Dragon Eye Sculpture and painting tutorial

I ran across Klaire De Lys and her makeup artistry some time ago on  YouTube.  She's a remarkable artist from England who does a lot of fantasy and horror transformations in makeup that are really cool.  Back in 2013, she did a dragon eye jar out of terracotta clay that was glued onto a glass jar.  I loved the scale technique and wanted to do a wearable piece.  I also wanted to play around with doing some sort of iridescent scale without the metallic paints because I don't have any on hand right now.

This is one of the resin cast and painted pieces.  The camera doesn't do it justice and I wasn't able to pick up the fine detail of the painting, which does look iridescent in the light.  I think they turned out great!  I know I'm turning the larger size into a necklace, but I'm still planning out how I want to do that.  The only things I'm sure about are there will be chains and beads, but beyond that, I'm a little stumped.  I'm thinking a short necklace, but it depends on whether or not this piece will overwhelm at that length.

This is a great October project.  The unblinking cats eye is a little creepy and perfect for this time of the year.  I want to wear this to work but I'm worried that the dogs that I work with won't be as excited about this piece as I am.

I can see it now. "Hey! It's Nice Daycare Lady!  She's up front and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT THING STARING AT ME ON YOUR CHEST??"  

There are both painted and unpainted versions of the eye available for sale.

Sculpting the eye

In my concept sketches, I was playing with the idea of having a large, triangular piece of resin that would fill up most of the area around the neck.  I wasn't in love with the sketches, so instead I opted for a more organic approach, stopping when I liked it.

I used polymer clay so I could bake for the molding process.  I'm using Craft Smart polymer clay, which is comparable to original Sculpey in price and consistency.  I created a large bowl for the eye socket (I needed a surface to work on to add scales) and then placed a ball inside that.  I rolled out a snake for the top and bottom lids and filled in the area between the bowl and the "socket" with more clay until I had a smooth surface.  

The scales over the entire things are small balls of clay that I rolled out and stuck directly to the eyelid surface I created.  I varied the sizes of the scales to give some more interest.  I only filled up to the point where my socket started (it's a bug-eyed dragon) and then began to stack them on each other and not my base.  I reinforced this area with extra snakes of clay.  This left me with a plug to hold onto while I smoothed out the fingerprints on the eyeball with a nylon brush.  I kept the fingerprints on the scales for a little bit of subtle detail.  

I baked the eyes in a warm oven according to the package directions for about 25 minutes for the larger one.  The smaller one, which is around 2 1/2 inches only took 15 minutes.  

Once the clay was cool enough to handle, I made a silicone mold of the eye and waited for it to dry before pouring my new mold with resin.

Painting the eye

I was inspired to paint my eyes by  Melody Peña's iridescent dragons and flap cat wings from Windstone Editions.  I've been in love with her stuff for years!  This is also (loosely) based on methods of painting miniatures.

Contrast is vital to getting a vibrant iridescent look.  There are some good online tools  that will help you choose what colors you need if you're not sure.  All the color, save the base coat, was applied in very thin washes.  It's much easier to add more color than it is to take it off in this process, so it's better to do several thin layers of a color rather than one gloppy application.

Supplies:

Blank Dragon Eye

Paint  (I'm using purple, blue, green, and yellow, and black white, and brown )

Clear glaze

Paintbrushes: flat (for large surface coverage) and size 0 or smaller round

palette

water

paper towel (or rag)

Consistency of paint is very important in this project.  For the base color, the paint needs to be about the consistency of whole milk.  It should form a large bead but not be very runny.  Paint the scaly areas and the eyelids purple with the larger brush.  This is after about 3 coats.:

All other layers of paint should be the consistency of ink, or even a little thinner.  They'll be pretty runny, and a (mostly) dry brush.  Pick up your color and then dab it on a paper towel or rag to remove some of the paint before you begin painting your surface.  Use a dabbing motion with the brush and a very light hand.  I did each scale individually.  Add the blue.  I ended up adding a little white to the blue to make it brighter.  This is 2 coats of the blue (one dark, one light)

Apply the green with the same method.  By this stage, the scales will have a lovely bit of definition and dimension.  

I began work on the eyeball and the yellow highlights on the scale at the same time.  I had the right consistency for the eyeball, but really needed to thin the paint more for the highlights.  This layer should be very watery and should just had the slightest hint of color.

If you need to clean up the piece, use a dark purple wash (very thinned out paint) in between the scales.  Paint a line where you want the pupil to be and paint a curve on either side of the line and fill in.  Black can be a little harsh here, so I am actually using a brown-black to draw the pupil.  Finish with your clear glaze.