Supplies Eyes bases/blanks made from plaster

I have never used plaster eye based myself, however, perhaps you can mask the plaster off to avoid staining it while you paint the irises and pupils. There are a few products meant for art work, that are meant to easy to peel off to avoid damage on the art work. I personally never had any need, other than artist's tape. They are called liquid masking fluids, a few different brands make them, like Liquitex and Winsor and Newton.

You could also use a kneading eraser. I have tried that for masking tiny areas that would be a pain otherwise, like eyes on a 1:6 scale action figure. It works well for masking, because it is sticky but doesn't leave residues or damage behind. Hope that's of some help to you. Good luck. (:

 

Oh, I've made my own plaster bases and don't have this problem somehow! I attach the bases to a stick with putty so I never touch the eye base with my fingers, and it pretty much never gets dirty. If any stray pastel or mica gets on the plaster, I clean it off with a kneaded eraser.

To be fair, what I use is ResinCrete, which is... essentially plaster, but there may be something about it that makes it less prone to getting dirty than regular plaster.

 

Can you coat them in UV resin so they’re waterproof and won’t stain?

 

kneaded eraser, and also the corner of a melamine sponge usually helps me get things like that off! though the masking fluid is a good tip too. you could also cut a very tiny hole in some washi tape and put it over the top, but usually the kneaded eraser and gently tapping the extra, kneading, tapping, kneading… etc until the mica and other stuff works for me. and then going over with a (dry) melamine sponge if it’s particularly hard to get off.