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Step 7Another method for doing Irises
While I was pleased with the appearance of the irises I had painted, I was still wanting a little more realism. After some serious brain racking I figured out a way to get what I wanted. I've not seen this method used before so as far as I know I came up with it. I'm sharing/publishing my method here so that others who wish to make their own eyeball art can use it as well.
After spending much time looking at extreme closeup pictures of eyes, I realized that one of the reasons fake or artificial eyes end up looking kinda flat is because real eyes aren't. There are myriad little imperfections cords and striations that make up the iris.
What to do:
-take your unwaxed white dental floss and, using your scissors cut small pieces which are a tiny bit longer than the distance from the center of your iris indentation to the outside of your iris. Its a good idea to cut way more than you think you'll need since you have to apply them while the paint is wet and spending the time cutting more may allow your paint to dry, causing you to have to apply another layer of paint and possibly messing up a decent looking color foundation.
-Figure out what color you want your eyes to be and mix a base color that is slightly different than what you want. I figured out that a fairly darker shade seems to work pretty well.
-Now mix a shade that is only slightly darker than what you want. Mix more than you will need since you don't want to run out and end up needing to match a shade, its a pain.
-Apply this shade liberally, especially in the little pupil well. Leave a tiny bit of the darkest color showing through. Add some around the outside of the pupil.
-Now, I carefully placed the end of the unwaxed dental floss pieces into the edge of the pupil well and flexed the fibers outwards and using the end of the paint brush I sharpened and a wooden match stick I pressed the fibers into the wet paint at the outer rim. I then spread the outside edge of the fibers leaving some irregularities and making pits through to the base color.
-The floss is kind of shiny so I mixed a wash of white and another of a light shade of the color of the eye. To make a wash you start with a small amount of paint and some water in a section of your paper plate or palette, whatever you are using. Basically its like making paint the consistency of strong tea, hot chocolate or strong coffee. Then I just lightly touched the end of my brush to the fibers in the iris. Surface tension does the rest causing the fibers to loose their shine.
-Now is a good time to use the trimmed down brush, the one with 8 or 10 bristles to add a few color highlights. It will fit between strands of floss and can really add additional realism.
-If you can find an 18 millimeter hole "drill" for foam board it will make the next portion easier, if not just use the exacto. Carefully cut any fibers which extend past the edge of the iris avoiding fingers and avoiding making deep gouges in the plastic of the eye. A foam board "drill" is just a piece of sharpened metal tube which will cut all of the fibers at once.
-Once your paint is dry taking the 400 grit or higher sand paper sand the small stray brush strokes off the surface of the eye which should be white.
-The last item in this step is the pupil. You will want a paint or nail polish which dries to a matte or flat finish. If you don't have this you will need to carefully scrape the surface of the pupil to remove the shine. The pupil in a real eye is a hole and doesn't reflect light, therefore the pupil in our eye should come as close to this as possible.
After spending much time looking at extreme closeup pictures of eyes, I realized that one of the reasons fake or artificial eyes end up looking kinda flat is because real eyes aren't. There are myriad little imperfections cords and striations that make up the iris.
What to do:
-take your unwaxed white dental floss and, using your scissors cut small pieces which are a tiny bit longer than the distance from the center of your iris indentation to the outside of your iris. Its a good idea to cut way more than you think you'll need since you have to apply them while the paint is wet and spending the time cutting more may allow your paint to dry, causing you to have to apply another layer of paint and possibly messing up a decent looking color foundation.
-Figure out what color you want your eyes to be and mix a base color that is slightly different than what you want. I figured out that a fairly darker shade seems to work pretty well.
-Now mix a shade that is only slightly darker than what you want. Mix more than you will need since you don't want to run out and end up needing to match a shade, its a pain.
-Apply this shade liberally, especially in the little pupil well. Leave a tiny bit of the darkest color showing through. Add some around the outside of the pupil.
-Now, I carefully placed the end of the unwaxed dental floss pieces into the edge of the pupil well and flexed the fibers outwards and using the end of the paint brush I sharpened and a wooden match stick I pressed the fibers into the wet paint at the outer rim. I then spread the outside edge of the fibers leaving some irregularities and making pits through to the base color.
-The floss is kind of shiny so I mixed a wash of white and another of a light shade of the color of the eye. To make a wash you start with a small amount of paint and some water in a section of your paper plate or palette, whatever you are using. Basically its like making paint the consistency of strong tea, hot chocolate or strong coffee. Then I just lightly touched the end of my brush to the fibers in the iris. Surface tension does the rest causing the fibers to loose their shine.
-Now is a good time to use the trimmed down brush, the one with 8 or 10 bristles to add a few color highlights. It will fit between strands of floss and can really add additional realism.
-If you can find an 18 millimeter hole "drill" for foam board it will make the next portion easier, if not just use the exacto. Carefully cut any fibers which extend past the edge of the iris avoiding fingers and avoiding making deep gouges in the plastic of the eye. A foam board "drill" is just a piece of sharpened metal tube which will cut all of the fibers at once.
-Once your paint is dry taking the 400 grit or higher sand paper sand the small stray brush strokes off the surface of the eye which should be white.
-The last item in this step is the pupil. You will want a paint or nail polish which dries to a matte or flat finish. If you don't have this you will need to carefully scrape the surface of the pupil to remove the shine. The pupil in a real eye is a hole and doesn't reflect light, therefore the pupil in our eye should come as close to this as possible.
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