This is a great project to get some confidence drawing. I know you can draw an eyeball! Practice on a piece of paper a few times to convince yourself.
1. EYEBALL BASE: I like to use glow in the dark clay for the eyeball, but I started out with translucent, which worked well. It might be fun to try some other variations. I make the clay into an oval cabochon shape. Bake it like usual, making sure not to overheat since it seems the GITD clay browns easily. Sand the eyeball with 320 grit sandpaper to get it ready to draw on.
Basically, I make these beads in three steps: The eyeball base, the iris and pupil drawing, then the "scales." I plan the size of the bead (at least 3/8 inches thick) so that I can comfortably get a stringing hole in the bead.
2. DRAWING: This may be my favorite part.I draw on the eyeball just like outlined in the "how to draw on PC.."tutorial. The eyeball doesn't usually need to be sanded as much as the face drawings, so 4 layers of TLS works great. Sand and buff (but don't apply varnish) before putting on the scales.
3. SCALES: I've used lots of different techniques for the scales, but I'll describe my favorite here. I apply a thin layer (maybe 1/16 inch) around the eyeball of black clay, leaving the eye opening in approximately the shape I want. At this point, I don't need to be too careful because I'm going to apply another layer of black clay. I bake this and it becomes the base for the scales.
4. FINISHING: I love to use sparkles on the scales. I found some very cool sparkles in the stamp department of a craft shop that are very dark. There's blue, black and copper for example. The sparkles are very fine. Sometimes I blend the different colors to come up with something unique. I apply, with a small brush, a thin layer of polyurethane to the scales, then sprinkle the sparkles over the wet polyurethane. I let this dry. Often I paint on a little more polyurethane and sprinkle more sparkles to get maximum coverage. After this has dried, I dab a thin layer of polyurethane all over the sparkles to keep them from rubbing off. To finish the eyeball I apply two layers of polyurethane (in a sparkle free environment!)
5. THE STRINGING HOLE: This is actually the last step. I just use a very small drill bit to make a horizontal hole.
^ This is an example of a basic eyeball I might draw. To get ideas, I've been known to stare into someone's eyes for an uncomfortably long time.
^ This is a close up of how they look after I've drawn on them and baked on 4 layers of TLS. Pretty creepy, huh?
These two eyes are the same ones as above with their scales on. This is how they look before I've sculpted them and before I've applied the sparkles.>
< This is "Vertock." The very same green eye pictured above in its final state.
I then play with different "scales" and horns and pointy thingies and all that until I get more or less the design I want. After I bake this, I like to carve it a bit to get sharper points and refine the look.
This is "Fuschey." The same violet eye pictured above >
