Cover It - Some Basics for Cover Design

The Eyes Have It - Changing Eye Color

If you specialize in fantasy and/or paranormal covers then you know elements like magic or paranormal abilities will of course pop up in character design. You'll find witches, vampires, fairies, werewolves, and whatever else an author can imagine. There are times when these characters need a set of mystical, glowing eyes. 

Much like coloring hair, it's sometimes difficult to get them to look realistic. And by realistic I mean as if it's their natural eye color and not a painted layer you slapped over their eyes. 

There are designers who use a painting technique, it's takes time to perfect and understand how to do it without it looking ridiculous. It takes time and work, as do most things. The easiest way to color eyes if you are still learning to paint those eyeballs, is to find an overlay file of some sort. 

Let's take a look at things

I saw a designer turn in a graphic that looked like this for a contest. 

1) the coloring doesn't even cover the entire eye

2) while a person can be born with two different color eyes (Heterochromia), I have never met anyone who's eye is distinctly half one color and half another. Though if you're deal with a paranormal element I guess anything is possible, but let's at least make an attempt at making it appear natural

You can either do a Google search for eye overlays or check DeviantArt. It makes it easy to change eye color if you aren't practiced at it. I have a PSD file for eyes, though I can do paint (I've been practicing!) there are times when you need more than a simply color change. You'll notice in the image below the file also has dragon's eyes and cat's eyes, which have come in handy on several occasions.

You can mess with these files to get the desired look. Mess with hue and saturation, color balance and the blending mode to make your eyes as natural as you can.