I have a question about building up the eye rings, when you set your eyes do you set them a little wider to make room for the eye lid? It seems when I set my eyes and then work on the lids the eye looks a little more closed, any help would be great
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Most waterfowl species have very small eye lides. Wood ducks are an exception. There are at least two good ways to do eyelids. The first method, you set your eyes on your artificial head w/ Apoxie sculpt and let it cure. Then, come back and put a roll of apoxie sculpt around the eye in a fashion that resembles the eye lid you want to recreate... It should be bigger than it needs to be. Take a needle or tool of your choosing and begin to remove excess apoxie by "pushing" it off with the tool. Once you have the size and shape correct, you can texture it with a pin. Let it cure, then mount your bird and make sure the eye skin matches up to the eyelid.
The second method, you mount your bird and let it dry. Then, take a syringe that you can shoot caulk through (you'll have to find one that works) but that lets it come out in a fine line. Get some black caulk and go around the eye with the syringe and put your eyelid on that way. Take a small brush and sculpt the caulk how it needs to be. Dip the brush in water to help. Once you have it how you want it, take a hair dryer and hit the are with warm, air from a distance to help the caulk firm up, then use a pin to texture.