Why the huge irises?!

Hmmm I usually may go for a somewhat bigger iris on younger or youthful /innocent looking dolls, but in general I like a little white showing as it looks more natural and mature to me, lately I mainly use something no larger than 14mm and one doll (my only guy right now) has 12mm. My main issue sometimes is getting the right "eye" and "iris/pupil" ratio going. Like the iris is a good size but the well sockets are made to fit a larger/smaller eye size... so basically the whole size could be too small or too big but have the right iris size ^^;.

 

My dolls may be human, but they're also characters from a fantasy-story - so I prefer a more magical look from their eyes. But this hobby is about personal aesthetics: whatever makes you happy makes us happy (:

 

In MOST of my dolls, I prefer larger iris size, with less white. It's and aesthetic that appeals to me. In very FEW of my dolls I prefer smaller iris with larger whites. I even have 1 doll planned that is meant to be ALL iris, with no white showing. Well...his iris are meant to be nearly white themselves, but still, the whites around that are not meant to be seen.

 

I prefer a little white showing, depending on the doll. My Bory girl looks too angry with too much white in the eye, but the others look better with a smaller iris.

I recommend glass Kanis Augen eyes which are very realistic in appearence. They do come in a 12mm size (and smaller), but the irises also run a little smaller too.

 

I put 12mms in my MSD sized girl only recently and I couldn't be more pleased. They look fantastic, in my opinion. But I think her girlfriend, despite being from the same company and of the same size, will be using 14mms. It will suit her character better.

It's all personal perspective, and character related in my opinion. What works for one won't work for another!

 

I'd say it depends on the doll. Personally, I prefer a more realistic size.... but that's just because when I don't see any white at all it just reminds me of alien eyes, and that creeps me out just a bit. I think it's just a matter of personal preference.

 

I'm also of the type that say it depends on the doll, but I generally prefer the iris to be large. I like the unrealistic look but still want a good bit of white in the eyes.

 

Personally, I would always go for smaller irises! I've seen a ga-billion photos of simply beautiful dolls, but their eyes are just black holes in their faces...! That's a little creepy to me :< .

For example, when my Ai arrived, she didn't have eyes waiting for her but I put 14mm brown eyes in her:



But I really hated them;; I was so relieved when her proper eyes came:



To me, the size difference of only 2mm made such a huge difference!

 

It really depends on the doll for me. In my bigger boys I usually prefer 'semi-realistic' - looking eyes, just a tad too big to look extremely real but not with super huge irises either.
For tinies though, I usually like it when their eyes are huge. It just looks cute to me.

That's just a tendency though; it really varies a lot depending on the molds themselves, regardless of the general size category of the doll.

 

I am not a fan of huge irises, but it doesn't bother me that much.
My MSD uses 12mm eyes, with a decent amount of white, and I like the way she looks with them.
I bought them here on DoA, from the user dolleyes (quite easy to remember xp)

 

1) does the huge iris problem bother you?

Large irises can make a doll look Cuter and/or Younger. Or they can suit a certain character. If I have a doll that I want a certain look for, I may wish for the hugest iris possible--so no, it does not bother me.

I answered the Poll that I liked smaller irises. I like my dolls to look Older and Not Cute. So I have a reason for wanting more white to show in most of my dolls. It is true that it is a little difficult to find eyes that will fit the eye socket and not gap AND have a smaller iris and show more white--so I understand the problem. But so far, the style has favored larger irises. I think that if you contact eye sellers/makers and request more realistic-sized eyes for your more realistic-styled dolls, it will be more and more possible to find those styles of eyes. If there is a market for something, there will be sellers who are willing to try and accommodate it! But they need to know what you want! AND people who want those sort of eyes need to know where they can find them. So information is key to making such changes.

2) Have you found any really good eyes that have a more natural look and show more white?

I haven't seen many vendors that sell eyes with smaller irises. Souldoll premium eyes tended to have smaller irises, so I own a number of those. And I have some Dollmore eyes. But I haven't found a really great source. And I'd usually go down to the smallest sized eye that would fit the eye-wells...

Anyway--I'll certainly look through this thread to check to see what others know, because I'm definitely interested in finding more out about this myself! Thanks for starting the thread!

 

I like a larger iris, myself, especially if I'm going to put it in a sculpt that has large eyes to begin with (A Yder or an Edgar, for instance-). Putting smaller-irised eyes into one of those guys just makes them look like a rabbit caught in the headlights of an on-coming car, and I don't find the perpetual O_O look attractive. That said, small irises can work a lot better on less owl-eyed sculpts, or dolls with a certain snarky kind of look.

One other potential source of small irises that hasn't been mentioned yet are antique and vintage blown glass eyes. You'll be a little more limited when it comes to the colors available, they can be pricey and finding the right size is an adventure, but those eyes do tend to have lower domes and smaller irises on average than modern solid glass eyes do. (As an example of what those tend to look like, here's my Type 1 Miyu wearing a pair. Hers are antique German glass.)

 

I prefer more natural looking when possible, but it isn't always. Sometimes the eye opening is very big for a smaller doll. There's not much you can do about it

 

Clover's giant eyes make her look adorable! Sarah's eyes are smaller, though she is still a lovely doll

 

No, most doll eyes do not have enormous irises. I have a wide assortment of iris sizes & pupil sizes & eyeball sizes. Big irises are used for a younger & more distant expression. Smaller irises make the doll look older & more alert. Each style has its purposes & applications.

Sometimes, it's not even the size of the iris that's at fault; sometimes the eye's "gaze" is too deep or too flat for the expression you wanted that doll to have. Or maybe it's the color-- sometimes a color you thought would be great just isn't working for that doll.

Often you have to go through a lot of eyeball trial & error. So try not to expect everything to work exactly perfectly on the first try. If you buy a pair of eyes that's too large for Doll A, the same pair may be too small for Doll B, and it may fit nicely in Doll C but make him look too spacey... but it'll be perfect on Doll D.

 

In my opinion, I think it depends the doll. I usually like bigger irises but not one's that make the dolls eye sockets seem like a void. I just like a lot of color. Some dolls though just don't look good with large irises and they end up looking zoned out. Too small irises (on my own) weird me out though. I think eyes that show waaay too much white can look just as odd as the void eye issue.

I have one that probably has way too large eyes, but it's also part of his character so I think it depends that too. He spent most of his live living underground and only coming out in the dark and his eyes ended up adapting to the environment. I wanted to stick to portraying odd looking eyes from his storyline to his actual doll form. And now he has eyes that are a couple sizes on the large (still doesn't look like a void) but I like him that way because of his character.