#7: Jeniffer's Eyes
One reason to hate drawing while riding in a car is that it's hard. One thing to
like about it is that it's an opportunity to think much longer on it than you
normally would. I did the top picture of this image just messing around trying
action poses, which are sort of a weakness of mine, trying to sketch out one of
the most cliched ones I could think of from memory. Finishing it though I noticed
a problem that I've had for awhile now, and that her eyes, while looking
ok, didn't seem to function as they normally do in the rest of the strip.
Normally, when she looks left, the curve is on the right, when she's looking
right, the curve is on the left. So logically if she's looking straight forward
then the curve should be right between those two points in the center, right?
This is one of those instances though where trying to make parts of my strip
more realistic runs directly into conflict with the stylized way I prefer to draw.
I have some truly embarrassing sketches from years ago where I painfully work out
a realistic human figure and basically pasted a cartoon head on.
Here it comes out in the aspect of what the heck is that thing traveling back and
forth that's acting as her eye? And why is it that if it's normally on the opposite
side, does it suddenly point in the same direction in this instance?
I think I've settled on that if 'S's eyes are sort of like the pupil moving back and
forth, Jeniffer's are a bit more like the iris, which is more or less visible depending
on which way they are pointing. This also fits a bit better with the Mr. Snodgers
Neighborhood Jeniffer eye they were based on coincidentally. Part of me still
can's say whether I like the old way or the new one better, but there's no
question that the new one feels more correct.
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