Realistic eyes 101

I posted this in my DeviantArt journal and thought I would share here, not least because I am ever on the search for more information on eyes. Any ideas, information or suggestions would be very welcome.

My emphasis here is on realistic eyes for adult dolls, so the focus will be on small, photorealistic irises. There are many other sorts of eyes available that meet the needs of those who prefer a stylised, youthful or fantasy look. This is not my field and I won't be touching on that sort of stuff here. There is enough in this thing not to mess with that.

Eye terms

Iris: The coloured part of the eye (you didn't really need me to tell you that, did you?).

Sclera: The white of the eye.

Cornea: The clear covering over the iris of the eye.

Eye well: The curved recess behind the eye opening into which the eye fits.

Paperweight: A dome of glass (or other clear material) covering the iris of the eye, where the cornea would be. This can increase the depth of the colour by refracting the light. Also, as the pupil can then float slightly above the iris, it gives you a "following about the room" effect. The disadvantage is that this bulge can make the eyes difficult to fit and move about in narrow eye openings.

Full round/half round/oval/flat back: Various shapes of glass eye. Pretty self-explanatory. Full round eyes can be useful if you want to turn your doll's eyes to the side without gaping.

Threading: The regular pattern of lines that can be drawn into a glass iris. It is based on traditional, antique doll eyes and adds some texture to the iris. However, this is not realistic.

Plug: The stem of glass that comes out of the back of a full round, blown glass eye.

Eye sizing

I am a sad sod and trust no one, so I ignored all the information available on how large an iris should be and went off and measured a shedload of photographs of eyes. The results.

For an adult, the size of eye opening, measured from the outside edge of tear duct to the outside corner of eye is 2.3 times the size of the iris. It is 9 times the length of an averagely dilated pupil.

So, in terms of finding the right proportioned eye (bare with me. It's maths, but it is not as scary as it looks),

Length of eye opening = A
Size of adult iris = A / 2.3
Size of pupil = A / 9

So, a 12mm eye opening should have a 5.6mm iris with a 1.4mm pupil.

Now, there is a caveat with this formula. The first is that many dolls have slightly stylised eyes, even the apparently realistic ones. This generally means that the eye opening is rounder than on a real, human eye. As the important feature is how much iris is showing between the top and bottom lids, using this formula can result in too small an iris, leading to an apparent expression of terror on your doll's face. Therefore, use this as a rule of thumb and increase iris size slightly if your doll has rounder eyes than does a real, human bod.

The base size of the eye (the diameter of the actual eye ball) will depend on the size of your doll's eye well. This is best determined by using an eye sizer, which is a usually wooden ball of known diameter on a stick. You place those in the eye well to see which one is the best fit. You could also try out whatever rigid eyes you have handy, to see which base size fits with no gaping. This is most important with rigid eyes, as an eye with the wrong base size will either not go all the way into the eye well and leave gaping and the front (base size too big) or go in fine, but leave gaping at the sides (base size too small). Silicone eyes will bend to fit most eye openings, in which case you can just chose a base size that is 1-2mm larger than the eye opening, to make sure you have some sclera to tuck behind the corners.

Example, eyes for a CLine (these are handblown glass eyes from Thomas Eichhorn-Nelson). A CLine has a 7mm eye opening so, according to my calculations, the iris should be 3mm. The ones on the right are 3mm. It looks realistic and she has an alert expression. The ones on the left are only 1mm larger, but look at the difference in realism and expression. The iris pretty much fills the eye opening and she has lost her focus. A vacant stare. And most off-the-peg eyes have that sort of ratio at least.



Convinced? I will do some more comparisons.

Eye materials

Acrylic eyes

Advantages: Cheap; readily available; good choice of fantasy and realistic colours; don't damage easily; great for trying out sizes and colours without breaking your bank account; option for printing or painting your own irises using eye blanks (available from shops such as Pupapa Paradise).

Disadvantages: Not generally good for close up photography because of the visible pixels in the printing; colour is flat; some acrylic eyes have strangely-shaped corneas (for example, Glib corneas are almost conical. Looks damned weird); irises are too large to be realistic.

Glass eyes

Advantages: Can be cheap. There are currently some decent, flat, oval glass eyes floating around on eBay, largely from China; crisp, glossy finish; the sclera stays pure white; can get the "eyes following you around the room" effect if you buy eyes with floating pupils (not usually available for cheaper eyes); good eyes have great clarity and depth of colour; custom sizes are available, for a price; there is just something about the beauty of a hand blown glass eye as an object that seems to suit a BJD.

Disadvantages: Good quality and realistic glass eyes can be expensive; not many realistic iris patterns available; cheap and handmade eyes may not be as perfect as other types. Irises may be slightly different sizes or not perfectly circular, corneas might have a "jammy" finish to them, being uneven and blobby, handmade custom eyes might not be exactly the size you asked for; being rigid, they can be difficult to fit odd-shaped eye wells and can gape at the sides if the curvature of the eye doesn't perfectly match that of the eye well; full round blown eyes can have a long plug which can be too long to fit inside a head cap, what with the S-hook and everything; "reborn" glass eyes tend to have a large iris, as befits being put into a baby doll; glass eyes without a paperweight can look somewhat flat in colour and "glassy", if you know what I mean. My recommendation is to go with a paperweight, if you have the option.

Silicone eyes:

Advantages: Generally the most realistic irises, they tend to have a larger sclera for the size of iris which is useful if you are aiming for a realistic, small-eyed look; flexible so good for uneven eye wells; good range of realistic iris patterns; custom colours and sizes are sometimes available, for a price.

Disadvantages: More expensive than acrylic and the cheaper glass eyes; scleras can yellow over time; they collect dust like nobody's business. This might not seem like a biggy, but once you have captured that beautifully-lit portrait of your favourite doll and zoom in to edit it in Photoshop to see that those languorous eyes are speckled with carpet fluff, sick can come up in your mouth a little bit. It can easily be rinsed off with water, though. The fluff, not the sick; some eyes lack clarity and have a dull finish; they can be damaged quite easily by abrasion (pastel dust, for example. Don't rub it off with your thumb when you are doing a faceup. The voice of bitter experience there). Also any silicone-based product, such as wig spray or silicone ear plugs used as eye putty, has the potential to bond with the eye and damage it; there can be quality assurance issues with some silicone eye manufacturers; although most silicone eyes have a metallic sheen, they are not nearly as reflective as urethanes or good glass eyes, but then neither are human eyes.

Urethane eyes:

Advantages: Glossy finish and good depth of colour; highly reflective; good range of colours.

Disadvantages: Fiendishly expensive; they don't meet my criteria for realism in terms of iris size and patterning. The closest I've seen are some of the Dollshe and Mystic Eyes ones but, whilst the irises have a light-catching texture, they are a single colour and real eyes, like real vampires, just don't sparkle. Except for Mystic Eyes, who offer custom iris sizes, the irises are too large for a mature, realistic sculpt.

Other resin and polymer eyes:

Advantages: These are handmade eyes with printed irises, so they come in an almost unlimited range of colours; custom sizes of iris and pupil are usually available.

Disadvantages: being handmade, there might be not be perfectly symmetrical or smooth in shape; being printed, colours tend to lack depth and pixels are visible in close up (which has the biggest impact for tiny eyes); if they are not made with a clear resin cornea, they can be flatter than other eyes, which are domed to simulate the spherical shape of real eyes. This can look odd from the side.

 

Eye shops

My favourite eye shop? Safrin Doll. No contest. She has a good range of acrylic and silicone, including Eyeco, and she takes her own in-doll photos of all the eyes, the only way to see what they might look like in use. There are also iris measurements for many of the styles, which is perfect if you are a scale freak, like me.

http://www.safrindoll.com/

Acrylic eyes:

Companies like Glib and Glastic are popular and can be found at many doll supplies shops. As the irises are too large in acrylic eyes, this is an area I have little experience or interest in. This might well change as the trend continues towards greater realism. For example, Glib have brought out a 6-2mm eye for action figures. However, they decreased the size of the iris but left the pupil alone. The result is a tiny eye that is all pupil. If anyone knows of any more successful attempts at realistic scaling, I would be keen to hear.

Glass eyes:

Schoepfer (USA). Their hand blown crystal eyes have a moderately realistic iris and can be custom-sized http://www.schoepferseyes.com/products/blown-glass-figure-eyes-reborn. They also offer some pretty convincing flat oval eyes which have the most realistic irises in terms of colours and shading, but this is at the cost of them being printed, so somewhat lacking in depth. Also, irises tend to be large http://www.schoepferseyes.com/products/glass-oval-paperweight-doll-eyes-with-a-flat-back.

Photo thread here.

Kanis-Augen (Germany). They offer large, small or medium iris and pupil sizes in their Superior Designer Eyes category. They have a cheaper, standard range of these, but with no iris size option. They state that iris size is 50-55% of the eye diameter. However, this seems to be variable, with people saying that they have bought a range of eyes with standard irises and they have come back in a variety of sizes. This is inevitable from a handmade product. When I contacted them, they said that you can state which iris size you want and they will make it for you. So, my suggestion would be to do just that; give them your ideal iris size and let them make it. They also offer a choice of short or standard plug. The irises in these are not photorealistic, but not bad. Unless you opt for the paperweight option, they are low profile. However, they achieve great depth of colour by apparently setting the iris into the top of the eye and giving it a clear cornea.

http://www.kanis-augen.eu/superior-...rund/?XTCsid=903f20969a438eebecc71d29c0999d4f

Photo thread here.

Hand Craft Eyes (UK). They have more traditional eyes with variations on the theme of threading. This means they are less realistic than some of the others. D400 eyes are the most promising, with a good range of colours. They are available in flat back and full round and D400s have the option of high or low profile paperweights. Iris sizes are decent (6.5mm for a 12mm eye) and I believe they offer custom sizing, if you ask them nicely. They are at the high end of the price range, with 12mm eyes costing £30 ($45). Safrin Doll can order them in for slightly less (eg $33 for 12mm full round D400s).

http://www.handglasscraft.com/

Photo thread here.

Thomas Baez (Germany). The figure eyes are reasonably realistic, with good detailing and colour. Sizes go down to 8mm. Apart from their reborn eyes, standard iris size is approximately 50% of eye diameter, so not bad for adult realism. They also do custom iris sizes on request and speak English. The irises have a crystal covering, like a low and set-in paperweight. This gives the colour some depth without having a huge bulge that can get in the way of dreaming eyes. Postage is massive, so worth setting up a group order if you don't buy your eyes in bulk. However, eye price is fair, at 13 euros (c $17) for up 16mm figure eyes. They take a while to ship (my order took nearly three weeks to complete, but they were all custom options). Colours might not be like the pictures on the site. My "ice blue" eyes came in a dark navy blue.

http://www.baez-glasaugen.com/index.php/products

Thomas Eichhorn-Nelson (Germany). The figure eyes go as small as 3mm. They will do custom iris sizes for no extra cost. They will also have a go at custom colours. Default is without a paperweight, so colours can look flat and glassy. However, they will add paperweights on request (although not on the tiny eye). Prices are good, with standard 12mm full round at 9 euros. The site is in German and they don't speak English, so be prepared to use Google translate if you don't speak German. However, preparation is lightening quick and they will send in a padded envelope, which makes postage affordable.

http://www.glasaugen-eichhorn.de/figurenaugen/index.htm

Silicone eyes:

Eyeco (USA). A good range of colours and some of the most realistic iris colours and patterns out there and, being mid-priced, damned good value for the money. Shape is flat round, with a low paperweight. They vary in terms of depth and clarity, some eye surfaces being rather cloudy and dull. This seems to vary randomly. The range of silicone eyes includes Platinum, which is their bog-standard range, Ultra, which is their premium range, being handmade and appearing to be crisper and more reflective (I will get a pair and report back) and Fantasy, with brighter colours and a more metallic finish. They have amongst the smallest irises and give you an extra millimeter of sclera, giving you the option to go down a size for the sake of a realistic look (so, a 13mm sclera, what you would order for a 12mm eye, has a 6.2mm iris). The site itself is not designed for ease of ordering and I always go via Safrin Doll for mine. It is also cheaper there. Platinums are at the bottom end of the mid-range, with 12mm at $15.40 on the Eyeco site ($13.99 on Safrin Doll). Ultras are at the upper end of the range, at $36 on the site and $25.49 on Safrin Doll. These are my default eyes.

http://www.eyecoltd.com/index.php

Photo thread here.

Masterpiece (USA). Excellent range of colours and iris styles (home of the iconic Afghans) and they can be very reflective. Shape is flat round with a low paperweight and irises are marginally larger than Eyecos, but still smaller than most. They can also produce custom colours and sizes. Send them a photo or description of what you want and they will make it for you. However, these eyes are expensive and generally take a loooooong time to produce, even if buying off-the-peg. There have also been a large number of quality assurance issues. They can arrive with mismatched irises and air bubbles, the paper iris can crack or lift from the eye and various other horrors that render them useless. They are good at replacing, even if the glitch took a year to appear, but who wants to replace eyes every year? These used to be my favourites but I now won't go anywhere near them. They are at the upper end of the price range, with off-the-peg 12/13mms at $32, with an additional $3-15 for custom iris colours, metallic finish and paperweights.

http://www.softglasseyes.com/colors.html

Photo thread here.

Urethane eyes:

Mystic Eyes have a range called Real Human Pattern Series. They are textured, but single colour. This makes them look reasonably realistic, but not photorealistic. The advantage of these eyes is that they can be ordered with custom iris sizes. They are at the top of the price range, at $60 for 6-14mm.

http://mysticeyes.blankiblue.com/

Resin eyes:

Dreaming Trees Studios (USA) make hand cast resin eyes. They offer custom just about everything and go right down to 2mm. Eyes are flat round and have a medium paperweight which is a clear, resin dome over the entire eye. They therefore avoid that "flat" look of some handmade eyes. Opting for a metallic finish will brighten the eyes but will also compromise their realism. Irises come in AD (large, child-scaled irises), AD2 (smaller, more adult-sized irises) and AD3 (gimlet-sized irises that look particualrly good in adult males with small, realistic eyes). They are at the bottom end of the price range, with 12mm standard eyes at $5.50 to full metallic eyes at $12.

http://dreamingtreestudio.com/index.html

Photo thread here.

Fairyality (UK) make handmade polymer resin eyes. There is a good range of imaginative fantasy options but not so much of the realistic stuff. You could always ask for a custom style. Standard eyes start at 14mm, but she will take custom requests. Price is at the lower end of the range, wth 14-24mm at $11.99.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/88007629/bjd-eyes-available-in-141618202224mm

 

Eye putty run down

I have read over 1000 posts so that you don't have to and have summarised the findings here. People have their favourite substances and can develop a pretty strong loyalty to them. The top three seem to be pretty interchangeable in terms of advantages and disadvantages and it is a matter of taste (and, sometimes, climate) as to which will work best for you.

And let's get the oil and resin debate out of the way. Having combed the relevant threads and read up about urethane resin, it would appear that oil itself presents no substantial risk to resin (in spite of the rumours). However, there appears to be a risk that any pigmented product, including an oil-based one, might stain resin. There have been very rare reports of coloured clays and other fixatives leaving a stain on resin. If in doubt, therefore, chose a colourless product. Some products can leave a residue on the eyes, making them appear cloudy. However, this can be washed off with detergent and no harm is done.


Sticky Tac/White Tac/Poster Tac:

Advantages:

• Cheap
• Readily available (stationery shops).
• Easy to remove.
• In spite of it leaving an oily residue on paper, no one has mentioned any residue on dolls or any other damage.

Disadvantages:

• Doesn't stick to silicone eyes. You have to make a donut and trap the eye behind it by attaching the donut to the eyewell.
• Some have had issues with it not sticking well to resin.
• There have been a very small number of reports of resin and silicone eyes staining from coloured tacs, amongst many, many reports from long-term users of no damage. This might therefore vary with brand of tac and, perhaps, resin formula.
• Some brands are less sticky than others. Uhu seems to be a successful brand.
• Seems to work best in cooler climates than hotter as it can soften, but this appears to vary by brand.

Kneaded erasers:

Advantages:

• Cheap
• Readily available (art supply shops).
• Easy to remove.
• No reported damage to eyes or resin.

Disadvantages:

• Some have reported that it is not sufficiently sticky or malleable. This might vary by brand or by ambient temperature, being better suited to hot environments.

Silicone ear plugs:

Advantages:

• Very sticky
• Cheap
• Readily available (pharmacists).
• No convincing reports of damage to resin or eyes.

Disadvantages

• Can be messy to remove as it breaks up and needs to be scraped out. This seems to be worse in heat and humidity.
• Some people find the feel of them unappealing.
• Eyeco report that silicone-based products can bind to the silicone of their eyes and damage them. However, there has been only one reported cases of this happening amongst many who use the two together regularly.
• One reported case of damage to urethane eyes, although the conditions under which this happened are not known.

Unbaked polymer clay (ie Sculpey, Fimo):

Advantages:

• Flesh-coloured clay can be used to plug gaps in gaping eyes.

Disadvantages:

• There have been a substantial number of documented (and photographed) cases of polymer clay corroding and cracking acrylic eyes and one reported case of it damaging urethane eyes and one case of damage to silicone eyes. There have been a small number of reports of staining to resin from coloured polymer clay.
• Can go hard over time and need replacing.

Modelling clay (Plastilina/Plasticine):

Advantages

• Cheap
• Malleable

Disadvantages:

• There have been a small number of claims of damage to acrylic eyes.
• Difficult to remove as it leaves residue.

Miscellaneous

Sillyputty and Play Doh can go hard. Both are also often pigmented, with the attendant risk of staining. A few people have used masking tape with no adverse effects. Some people have hot-glued eyes in. This is a semi-permanent solution and should probably not be used with acrylic eyes, for risk of melting.

 

Thanks Hasel. I will add that. I have now ordered some custom eyes from the two Thomases too, so will add info when they come in. Yes, being able to speak German when ordering handblown glass eyes is very useful (I don't, unfortunately).

Laelen, I hope it is useful. I will be adding to it as I find out more.

 

Hm, perhaps I should add another section on eye care and cover eye putties too.

I use White Tac. No, it doesn't physically stick to the silicone, but I build a ring of it and stick that to the eye well, trapping the eye behind it, if that makes sense.

 

You are welcome.

If anyone has any other aspect of doll eyes that they would like covered, I am happy to research it and post the results in this. Would a section on eye care and eye putties be useful, or is that so bleeding obvious that it doesn't require any information? How about some photos of the eyes? I know there are threads on most of them, but would you like a quick picture here too?

 

OK. I will do a section on putties. Lots of threads to comb for opinions on here (we all have our favourites but it would be useful to summarise the pros and cons briefly in one place). Comparisons as a little more tricky, but I will see what I can do.

 

Yes, Madeleine wore 12/13mm Masterpieces so, if your sculpt has similar-sized eye holes, that would do fine. All you can do is measure them and see how small you can go. I never go by what the company recommends. Almost all of mine wera at least one size smaller. Gettting a brand of eye with smaller irises (Masterpiece or Eyeco) or getting custom from one of the custom manufacturers would then give you a realistic look. But, yes, the only way to make sure the eyes won't gape is to measure the doll's eye holes accurately. This is where a micrometer comes in handy.

I will have a think about what I can add with photos. I have a growing collection of eyes, now that I have developed an obsession with glass.

 

Hurrah! I don't know why a micrometer isn't part of standard kit for all dolly collectors. Perhaps it is because we trust the doll companies to tell us which eyes will suit our dolls. How naive!

And I am glad that others have found this to be useful. THere is more to add to it, which I will.

 

A convert!

 

A section added for eye putties, as requested.

 

Lots of maths homework and fiddling around with precision measuring instruments for all!

 

It's pretty rudimentay maths, so I hope it is doable for most. And I am glad it helped.

 

Added a comparison picture of large vs small irises in the first post.

 

Thanks for the idea of the cabouchons, magkelly. The only issue with using those for human eyes that I can see is that the glass dome covers the entire eye, including the sclera. As the glass dome mimics the cornea, which only covers the iris, this might look odd. So, I don't think won't look convincing for a human eye, or as convincing as would be needed for a thread on highly realistic eyes. However, I have only seen cabouchon animal eyes and am prepared to be shown cabouchon human eyes that work.

And thank you both, and for the offer of translations, Lucius. I seem to be managing OK with Google Translate so far, but will get in touch if that fails me.

 

Thanks you two.

I think I already have the tape option in my "others" section, and glue, with the caution that it is not easy to reposition your doll's eyes with that. However, if you are not one to turn your doll's eyes into flirtatious sidelong glances on a whim, then that is not a problem.

 

HallowHawlk, no, basically. Saint eyes might have large wells, but the openings are small, so you need smaller irises than even Eyeco can provide. Mine wears 14m Eyecos and the iris is still too large for my tastes (I could take a photo, if it would help). My recommendation would be to go custom, either with one of the handmade resin makers (Dreaming Tree AD3 on 16mm would likely work) or custom glass eyes, depending on your budget and the look you are aiming for.

 

OK. Sounds as though you have a different style in mind to the very realistic look being pimped in this thread. But, for what it is worth, here is a picture of my Saint with his old Masterpiece eyes in. They are 14/15mm and, being Masterpiece the irises are smaller than you would get in an "ordinary" pair of 14mm eyes, and they are not naturally-scaled. There is far too little sclera showing. However, the realistic look is not what everyone is after and some people find that it makes their dolls look too intense or unfriendly. Unnaturally large irises will tone that down and make the face look more childlike and softer. It is all a matter of taste.

 

You are very welcome. Glad it was useful.

 

You are both very welcome.