Paper Mache Eye: Take 2, part 3

So!  I am 99% done with this project. And I left it at work, so I can't get that 1% done tonight, but it just involves cutting a slightly larger window for the light switch - not a big deal.  I haven't updated about it in a while... so, here we go!

I've had a ton of fun with this.  A complete learning experience, and never quite what I expected.  I made a few mistakes, and if I had all the time in the world, I would make one more of these.  I might still, if I want one for myself.  But, this one turned out pretty well even if I feel it's a bit cheesy, all told.

Electricity!

But, I'm jumping the gun a bit.  So, I left off with the eye being mostly finished, at least in my mind at that point.  The paper mache had dried, and the iris had been... semi-painted. 

From the beginning, I had this idea of adding a cornea to the eye as well.  I felt like the white tissue paper was translucent enough to work.  And with a hole cut in the iris for the pupil, I could get a balloon in far enough to make a small armature for the cornea.

 So, I taped down the balloon to flatten it out some, and started to add a very, very thin layer of paper mache.  I put a release on the balloon and only wanted to use one layer of the tissue paper.  I wasn't even sure if it would stand up on it's own after removing the balloon.  I let it dry for two days, just to make sure.

And, it worked!  Sorta.  I wasn't very happy with it, though.  The paper wasn't nearly as translucent as expected.  Very milky white.  I'm still not sure why it didn't dry quite as see-through as it seemed to on the eye itself.  It may have to do with the color under it when it was on the retina though.  But, I left it for now.

Late one night, I decided to modify the lighting rig.  I had two door lights, the ones with the magnetic opener.  So, I ripped one apart.  Just completely demolished the casing in the hopes of lessening the space it takes up.  And, low and behold, it worked! 

This was a pretty big gamble, and the magnetic on/off switch did die (and I have not a single clue why.  there's nothing that actually broke.  So why would the magnetic on/off stop working outside the plastic?)  However, this time, the reward was worth the risk.  Although I did lose the diffuser effect.

All lit up, with the (mostly opaque) cornea.

I decided that it was way past time to get the backing painted.  I sketched out where I wanted the otic cup and fovea, and the vessels.  I did make the arteries match up to the thread arteries on the eye itself.  I'm inordinately proud of that.

I added a basic orange, and then a few layers to help lay things out.  And I decided to use the fovea as a type of light source.

Laying in artery placement

Adding shadows to the vessels

So I started to block in where I wanted the arteries to be.  And I found out that trying to paint tiny arteries on a 4 x 4" square with a set of brushes meant for 30 x 40" canvases at the least... is difficult. 

Very difficult.

Shadows.

More shadows.

I stared to add in the shadows that would be cast onto the retina wall.  And I started layering in the shadow more loosely, trying to get a more natural feel.  I kept the style pretty rough, though.

More shadows, still.

Highlights!

I made the shadows deeper, and started to use different colors.  I also defined the otic cup a bit more.

Then I added highlights along the vessels themselves.

 

Then I got a little crazy with the shadows and color layering.  The entire piece had felt a little disconnected, and I couldn't figure out why.  So I went more dramatic.  I layered in a few layers of shadow over the whole thing, and then I added a red and orange layer for good measure.  It's not perfect, but it's a sight better than it was.

But then I got a little paint happy.

I decided that since the background and the retina of the eye had taken color so well, I was going to add some to the white and just a hit of blue on the cornea.

It looked horrible.

Luckily, it peeled off.  Sorta.  the entire cornea was ripped off just like a bit of paint.  Goodbye, cornea.  Not sure I'm going to miss you.

With a combination of scraping, knives, sandpaper of various grits, and judicious use of finger nails, I was able to get the majority of the white paint off.  Nasty paint.

And I took a huge leap of faith and cut a viewing window into the eye.  I ended up liking the backdrop just a tad too much. 

And, no way to go back now!

Cutting a piece did help me to avoid the area where the white paint wouldn't come off.  This cut section had a short stardom role as test painting for about a hour or so, then was put to pasture as just a useful piece of funk.

I don't know if I'm crazy or just persistent (or both, quite possibly), but I tried paining the sclera once again.  I did test it on the eye scrap, and it turned out alright. 

I wanted the texture between the retina and sclera to match as well - at the moment, both sides are painted over with a black wash and then blotted dry to preserve some of the translucency.

I also added some different colors to the iris.  Made it a light blue with more striations and mixed in just a hint of green.  Mostly blue, as you can see.  Some iridescence as well.

Let there be light!

And that brings us back here.  Once I retrieve my eye from Stanford, I'll post some 'finished' pictures.  And consider not doing a blow by blow again... that makes for some long posts.

Paper Mache Eye - Take 2, part 2

 So, the next steps of this paper mache eye are complete.  I'm finally at the 'painting the backing' stage.  But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Here is the photo documentation of these stages of the paper mache eye.

So, I last left off with many, many stages of white tissue paper sclera over the retina.  However, those layers were covering up the initial vessels made of thread.  So, I added another layer of those onto the sclera alone.  I tried to match the side profiles together as well. 









Here you can see how opaque the tissue paper looks while it has the glue mixture on it.  Because the paste I am using has a high component of Elmer's Glue in it, it adds to the whiteness of the look while it is wet.  It dries clear though.

Hence the vessels looking very prominent once that layer is dry.  I decided to add one more layer on top of this one, as the vessels are just a tad too red for me.

So, the eye in natural light.  I think that I am done with the paper mache part at this point.  The tissue paper sclera is at a very nice thickness, and the iris smallish, but okay.  Time to remove the armature.  Because the eye needs to have the light inside of it and sit on a different backing, it also needs to be able to stand on it's own, without the balloon inside.  Here's hoping the lotion is enough to keep the paper mache and the armature from actually sticking together.

Yay!  I sliced through the edges of the paper mache all along the base about a quarter of an inch in.  And then I cut small vents up to the corners, so the base could be removed, but the paper mache could be glued back onto a new base.  I then cut a small hole hole on the cardboard to better be able to maneuver the base out.  It took a little bit of doing, but I was able to carefully separate the armature from paper mache.

The armature itself deflated when I started to cut into the base.  But, using just the space heater method, it didn't actually deflate the balloon until the very end.

I cut a small pupil into the iris.  This is the thickness of the paper mache at the iris. 

Aaand, a paper mache eye!  One with a retina, non-visual retina, sclera, vessels, iris, and pupil.  I haven't worked out how to do a cornea yet, but that's next on the list.

This is what the paper mache eye looks like with the light inside of it.  I'm pretty excited, all told.  It's really starting to come together.  And the many layers of tissue paper for the sclera are much better than the single thick layer of white that doesn't show as much light through it.  I even like how the non-visual retina doesn't have as much light showing through.  All in all, it's starting to wrap up.







Unfortunately, or fortunately if you think of it in another way, I may have to do this eye over a third time.  As you can see in the last pictures, the eye itself bulges out over the sides of the 4" tile backing. It's not really supposed to do that.  Whoops?  So I may go ahead and make a third eye, made to the absolute correct dimensions.  And it would give me a chance to change the size of the iris as well.  That is one part that I think I would redo if I had the chance.  And who says I don't?  So, once more into the breach.  Nope, with a lack of time, I'm going with this one.  Life catches up with you.  I hope it all works out!

Paper Mache Eye - Take 2

Well, where I left of last time, I had plans for a new eye.  And, not so surprisingly, I've been working on it.  I had a new set of interesting issues that popped up with the new design.  But it's been fun and ... slightly messy.  Paper mache is not a very forgiving medium, or so I've discovered.

Well, to refresh, I did a series of quick sketches to get a better idea behind how I want to structure this new eye. Retina, non-visual retina, iris, sclera, etc.  Possible cornea.

And here, I've used my layout ideas and sketched it out on the tape over my balloon armature.  Just to get that first paper mache layer in a better position.

Alright, I've put on the first layer for all of the anatomical details.  I'm not sure how the layering will work, but I'm game.  I have a yellow base for the retina, a red one for the non-visual retina, and a green for the iris base.  I do want a blue eye eventually. 

I've put a second yellow layer, moving up the side of the non-visual layer. Also, I've put the blue tissue paper on the iris, also moving the iris down the non-visual part of the retina.  I'm hoping to blend everything together using just tissue paper, but it's not looking so good.






Well, I may have forgotten to take a few pictures, but this is the result of a few steps.  I was not liking how the iris was looking at all.  Nothing like an actual iris. So, I scrunched up blue tissue paper into small, semi-trianglular pieces to put radiating out from the pupil.  I also added a few green, and even a yellow one here and there.  It was a mess.  A Mess.  I then added red back over the non-visual retina part. But... I'm still not particularly happy about any of it.  Hmm...

So I tried to put a blue layer of tissue over the iris... but it really wasn't transparent enough.  You will see in the sclera that the white becomes super translucent once dry, but the colors don't have the same reaction.  I think it's because the actual construction of the tissue paper is different.  The white tissue paper falls apart much, much easier.

I have added the vessels before I put the orange layer on.  I brought the orange up over the non-visual part of the retina to try and bring two layers together.






I'm liking the way the vessels look, but not the transition between the retina and the non-visual retina.  Or the iris.  Time to break out something I haven't done in 5 or more years.

Actual painting.  I'm super stoked.  And my little tiny craft table is getting slightly overwhelmed at this point.

Using a light, transparent layer of acrylic paint, I added a reddish blend between retina layers.  And a blue/green iris.  The iris will need another layer of paint, but it's looking good for now.  I'll wait until the eye is closer to finish to put the final touches on the eye.  I didn't want to use paint, I really wanted this to be completely tissue paper, but I'm glad I changed my mind.  The retina, at least, looks a million times better.

I've started to add the sclera onto the eye now.  As you can see, even with two layers of white tissue paper, it's extremely transparent.

I'm using a folded edge to get a better line along the edge, and along the iris edge.

As you can see here, the wet layer looks really, really thick.  It can be difficult to judge where I need more paper while the paper is wet.  I do believe that this is 8th layer?  I'm also trying to add at least two layers of tissue at a time, not just one.

This is that previous layer, mostly dry.  There will be a little more translucency gained as it dries overnight.  But, I'm going to add one more layer on tonight, and then let it dry.  I'm also going to add one more layer of vessels, since the white has finally started to cover the original ones. 










I'm getting closer to the finish of this incarnation of my eye.  I may do one more after this one, if it doesn't turn out the way I want, but I'm pretty close.  I have one more eye tile to do, and I came up with a great idea today.  But we do have a little more to cover as far as the eye goes.  The tissue paper is surprisingly strong when it is dry too.  Signing off!

Paper Mache Eye

I'm taking anatomy a little more sculptural in the this (and at least one follow-up) post.  I want to make a paper mache eye.  And not just any type of eye.  I have a few restrictions - the eye has to be on a 4" x 4" board.  I want to include a light at the back.  I want the retina to be translucent but the sclera to be mostly opaque.  I'm including thread as vessels in the eye.  I'm working out how to make the cornea too...


So, I've tried one eye and it worked out... okay.  Not fantastic, but a good first concept.  I also learned that paper maché takes forever.

Much of what I've been trying has been inspired by The Ultimate Paper Mache blog and her book, Make Animal Sculptures with Paper Mache Clay.  I haven't actually used the clay yet, although it looks super cool.  But I've found some great information about different types of paper mache binders and papers to use.  Now, here's the different things I've tried out on my first couple of rejected eyes.

This first attempt was pure glue directly on the balloon.  It didn't work.  At all.  But, it was a good experience.  I did some more reading and found about things like shells and masking tape and mixtures and such.

So, I scrapped the first balloon and moved on to a second attempt.  This one I actually taped down to a 4" x 4" piece of cardboard.  And I then used lotion to cover the tape.  This will (theoretically) make the eye structure separate from the mold much easier in the future.

I also switched to a glue/water mixture - roughly 1 part water for 4 parts glue.  Very roughly.

So, I've covered my taped and lotioned up balloon with yellow tissue paper and the paper maché glue mixture.  At this point, I'm not really planning on the actual eye.  I'm mostly testing things out  I don't even know if tissue paper will make the type of translucent retina that I am going for.


I do know that I want to use a mixture of yellow and orange tissue paper combined with red thread to make the retina.  Probably.

Right now I have this slightly strange expectation that the back of the eye will be along one side of this rounded square.  I'm not sure what I was thinking, but that was what I had fixated in my mind at the time.  So, I started to grow my vessels from that area, as they would have been carried through the optic channel.  That's what I get for poor planning...

I am laying the thread on and covering it with orange paper.  I already have around 3 layers of yellow paper on. The construct is kinda stiff, but still bendable.  I am using a space heater to dry the layers faster at some points.

I've started to try and add a sclera on half the eye.  I added more vessels under the white... as is apparent.  However, even with three layers of white, I'm not seeing much of any white.  It did give me a great idea for the cornea though.

And then I got a little... too enthusiastic to get that white look.  I think for the future, I need to be very, very patient and build up the thin layers of paper.  This just doesn't look right, and you can barely see any vessels underneath.

I put another layer of vessels on and a different type of white paper over it.  It's still not thin enough, but it was better.  After thinking about it, I'm not too upset about needing 15 million layers of white tissue paper- actual sclera is pretty thick compared to the retina.






And another lesson in patience.  Instead of relying upon the space heater for drying purposes, I tried to put the mostly dry eye into the oven.  It didn't work.  My understructure completely collapsed.

Neat balloon and tape texture from the broken understructure.

I cut the eye from the base.  This is a view of the inside, no pupil.

You can see some of the vessels better once that paper was dry.  I added in some linseed oil to the paper maché paste in these last few layers.  It gave it a great sheen and a bit more transparency.

Let there be light!  My little drawer light looks pretty cool in there.  I have some ideas on how to be able to turn a battery powered light on and off from outside the eye, but I'll go into more detail on those when I actually start to implement them.

And a view with the overhead light off.  Even the sclera has just a bit of bleed through.  As such, it may need a solid red layer underneath it to give a better color under the white.










Well, that first eye was a lot of fun.  And it taught me a great deal about paper maché and binding mixtures, etc.  My hands also smell like a strange combination of linseed oil, soap, glue, and coco butter lotion...

However, one thing I definitely noticed right off was that I didn't have a great plan on that first eye.  I didn't lay the tape out well, so the wrinkles formed from the tape carried through the tissue paper layers.  I was lazy and used large strips of paper.  These wrinkled quite a bit, going over the curves of the balloon.  So, smaller bits it is.  And I need to figure out what I want to do with the iris before I actually start the build.

I did some very, very simple sketches of an eye to better understand the underlying anatomy. 


There is the pupil area, which is just a hole.  And it will be a hole in this build as well.  It will let the light through and it will allow people to see the painted back surface after the eye is done.  (Because the paper maché is just half of an eye, the back half will be painted onto the flat piece of board the eye is going to be mounted on.)

Then we have the iris itself.  I think I want this eye to be blue, as that will contrast with the orange retina the best.  However, I want some color variation, not just plain blue tissue paper, so I hope that turns out okay.  We'll see, as I start to build up the color.  I'm not expecting the iris to be transparent at all.

I'm not going to be simulating the cilliary body or the lens.  At least, I'm not planning to at this point.  It would be very tough.  I would have to find some sort of clear oval object to hang, or sew, directly behind the pupil.  And I don't really want to obscure the view of the back of retina.  Hmm...  Nope, not planning on including it right now.

The retina actually has an area that is 'nonvisual' and I think I'm going to try to use color to differentiate it.  It's directly ancillary to the iris, which makes perfect sense if you think about it.  It's not depicted well in many images, but I'm going to try to make it a reddish blueish orangish color.  We'll see.  I want it to blend well with the rest of the retina while still being distinct. I'm thinking that it would be pretty awesome to blend the transparency as well, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that part.

And finally we have the retina and sclera layers.  The retina I will be adding to the entire eye.  That way the inside of the eye will be completely contiguous with the drawing on the back of the illustration board.  The sclera will only cover half of the eye, as it did in the original concept.

I've started working on a third balloon, and I'll expound upon that as I work more on it.