8) Have been working on a mountain man of sorts and it is time for me to paint the eyes and I just cringe. You know the saying? You can save a bad carving with good painting but you can wreck a good carving with bad painting. When I paint eyes they just don't look right. What color blue do you use? Do you use white for the base or an off-white? Do you leave them plain or do you put 5 minute epoxy on them to give them shine? Pam

Pam-
I do not use regular paint, I prefer stain or thinned oil paints, but I use white for the eye and a spot of black usually for the center of the eye. If it is a real small eye I have used a black 'sharpe' marker to make the black spot. After the stain dries I use a clear liguid stained glass product I picked up at Walmart to fill the eye socket and give it the sparkle. Hope this is of some help.
Barry

[Colin_Partridge]

Pamela,
It depends for me if I do a concave eye or a convex eye. If I am doing a cocave eye I usually use a magic marker or an acrilic paint the ones you get in the craft stores in the little bottles work fine. I also find that blue eyes are always too blue you should tone them down a bit by adding a little grey or black. If I am doing a convex eye I just use a pencil it gives it that little darker definition and then put your sealer or stain over it. Also I have found with eyes if you put the pupils a little off set not right in the middle it gives it a better effect. You can look at your carving and it will tell you either a little right or left and if you are still unsure ask some one in the family they dont have to be a carver they will usually be able to tell you. Hope this has helped Jeff Phares was the one that taught me this so I think if it good enought for Jeff then its good enough for me.
Colin

[Callynne]

Pamela, you probably have the best example of eyes right in your mirror. Look at yourself and see how far the lids come down over the colored part of your eye, how much of the pupil shows. If you want him looking off center (sort of hard to see that in the mirror), have your husband, friend, someone look in the direction you want your mountain man looking.
As for the actual painting, color of blue doesn't matter, could be brown or green, etc. Just paint the white on, actually I was told in high school art class that the white is never actually 'real' white, it should have a very, very faint blue tinge to it. I have found that doesn't work for me on my carvings...eyes are way too small, so I just use white paint, when it's dry I paint what ever color I want the eye to be, then do the black pupil. It might be helpful again to look at your eye, lots of times people make the pupils too small and sometimes, depending on how open the eye is you don't see all the pupil either!
The finishing touches I do are to put a very tiny dot of white in the upper side edge of the pupil, when that's all dry I put several coats of clear, gloss varnish on them, it's in with the acrylic paints.
If I'm doing a piece where the eye isn't domed how I want it I use Treasure Crystal Cote, it's a very thick 'stuff' that domes up and gives flat eyes a real look...it's wonderful for animal eyes.
Good luck, post a picture for us to see when your mountain man is all finished! Callynne

[woodenleg]

Good advice on this site, but I''ll add a couple of things: 1) the Iris of the eye is partially covered by the eye lids; however, the pupils are totally visible (you can see an entire black circle for them); and 2) when you paint the eyes, always wait (for me over night) a long enough time between coats for each layer to dry (so I do the whites -- entire eye, then the Iris -- partially exposed, the pupils (full circle), and lastly the white highlight -- sometimes use a toothpick to put just a spec.

Practice on a piece of paper until you are totaly satisfied with it; but don't hurry the process and you will come our OK. Good luck!

[Donna_T]

Pamela,
When I first started painting eyes, I got a eye painting chart from a ceramics shop. It shows various animal eyes and lots of human eyes with different expressions.

The best thing I can recommend is to not make the eyes looking straight ahead. It's a pretty harsh look and hard to make both eyes exactly the same. I like to make my eyes looking up or down and right or left--just for some additional expression.

The last hint that has served me well, is that the pupil/iris isn't a perfect circle showing between the eyelids. The top and bottom of the circle is covered by the eyelids so you have what looks like a ( ).

And ditto on the white--I rarely ever use just plain white for anything. I tint it with a smidgen of burnt umber to make it a warm white or a tad of blue to cool it. It's much friendlier and real looking. and I always put a small 'comma' of this white highlight in the top right area of the eye to make it 'twinkle'. When it's dry, I put a drop of Red Devil High Gloss Varnish on with a toothpick to make the whole eye shine.

Since the eyes of any carving are what really makes it stand out, spending a bit more time practicing different techniques and colors is a good investment.

Donna T