When painting doll eyes, it's good to know a little about the anatomy of the human eye.
Iris ~ the flat, coloured, ring-shaped membrane behind the cornea of the eye, with an adjustable circular opening (pupil) in the centre.
Cornea ~ the transparent layer forming the front of the eye.
As you can see by the pictures above and below, every eye is different and each one has a combination of many colours, with each of those colours forming slightly different patterns.
The sclera is not actually a bright white, it also differs with every eye, some show noticeable veins while others appear much clearer.
One could study eyes all day and not see two identical, not even when they are a pair. Try it yourself, look your own eyes when you have some free time, I'm sure you'll find them quite fascinating and it will certainly help you understand how to paint them better and make your dolls appear more lifelike.
Eyes are interesting subject. I had dark brown eyes when I was a child, up until I was around 10 years old or so, then they began to fade. I wasn't the "button eye" girl anymore, when relatives no more called me like that it felt weird. I had thought my brown eyes to be my best part. I realised the change from school photos. I talked about this with my sister last summer and she said they're more like grey now, I thought they're greenish or so. Very confusing. Studying eyes is interesting. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Xaya,
DeleteWow, that's really amazing. I have never heard of brown eyes changing to grey before, though I had heard that blue often fades to grey as people age. I learn something new everyday. :)
Hugs,
X
Hello Sandy,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I think research like this makes an end product so much better.
Big hug
Giac
Thank you so much Giac, I couldn't agree more.
DeleteHugs,
X
What a great post. Thanks for sharing. At first, I honestly thought that top photo was a sunflower!!
ReplyDeleteI love how some porcelain doll eyes look. They paint them very close to those images.
My dad paints acrylic eyes for people who have lost their eyes. A lot of his look similar to these patterns too. He complains a lot about hazel eyes and how hard it is to get them exact.
Thanks you Alasse. Yes, I can see why you may have thought that. :)
DeleteI didn't know that about your dad, he would have to study eyes very closely to match the missing one to the other eye, that must be extremely difficult to do. So you must have seen many different eyes in your time I bet.
Hugs,
X
Hello there! Eyes are pretty amazing, the mirror of the soul. Some scientists say that te eyes say who you are. Well, it is hard to paint eyes, so that they look like (almost like) real ones. I have been browsing on pinterest and the youtube, just to see how artists paint eyes. It looks so simple, but it is not. One good thing is that the eyes, as you wrote, does not alike. So painting two exact same ones, does not have to be a goal. :)
ReplyDeleteI love your blogger header, so cute!
Hugs!
Hi Niina,
DeleteI don't think anything worthwhile is simple. I have seen some eyes painted on dolls that are completely lifeless and which make the doll look dead. However, I think with practice, hopefully we can create something almost like real eyes.
Thank you, this is probably the first one I have made that I really like myself. :)
Hugs,
X
Beautiful eyes, the colours are incredible aren't they!
ReplyDeletexx
Thank you Sharon. Eyes have always been a fascination to me, but I don't think I have consciously studied the colours in such detail before and was quite amazed at what I found.
DeleteHugs,
X