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[aspiring artists] your favorite small-eye designs

  • Started 5 years ago by Rick, currently has 30 posts - latest post is by Satoko

  • Poll: Do you like manga where most characters have small eyes?
    Yes : (2 votes)
    8 %
    Yes, I like "iconic" little dots for eyes : (0 votes)
    Yes, I like "realistic" small eyes like in the Buck Rogers illustration : (3 votes)
    12 %
    Some characters should have small eyes and some characters should have big eyes, like in Cowboy Bebop : (12 votes)
    48 %
    No, everyone should have big eyes, like in Shinryaku Ika Musume : (1 votes)
    4 %
    I've never seen a manga where most characters didn't have big eyes : (0 votes)
    All the poll options suck : (5 votes)
    20 %
    None of the above : (2 votes)
    8 %

    25 votes

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  1. Avatar Image

    Rick

    Many of us here are probably either artists or aspiring artists.

    I want to get back to drawing, but I want to design character models with small eyes.

    In this thread we discuss small eyes in character design: whether they suck, whether they are always drawn consistently, etc.

    Here's an example of a design that's excellent in its own way, and has fairly small eyes, but is not what I'm aiming at: Yuki from xxxHolic. Sometimes her eyes look pretty small, at other times they look very different. Her character design is very "iconic" and not as "realistic" as the other designs.

    The non-Yuki pictures are examples of what I'm aiming at:

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    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  2. Avatar Image

    Nin

    I like small eyes a lot. I especially liked them in Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's style.

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    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  3. Avatar Image

    ☆ БОSS ☆

    I like how they do it for Case Closed
    simplistic uncute eyes for men and depending on the type of woman, more detailed eyes.

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    1. DETECTIVE_EYES.png 5 years old
    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  4. Avatar Image

    Nin

    ^Sounds like One Piece.

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    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  5. Avatar Image

    King Tiger

    tie breaker:
    Some characters should have small eyes and some characters should have big eyes, like in Cowboy Bebop

    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  6. Avatar Image

    Rick

    Ninsheart said:
    I like small eyes a lot. I especially liked them in Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's style.

    Sadamoto clearly had a huge impact on anime. A lot of stuff that I see looks like the artists taught themselves to draw by imitating his stuff.

    I should also note that small eyes are not enough to make me like a character design style.

    I really had to make an effort to stay in the room when my friends decided to watch "Initial D" because the character designs somehow repelled me.

    It's also worth noting that while big eyes can be expressive with their shapes, some of the small eyes in the VOTOMS picture below have "sanrippu" i.e. the iris is showing well beyond the eyelid. The Japanese apparently consider "sanrippu" a sign of unhealthy, imbalanced excitement.

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    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  7. Avatar Image

    Rick

    And apparently I can't just attach the image files to make them show up in the original post...


    Okay in the top picture, four out of five guys are showing "sanrippu."


    I think only the guy on the right qualifies as "sanrippu."

    Attachments

    1. Armord-Trooper-VOTOMS42670.jpg 5 years old
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    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  8. Avatar Image

    Omomo

    Nodame Cantabile, is my favorite for sure.

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    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  9. Avatar Image

    soup

    the guy behind Shin Angyo Onshi always drew nice eyes imo. manga, but the art in the movie was pretty good as well iirc.

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    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  10. Avatar Image

    Nin

    Also,

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    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  11. Avatar Image

    Misakite

    YESSSSS LAYTON

    I suck at small eyes, because I keep getting disturbed by the amount of empty space on the face when I draw them.

    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  12. Avatar Image

    alex251

    I love this option:
    "All the poll options suck"
    should be in every poll :)

    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  13. Avatar Image

    maid

    It really depends on the genre and the character... Anything is fine, I think...

    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  14. Avatar Image

    giascle

    I like smaller eyes. The size doesn't have to be 100% realistic, just not giant kawaii orbs. Sadamoto's style is a perfect example.

    Different sizes sounds good in theory, but it's actually worse than all big or all small. I'm fine with one or the other, but having such an obvious variation always takes me out of the experience. I couldn't completely like the designs in Baccano; I was impressed the background characters' eyes were sometimes normal, and then in comes one of the girls with typical anime size.

    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  15. Avatar Image

    TyChan (Is a Girl)

    I love different sizes; the variety batch. Different types of eyes on people can just say what type of person they may be. When you see big eyes you are like this person is either acts childish or is a child while small and slim points to a sexier more seductive look. The eyes that take up 2/3 of a characters face I'm not a fan of, but tolerant.

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    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  16. Avatar Image

    giascle

    tychan said:

    Tenshi sort of <333

    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  17. Avatar Image

    Mizushima 水島

    eyes never bothered me

    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  18. Avatar Image

    ZombieMan

    I think that it depends on the style and your taste.

    For me, I really dislike how in some animes they draw males, and old people in certain way, and then they draw girls in a Totally different way! Like old people have small eyes and a actual nose and young girls have huge eyes and no nose at all.

    It just doesn't make any sense!

    I like smaller eyes better in manga, not to mention that most of the people that are trying to draw manga use the big eyes and almost no nose at all because that's popular right now, and that makes most of the manga artist have generic styles.

    Also it really depends on the tone of the story, if is a serious and mature story, you should try to aim to a more realistic style with smaller eyes... At lesta I can't stand serious stories or gore stories that have the big eyes style like in High School of the Dead.

    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  19. Avatar Image

    Vespertine Aspergerian Nincompoop

    ZombieMan said:
    I think that it depends on the style and your taste.

    For me, I really dislike how in some animes they draw males, and old people in certain way, and then they draw girls in a Totally different way! Like old people have small eyes and a actual nose and young girls have huge eyes and no nose at all.

    It just doesn't make any sense!

    I like smaller eyes better in manga, not to mention that most of the people that are trying to draw manga use the big eyes and almost no nose at all because that's popular right now, and that makes most of the manga artist have generic styles.

    Also it really depends on the tone of the story, if is a serious and mature story, you should try to aim to a more realistic style with smaller eyes... At lesta I can't stand serious stories or gore stories that have the big eyes style like in High School of the Dead.

    I don't want to start a quarrel, but I honestly have to point out how contradictory you're being. First you're on about how people should limit their art style to one or two options, but then you're talking about how the very thing you just mentioned is destroying the industry. Well, more or less. At least the point about context made some good sense and I've got to say I agree with you a bit on that one.

    ...thoouuuuugh honestly I think it's very possible to make a horror series with a somewhat goofy art style. Take Yuji Iwahara's King of Thorn for example.

    Hm. I guess my example is more suspenseful than scary though... I don't remember feeling really scared.

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    Posted 5 years ago # Quote
  20. Avatar Image

    TyChan (Is a Girl)

    Maybe the goofyness of the characters style helps lighten the mood.

    Posted 5 years ago # Quote

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