How to draw a realistic eye

Joe McMenamin is a painter and printmaker and the flowing organic patterns that ripple through his works have won him a following throughout New Zealand. Joe has a bachelor of media arts from the Waikato Institute of Technology. He teaches Art part time at Naenae College in Lower Hutt, Wellington. Joe loves teaching Art, and gets lots of the ideas for his work through interactions with his classes. His students also experience first-hand the different processes involved in his prints, drawings and paintings.
In Joe’s latest series of nautical themed screen prints his detailed drawings are screen printed as a ship and anchor or a deep sea diver. Joe then carefully drops coloured powdered dye pigment in the midst of the image, and the colours splash across the print, making each one bright, exquisite and unique. He finishes the print with some hand drawn pattern to represent the water.
Joe’s recent paintings depict a range of subjects painted directly onto the medium of plywood - it is a natural medium that attracts him and he makes the frames for each piece by hand. He is interested in New Zealand native birds. Joe skilfully paints these birds directly onto the plywood, which gives them a raw quality and showcases his photorealistic painting technique. He often applies a layer of Danish oil overtop, which brings out the grain of the wood and the jewel-like paint colours.
At the end of 2015 Joe resealed the NZ Native Birds adult colouring book. It was a great success with the first edition of 500 books selling out in 2 weeks. The second edition is available in the shop. He has a number of exciting projects happening this year, including video drawing and painting courses on Udemy, a mural, the Christchurch Art show and many more.