Written by Though there are plenty of body parts one could choose for today’s prompt, some more salacious than others, my favorite will always be eyes. I don’t usually paint people, so this is likely as close as I’ll get again for quite some time. I painted my own eye last year, but this time, I painted a woman’s eye instead. Still, blue, as according to modern research, all people with blue eyes share a single, common ancestor, so I assume she and I must be related in some way. Before this little color mutation occurred everyone had brown eyes. Of course, this happened thousands of years ago, and I saw somewhere that the earliest known human to possess blue eyes was a 7,000 year old caveman who was found in Spain. Though it’s thought this historic event happened up to 10,000 years ago. Blue eyes are dominant in my family, so even though my father had brown eyes, I was destined to get my mother’s baby blues. Well, they were bluer when I was younger, and have faded a bit with age.
I think the reason I love eyes so much is that they are truly a window into someone’s personality. No matter what someone is saying, their eyes are always telling you something meaningful. If someone is lying, it’s rather obvious and typically impossible to hide. And if someone is telling you they love you it can almost feel redundant because in just a single look, you already knew. The ability for eyes to express such a myriad of emotions is staggering. And, of course, it’s the ability to see lines and shapes that make them an artist’s best friend. Each person’s eyes are remarkably unique, not simply in the way they look, but in the way they choose to see the world. This is why no matter what technique you’re using, or what artist you’re emulating, the work you create will always have a personality that only you could give it.
And so, I love this community we’ve formed where I get to be surrounded by so many other artists. It’s like having hundreds of extra pairs of eyes to help you see the world in ways you never noticed before. Ways that can surprise you and make you think about life differently. No matter how realistic, art doesn’t replicate life so much as it illuminates and enhances it. Each stroke of the brush is a choice made based on what the eye sees and what the heart deems worthy. I always have a very different vision in my head of how something will turn out. What appears on paper never completely matches that, but I love whatever shows up there. In my heart, I’m confident that it was precisely the thing that was supposed to have happened that day. It was just another lovely little dance with splashes of uncontrollable paint and the always unexpected vision of my favorite body part.
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About the DoodlewashDa Vinci Paint Co.: Quinacridone Red, Da Vinci Orange, Burnt Sienna Deep, Cobalt Blue, Cobalt Turquoise and Ultramarine Blue. Lamy Al-Star Safari Fountain Pen with sepia ink in an A5 Hahnemühle Watercolour Book. |
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Beautiful blue eye.
Thanks so much, June! 😃💕
I was a little scared of this subject.and what people think is their favorite body part. I consider the eye a facial feature and not a “body part” but you handled it well. lol Actually at my age I don’t have a favorite body part any longer so I declined to respond!
LOL… yeah, I think I was thinking more part of the body than actual appendage. That could get weird quick, although I saw a lot of hands being sketched. 😉hehe
Nice job Charlie!
Thanks so much, Tom! 😃💕
yes, the blue eye is beautiful My eyes are Hazel but my daughter has beautiful blue eyes too.
Thanks, Kaye! 😃💕 Aww lovely! Yeah, there’s a ton of blue-eyed people in my family. hehe
Wow! Good job Charlie.
Thanks so much, Jan! 😃💕
Lovely work Charlie! I love the work you do and the stories you tell to go with them. ❤️
Aww thanks, Yvonne! 😃💕 So happy you enjoy my stories as well!
Superb eye Charlie!!
Thanks so much, Margaret! 😃💕
Very nice! How big is the painting?
Thanks, Sharon! 😃💕 It’s a page in my A5 sketchbook, so 5.83 × 8.27″ – a little bigger than the ones I was making in July. Smaller takes less time!
Beautiful painting – my eyes are dark green, truly green, not a green mix – quite rare. The only part of me I like.
Thanks, Sharon! 😃💕 Your eyes sound perfectly lovely! That’s awesome! Pure green eyes are rare!
I like eyes as well and I love your take on them. Truely magical.
Thanks so much, Sandra! Glad you liked this! 😃💕
spectacular piece of art Charlie! Beautifully subtle use of color and the post that follows is so well written.
Thanks so much, Jennifer! 😃💕 And really appreciate the comment on the writing bit. Thanks for that!!
Gorgeous painting. If you ever become interested in painting people, I think you’d have a lot of success with it. One of my sons (also blue eyed) wrote an essay at school all about his favourite body part being his eyes. It was pretty cool.
Thanks so much, Laura! 😃💕 The problem with people is that when you put two eyes together, things can get crazy difficult to make them look good! Lol And that’s awesome about your son. I bet that was cool!
“Eye” enjoyed your post today, Charlie! 👁 Your painting is stunning! 👍 I liked what you said about how other people’s eyes help us to see the world in other ways. So true! 😍
Thanks, Jill… not just for the compliment but the awesome pun of course!! 😃💕 You make me smile!
This is beautiful, as is your little analogy about why you like blue eyes so much. You’re right, they are so incredibly expressive.
Thanks so much! 😃💕 I’m so happy you enjoyed this!
This blue eyes is beautiful! At first I thought it was your eye! Eyes are also my favorite part I always say that the eyes are the mirror of our soul and it is true I loved to read your post! Always great Charlie! 🙂
Thanks so much, Carolina! 😃💕 Hehe… yeah, I probably snuck a little of my own eye in there. They say artists are prone to do that! Glad you liked it!
Your painting is stunning, and now my brain is off and running wondering what it must have been like to be the only person on earth with blue eyes. (Was she revered? Reviled? Feared? There’s a story here somewhere.) <3