Transcription of notes on: hollow eyes, abstract anime, etc.

 Specifically, I was working on the drawing of the eye; less of an analysis on the anime eye, more of building a rationale for a certain way of drawing eyes I'd been doing (ignore the disturbingly crap drawings, they are more like diagrams).

[the notes were written not in an order from top-down/right-left, so the transcription is reordered.

If you are viewing on mobile, the transcription will likely not format itself correctly.]

"Anime proportions are usually compared to being similar to a child's, giving a younger look...

"But why / or is this true?...

[diagram is depicting how the regular human face turns youthful, it remains oval-based, as opposed to the stylized]

"The eye and face shape (mainly in the jaw) changes, but the anime-style remains... an ability to vary between girlish to androgynous, or young to childish remains... (and follows normal face logic).

"Does it require familiarity to identify these characteristics? Does the visual novel eye (absurdly large) only make sense when one is familiar with the logic of the style?

"Like how in cartoon, all looks non-human or young... but the style is usually extreme in consistency: 

We have come to be unable to not associate a mere addition of 3 lines to mean 'female' (except for SpongeBob...)

 

"What are the most notable characteristics of anime?: the large eyes, the small (dot) nose... But it seems the size isn't what matters, but the location or its actual shape, i.e. the eyes are located far away, close to the end of the face, the nose is a tiny bump, not an opening with cartilage, etc...

it becomes more anime-like

suggests / fills in as  or 

 ([pointing to the top of the 3rd eye] a more normal sized eye) etc. so it's up to the viewer?

suggests a  , those who are familiar can fill in the blanks

all suggest anime

specifically is an empty, hollow eye. The iris becomes a hole, the eyeball merges with the flatness of the face or skin.

non-expressive eyes are still able to look:

straight on, left, right, etc...

*** PAGE 2 ***

eyes like this follow the 3D shape of the head, but do the irises have shape themselves? 

[The location of the pupil is] similar to a real eyeball 

(it has a weird but real flatness to it, like a flat image under a dome)

The more typical the anime eye becomes at this angle (stereotypical), the flatter and more drawn-on it looks. The iris is now a drawing on a 3D surface (a painted eye on a sculpture)

What of an empty/hollow eye?

A crevice, a hole, an indent? (opposite of the dome, it caves inwards)

the suggestion of an eye, it exists as an indent or crevice of the skin, and appears like a hole (or can be a hole?).

If eyes are the windows to the soul, then these eyes are holes (windows) to an empty soul.