Tutorial 20 – Rainbow Eyes

In this tutorial, you will create something like this:

STEP 1

You must find an adequate photo of eyes to work with. Make sure it is a large photo. Bring it into Paint.NET.

STEP 2

Create a new layer.

STEP 3

Choose the Paintbrush tool.

STEP 4

Choose one of your rainbow colours. I’ll start with red.

STEP 5

Size the paint brush tool adequately and create a circle like below. This might require a little trial and error.

STEP 6

Continue placing all colours of the rainbow around the eye like below.

OTHER OPTIONS FOR STEP 6

Here are other approaches to create this rainbow ring. Complete results can be seen at the bottom.

OPTION 6B

OPTION 6C

OPTION 6D

OPTION 6E

STEP 7

Apply a Gaussian Blur effect to create a rainbow ring (Effects > Blurs > Gaussian Blurs).

You will have to decide on the radius you want.

STEP 8

Set the blending mode for the top layer to Overlay.

(This is done in Layers > Layer Properties and then in the dropdown menu.)

STEP 9

We now need to remove any of the rainbow ring that is sticking out past the eye’s circle. In our example, this is the case at the top.

Zoom in and use the eraser to remove any excess colour.

NOTE: If the two eyes in the photo are different shapes, it might be wise to do steps 11 to 13 before doing steps 9 and 10.

STEP 10

You can try changing up the colours by using Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and then playing with the Hue setting.

STEP 11

We need to copy this rainbow circle so that we can apply it to the other eye as well.

Using the rectangular select tool, select the rainbow circle.

STEP 12

Copy the selection (CTRL-C) and paste it (CTRL-V).

You know this has happened as the selection rectangle is no longer blue inside.

STEP 13

You can now drag and drop your select. Do so like below.

STEP 14

We now want to mirror this selection so that it can be used for the other eye.

To do this, simply grab the top left anchor of the selection and drag it to the right past the right side of the selection. Try to size it the same as it was before.

Then slide it over the eye and resize again as needed.

ALL DONE!

RESULTS FOR OTHER OPTIONS IN 6

RESULT 6B Notice that this larger rainbow circle means that you have to precisely erase around the eye circle. You can notice that I didn’t do a perfect job where the orange section (bottom right) is located. Of course, you can just take your time!

RESULT 6C Pretty nice result here.

RESULT 6D I don’t mind the results here but again precise erasing is required. Also, I had to use a much lower blurring amount or the stripes all merged into one colour.

RESULT 6E Another cool result. Perhaps a radial gradient would also be neat here. If only I had unlimited time! J