The eyes have it. Or, rather, we have the eyes.
I thought it’d be fun for this installment of "From The Sketchpad" to look at the subject of eyes. There are a whole bunch of elements that go into a cartoon character, more than I’ll have time or energy to address here. So, to keep it simple – the eyes.
In the upper left we have Nicky the way he normally appears. (YAY NICKY!) And then we have variations. And not just random variations but ones taken from very well known cartoon characters. If you want to test yourself, try and guess where the new eyes come from before reading on.
Top row right shows us what we’d have if Bill Watterson drew Nicky’s eyes, leaving the rest to me. Just grab a Calvin and Hobbes and check out Calvin’s eyes. They’re elongated ovals, sharply pointed at top and bottom, close set and located just over Calvin’s nose. Looks just fine on Calvin but doesn’t really do it for me on Nicky.
Second row left shows the eyes from one of my favorite cartoonists, Berke Breathed. For those of you into Bloom County, these are Binkley’s eyes, placed appropriately. Again, they work swimmingly on Binkley but on Nicky …
Final one up shows two simple dots halfway down the nose. That’s what you’ll find on Hank Ketcham’s Dennis the Menace.
To me, Nicky looks best with his own eyes. And, in like fashion, I suspect if I drew Nicky eyes on Binkley or Calvin or Dennis it would look equally wrong.
This is one reason different characters look SO much different that they’re unmistakable. If a simple change of eyes makes this big a difference, just imagine how much change occurs when the nose varies, and the mouth, and the shape of the head …
- And that’s today’s word from the bird
