A quick tutorial on making eyes

[claymore61]

I don't know if this is the right section but I'm sure I'll find out.

I found it difficult to find eyes for sculptures so decided to make my own.
After a bit of trial and error , I derived this wee system.

Stage 1 - print the iris section

I used some high res images from the Internet for the subjects. You could photograph your own eye if you wanted accuracy.

Print them onto a sheet of high gloss photo paper or plastic coated printer paper.

I use photoshop to space them on a sheet and set up for punching out later

 

[claymore61]

Stage 2 - print and punch
After printing and spraying with some high gloss spray to seal them ( both sides) you punch them out.
The punch I use is a 12mm hobby punch, bought from Hobbycraft for about £4

If you put line up marks, you can get it pretty tight to the edge of the iris area. A wee bit of edge white doesn't really matter unless you making alien eyes or eyes that won't end up white at the back.

Once they're punched your ready to move on to the casting part.

 

[claymore61]

The punched out Iris's

 

[claymore61]

Stage 3- The casting

The moulds I've used - the purple one was bought from Hobbycraft for about £10, and has various sizes of domes.
The white plastic one is an artists mixing palette which has 10 recesses at 30mm diameter, but they are only about 6mm deep - it costs about £2.
The silicon mould I made myself . It has 2 pairs of eyes - one at 25mm and one at 30mm.

Any of the moulds could be used, depending on what your needs are.

Mix up your "water clear " resin and get ready to pour

 

[claymore61]

Stage 3- The casting continued

Fill your mould recesses with the clear resin till about 2mm from the top.

A wee tip - the farther back you place the iris in the cast, the bigger it will appear.
Putting it near the back also has the added effect of "follow me " eyes, when set into the sculpture.

 

[claymore61]

Stage 3- The casting

Once the resin is setting to a jelly state, pick up the punched print and set it onto the centre, face down.

Give it a wee push, to make sure you remove the air from underneath. Leaving it for another few minutes "glues" it to the surface.

If you get some very fine red satin , you can peel short very fine fibrous strands and set them into for veins

You then mix up your background colour - obviously white for humans

 

[claymore61]

Stage 3- The casting continued

Pour the background colour over the mould until it reaches the top.

I use a polyester sheeting such as Melinex to cover the mould, and weight it down with a flat piece of board. This keeps the air out and makes the back of the eye nice and flat. Melinex won't stick to the resin once its cured - it just peels off leaving a shiny surface.

 

[claymore61]

The filled mould, just before covering up

 

[claymore61]

Last stage - pop 'em out.!

Voila !!!! A couple of pairs of eyes for very little cash.

The two pairs shown are 25mm and 30mm, but the irises are both 12mm

 

[claymore61]

Close up of the 25mm pair

Popping them out you would normally dress off any over mould or flashing.


Enjoy yourself - a freeby from Claymore !

 

[Cadeus]

THAT is just awesome. I am planning on sculpting a 1/3 scale Christopher Reeve figure, from SOMEWHERE IN TIME, for my mother's Christmas gift this year... I will absolutely use that technique! Thank-you for sharing!

 

[claymore61]

No problem, happy to share.
I see so much good stuff and ideas on here , I thought it only right.

I found it difficult and expensive to buy decent eyes here ( UK - Scotland) that I had to try something. My engineering background came in useful

It probably cost me dearer than a pair of eyes but now I know how to p it, it costs less than a £1 to make a couple of pairs.

The fun part is, yo can make your actual own eyes if you can get a sharp, clear close up photo of your iris.

 

[Finhead]

Very cool, thanks I'll be putting that to good use.

 

[robghost]

can you share you psd/image file with us?

 

[Animaniac]

Interesting, I can't wait to try it! Thanks for sharing

 

[blennus]

Absolutely brilliant... I'm always keen to find ways to do things cheap but well! Excellent tutorial and love the results!

 

[MAKE BELIEVE]

Great tutorial. Thanks a lot

 

[Philly]

Have you had any luck polishing the clear cast, I haven't found a method I'm happy with yet.

 

[claymore61]

hi philly
in the past ive used polishing buffs and compounds, but it gets messy.
the best method is to use polished surfaces to make the moulds
ive found methods around polishing by using different moulding methods such as glass or stainless steel. i even have one mould where it has a 6mm glass front with a silicon back which is used to cast a polished glass " rock" for embedding.

i did have a problem using silicon moulds for a while but got round that eventually. The photos showing the finished eyes were done with a silicon mould and no polishing and they are very shiny.
you only really get a problem with the clear cast resins because of the chemical make up. GP resins are usually ok with silicon, but clear gives a sticky finish unless you pretreat the mould

 

[claymore61]

can you share you psd/image file with us?

sorry Rob, not being difficult but i dont know how to attach a psd.

anyway, its more fun creating your own.

i searched google images for "iris" and " eye colour" then sorted for large images.
once you get a selection, download them and take them into PS.

draw a circular selection around the iris area and copy/ paste or create new layer etc in the normal way. do this a few times for different colous etc.
you get hundreds on an A4 sheet.

Or for instance if your doing a Yoda sculpture, search for "yoda eyes" it usually turns up trumps.

just make sure you get a punch of around 12 mm for lifesize sculptures. ive tried a few sizes by hand cutting with scissors but it doesnt work. its better with a punch.

you could also get different sized circular punches for different scales of models.

why not get weird shaped punches for alien eyes lol - the list is endless