Alai Ganuza fueron perfectas y muy didácticas