On Doll Eyes and Eye Positioning

Hi there everyone! It's been a little while, so I thought I'd post up a tutorial on how to position eyes. I, quite frankly, am terrible at it, so I set off to learn what I could about positioning eyes. Follow along with my adventure!

I wanted to avoid this….

Which looks suspiciously like this….

And if that's what you're going for, great! (I think.) If not, read on!

Info about eyes:

Eye well: This is the little socket thing in your doll's head where eyes sit.

Flat back or hollow back acrylics

This is a stem.

Flat back vs Stems: Some eyes are flat backed, meaning they don't have anything for you to grip. These can be hollow backed, like these eyes, or simply flat. Stems are these little things poking out of the back of the eye.

Keeping the eyes in your doll: You can use various things to keep the eyes in, including eye putty, ticky tack (like for posters), silicone ear plugs, hot glue (haven't tested this on acrylic eyes), or rubber eraser. Don't use oil-based things like Sculpy clay to hold them in, as these could damage the doll overtime.

Acrylics break easy.
These broke in a doll's head.

Types: Eyes can be glass, acrylic, and silicone. Silicone eyes are more malleable and are more expensive than the other types of eyes, but they photograph beautifully. I don't know much about how the different types of eyes age, but I have heard that silicone eyes may yellow overtime, as will acrylic eyes. Acrylics are much cheaper usually but are very fragile. I try not to use acrylics if I can help it. I prefer glass.

Sizes: Eyes are measured in milimeters (mm). <----That's about this much. Usually this is the  measurement of the iris (the colored part of the eye). So if I doll requires 14mm eyes, and you want 12mm eyes, there may be gapping.

To avoid this, you can buy eyes that have whites at 14mm, but a smaller iris at 12mm.

Low dome vs High Dome: Dolls with more narrow eye wells will need lower dome eyes. This refers to the roundness of the eye, how much it bulges. Low dome eyes sit closer to the front of the eye well, high dome farther back. Zoey here desperately needs low dome eyes, see the gapping here? This is because when I modded her I didn't make her eye wells deep enough.

 

<----Here the domes are too high, so they won't fit in Chloe's eye wells.

Some initial observations:

• Using a size smaller eye usually makes the doll look a little more mature.
• A size larger eye makes the doll look a little more young.
• Sometimes the smaller eye just doesn't work and makes the doll look beady-eyed or doesn't fit in the eye well at all.
• Sometimes the larger eye has more of a creepy effect than an innocent one.

Don't choose eyes too small or you'll have gapping.

 This picture shows an attempt at putting 12mm glass eyes into a Feeple 60 head.













Grim here has eyes far too big. This works because they have no pupil and he's supposed to look a little creepy.

The Classic Mistake- Doll in the Headlights: This is my major mistake. The doll looks shocked or psychotic or something. Do not do this:

 

Soft Eyes:

To make a doll look a bit more natural, position the pupil so it is slightly covered by the upper lid.

Much less creepy, right?

Drunk eyes:

Bedroom eyes: Why, hello there... (Not meant to follow drunken eyes on purpose, but let your inner perve laugh anyway.)

Looking up:

Into the distance:

Sideways glance:

Possessed: While you want to position the eye so that the pupil is slightly covered, don't put them too far back or else they just look like the little girl from the Exorcist. Or a zombie.

Cross Eyed:

It's cute like this.















Not like this.

So after all of this, I still suck at positioning eyes. Hopefully this shows a lot of what not to do and helps you with yours. I'll get better….I hope.

 Thanks for reading and happy collecting!