Well, I sure am looking older lately!
I was shocked the other day when I saw how ancient I looked in the steak post. In particular, I was amazed to see that I had dead eyes in a couple of pictures (above). You know what dead eyes are...they're blank, lifeless eyes that indicate the person behind them has no significant mental life at all. You see them on older people. Geez!
Actually it's not the age indication that has me worrying. I'm paniced because the the dead eyes make me look stupid and half asleep! Is
that what lies ahead for me?
Even Rembrandt (above) developed dead eyes. The gods can be cruel.
What's the difference between young, vibrant eyes (above), and the dead eyes that older people get? Well. young people have smooth, colorful skin, and less pronounced brows. They have wide-open eyes, and brighter pigment in the corneas and irises.
They also have more highlights. I guess that means their eyes are more moist.
Add highlights to Rembrandt's eyes (above) and they come alive. They look kind of evil here, but we'll overlook that. Hmmmm. Now this is interesting!
If highlights are all it takes to get more youthful eyes then we can all rejoice, because those are easy to acquire. All you need is untreated contact lenses. Maybe even ordinary glasses will do the trick.
I'm not worried about bags under the eyes or wrinkles. John Huston had plenty of both and still succeeded in looking good. What matters is vibrancy. It's all about your eyes hinting that you have some kind of mental life.
Hmmmmm. I see that Huston had squinty eyes. That seems to work as well as highlights. Alright, that gives me my agenda! Expect to see me squinting and wearing glasses more often!
11 comments:
Oh, your fine, Eddie. You look all right to me.
Quit yer navel gazing, Narcissus - and Happy 2011!
Those don't look like dead eyes to me, Eddie, they looked like they have an expression of "determined earnestness" in explaining the steak.
Steven, Jorge: Thanks!
Mike: Haw! Happy New Year to you, too!
Eddie, you certainly look fine to me. In fact, you still have the energy and spontaneity of a really young cartoonist to me. Funny how I'm the one whose worrying about growing old right now, yet I haven't even experienced what real life is all about yet.
Happy new year, and here's to another year of funny theories and laughs from the master himself.
I wouldn't have called that expression 'dead eyes', more sort of absent, the look my stepmother describes as 'either he's thinking of something very deep, or of nothing at all'.
Best wishes for 2011 to you Eddie!
Bags under eyes is oddly fascinating to me, for some reason.
When drawing characters, if their eyes are round I always had the tendency to add bags under it, ALWAYS, even if the character is supposed to be young. I don't know why, maybe because it just looks funny.
These days, though, if the character is young I only add bags if they are clearly distressed or about to cry.
I love the Eddie the Brontosauraus picture.
Happy New Year, buddy!
Yes, nice Eddiesaurus.
somehow strikes me as Soupy Sales-esque, to turn a phrase.
Eddie, that's just not the most representative photo of you, that's all. In most of your pics and videos too, you still have that delightfully mischievous glint in your eyes, like the young Jack Lemmon or Harpo Marx. You do make for a pretty funny looking dinosaur, though, but for the love of God (or Darwin), eat some MEAT, Eddie!!
Hmm... I think I have a theory about the dead eyes. I think as we get older the sagging brows cause more shadow inside the eye socket area.
It's those reflective highlights caused by direct light sources reflecting in the eyes that give them those sparkly highlights that make eyes look bright.
The sagging brows must block most light sources which tend to be higher (ceiling lights, the sun).
Maybe next time your taking a photo make sure there is a lower light source to reflect in your eyes- maybe something at eye-level.
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