Painting Eyes on Scale Figures

Introduction

Painting eyes on figures can be a nerve wracking task. Many people bemoan the fact that their figures end up with a "staring" gaze, cross eyed or wall eyed which usually happens in the smaller scales such as 1/35 which I honestly recommend not even trying in these scales, a shadow and a light dry brushing is enough to suffice here. This tutorial is intended for larger scale figures such as our test subject, Verlinden's 1/5 scale Robert E. Lee bust.

The human eye

If you take a look at a real human eye you will notice the whites of the eyes don't take up alot of space and aren't pure white, they are more of an off white. Many painters err in painting eyes pure white and leaving too much behind which will lead to the zombie stare. Next is the iris or colored part. The iris should be fairly centered  and overlapped slightly by the upper and lower eyelid with a darker ring of color around a lighter inner part. Note the iris moves off center in some cases depending which direction your character is looking. For example if your character is looking to the left the left iris will actually be slightly closer to the inside (right) side of the eye while the right side iris will be slightly toward the outside and vice versa if your figure is looking right. Pupils change size so there is really no set rule here except they should be centered in the iris.


Painting eyes

Step 1

After preparing the figure and priming with Tamiya gray primer, I mixed up a dark red color with Tamiya acrylic bottles. The mix is about 85% flat red and 15% flat black thinned very slightly with 90% isoprophyl alcohol. Apply this dark red mix to the entire eye area, it's ok to go slightly outside since any overlap will be covered by the flesh base later on.

Step 2

Next is the whites of the eyes. Like I said above the eyes should not be pure white but more of an off white. The color I use is a brand called Folk Art which is available at Wal Mart for .57 a bottle and the color is called "vanilla ice cream" which is a nice pre mixed ivory color. You can also mix pure white with an extremely small dab of a light tan or flesh color to get the same effect. Using a small spotter brush apply the whites leaving a thin rim of the dark red color around the outside.

Step 3

 At this point I have painted the entire face an acrylic flat flesh color working my way up to the edges of the eye while leaving a thin rim of dark red around the rim. This effect is to simulate eyelashes and will become far more subtle after shading is done with oils in later stages. The iris is a sot of Folk Art "nutmeg brown" darkened with a small spot of black. This is the initial layer of the iris and should be fairly dark but not too dark. The diagram to the right explains better what's going on in the next steps. As explained earlier the iris is a darker ring of color with a lighter patch in the center surrounding the pupil. Apply a circle of dark brown in this case following the guidelines for orientation depending on the direction your character is facing. Once that has dried mix a small amount of your base color with white and apply it on top of the dark base leaving a small rim of dark brown around the outside. In the photo above the effect is barely visible but it's there.

Step 4

Now you can apply the pupil. There are no real set rules for pupils other than they should be centered in the iris. In general size is determined by the personality you are trying to achieve. A smaller pupil insinuates a more severe or closed up personality while a larger one can give the impression of a more neutral or open personality. The final step of the pupil should be VERY subtle. Using a sewing needle apply a tiny (and I mean tiny) dot of white in the upper corner to simulate a "twinkle" or light reflecting off the surface. Let the eye dry (about 15 minutes under a fan will suffice) and apply a layer of Future floor polish or another type of acrylic gloss to give the eyes a wet shine as a final step.

Conclusion

 Painting eyes can seem like a complicated task but as you can see it is really a fairly easy process. I was able to complete these eyes in around 45 minutes from the base to final gloss. There is still room for improvement such as I have trouble keeping pupils completely round, but every figure is a learning process and as they say practice makes perfect, so keep at it and you will see your results improve every time!