This week I worked on painting and adding the eyes to my owl. I needed a break from adding the cardboard feathers. It can get a little tedious to work hour after hour on essentially the same thing.
The eyes are glass painted with acrylic paints. I used some glass decorative glass pieces to paint the eyes. The pieces of glass I used were some rounded pieces that are for decorative purposes. They are not exactly round. Fully round glass cabochons (found in the scrapbooking section) are expensive relative to bag of inexpensive decorator cabochons that are available for a dollar or less. I buy a small bag and hunt for the most regular looking ones I can find that are the same size. I can usually find two or three pairs of cabochons that will work well for a project.
There are a few different ways to paint glass eyes. Many of them use enamel paints or fingernail polish. The enamels look really nice, but I try not to add expensive elements to my projects if I have something at home that will work. Nail polish can run from about a dollar to about eight or nine dollars a bottle or even higher. I opted for acrylic paints that I already had at home.
I first tried painting glass eyes on my last paper mâché pumpkin project. I found various methods for painting the eyes. By doing reverse paintings on the back side of the cabochon, it really looks like an eye. That is, if you can get it to look right. Some methods require multiple layers and scrapings to make the eye look as if it has depth and dimension. After trying a few approaches on the pumpkin eyes, I finally settled on a method for painting eyes with acrylics. I want to give a shout out to the guy who put up a YouTube video on the method. A link to his video is provided here for anyone who wants to learn more about it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkYtDUIa3BQ
When I make eyes for a project, I usually make at least three pair. Then I pick the best set out of the three. After a few tries at painting completely round pupils, I found that the method described in the video above worked the best. The method for the pupil part is quite simple. Basically, it is just putting a dot of paint in the center of the back of the cabochon and lightly pressing on another cabochon to spread the paint in a circle.
If I had wanted to add a highlight to the eye, I would have added a dot of white paint at about the 1:00 o'clock position. It would have had to been put in place before the pupil was added because this is reverse painting. The last thing you would normally paint on a flat surface has to go first. However, I did not put one in because the rounded glass surface of the front of the eye reflects light and creates its own highlights. I think it would take someone with more experience than I have to get the white dot in the right position and then add the pupil.
For me, it was not quite so simple to determine the center of my irregularly shaped cabochons. The first few eyes seemed a little off center. I finally drew an X on a piece of paper, and place what appeared to be the center of the cabochon (rounded side down) on the X. This at least gave me a target to aim for with the drop of paint. Once the paint was on the first cabochon, I pressed the other cabochon onto it. It still took me five tries to get it right. I actually had it right the first time, then dropped the cabochon and ended up getting paint all over my myself and the plastic I had down to protect the table. It was a mess, but persistence paid off and I had two usable eyes. So be forewarned, wear clothes that you don't mind getting pain on and protect your work surface if you try to do this.
The cabochons were set aside for the black paint of the pupils to dry. After that, the outer edge of the cabochon was painted with a non-metallic antique gold acrylic paint. They were set aside to dry again.
Once the eyes were dry, a varnish was added to the back to protect the paint. This was allowed to dry completely.
Because of the irregular shape, the pupils are not exactly centered. That still works for this project. The upper edge of the eyeball still needs to be covered by the eye lid. The eyelid will also cover part of the pupil. The lower edge, which has more area of gold paint will be the most visible. I did not do any scraping on the gold part of the iris.
After painting, the eyes were glued onto the owl with hot glue. More of the cardboard feathers and layers of paper mâché which have yet to be added will add more holding power to keep the eyes in place.
For people who do not think they are ready to paint glass eyes, there are a few other alternatives. At doll supply websites on the internet, you can purchase paper eyes that can be glued to the back of the cabochons. Be sure to research your glue for that will dry completely clear and not yellow.
It is also possible to buy plastic eyes for stuffed animals that look very realistic. These eyes may come with a shank, that would need to be cut off or a hole punched in the head of the owl to accommodate it. I actually had some of these eyes on hand, but my project was too large to use these eyes. I may have to do some ravens or something at some point to try to use them up.
A third, and the most expensive option would be to purchase glass eyes from a taxidermy supply company. They are going to look the most realistic of all the options. It would also be expensive compared to any of the other options.
I have still been adding the feathers to the body this week. I also added the ears. I had not added them before because at some points I had to have the bird lying upside down and I did not want to damage them. I am hoping to have the feather portion of the project finished by the next blog post.
Check back on Tuesday.
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