Eyes My attempt at 'realistic' style eyes

I've got exactly one eye mold that I like using to make some eyes just for fun, but those have always been cutesy unrealistic eyes with as much glitter as I can shove in like the ones below

Now this style is super cute and I love it, but lately I've been seeing loads of super talented, incredibly detailed more 'realistic' style eyes and I'm just dying to try and make some for myself! The only real issue is I'm pretty much feeling my way through the process, so take whatever I say with a grain of 'trail and error' flavoured salt.

Here's the strategy I've started taking! First by looking at references I noticed that there's this sort of two layer structure to irises. Not sure the scientific reason for this, but luckily as an artist I don't need to! All I have to do is replicate it.



SO knowing that, that determined my approach. Two layers of clay, one layer at a time. First I put a small dot of apoxie clay at the bottom of the iris and smoothed it down with some water on my pinkie finger. My sculpting tool of choice was a pin! I used a pin to first make the pupil in whatever shape you want, then made some lines in various lengths and widths around the pupil like so. I added some deeper holes as well to further the effect. Don't worry about it being perfect, eyes aren't really perfect either (or that can be your go to excuse if you mess em up, that's what I do) Be careful that you're making these lines with a pushing motion, not a scooping motion otherwise you'll kick up little flecks of stray clay.

Don't mind the ugly junk sclera, I didn't want to jump right in with my actual good sclera's so I thought I'd put the junk ones to good use.
Anyways, next up I make a super thin snake of clay and use that to make a small outline on the edge of the iris like so. It's a bit hard to do on such a small scale, but using the pin to help 'stick' it to the sides helps

Next up I do a little pattern of pushing on the outer snake I just put in to give it a crinkle effect (now that's a sentence). Additionally once I do that, I push outwards from the inside to make that edge crinkle-y as well. This way it has that same effect the reference image has.

I was pretty happy with that process, so I promptly chucked the test eye and did the same steps with my actual decent eyes, and this time a bit more carefully as well and here's how they came out! Once they cure I'll update this with the painting process I have planned, but feel free to leave tips for me as well! Love trying out new things.

 

wish I could craft with glass but I feel like in my lil uni dorm that would NOT FLY so resin it is