I was making a stuffed animal recently that called for button eyes, but as a lot of parents get nervous about buttons as choking hazards I decided to go with my favorite standby, felt.
I sketched out three different eyes, the two above and one more closed eye with the eyelashes in the middle. I cut them out of felt and put them on the toy. I knew immediately that I liked the closed eye look the best. To me, it said cuddly bedtime buddy in a way that the open eye did not.
My husband took one look at it and made his choice known. "I like the open eye. The other ones just look like blue dots, not eyes."
So I decided, as a bunch of you know, to send out an e-mail with several photos of the different eyes on the animal. I didn't let anyone know what was up, just that I needed help making a decision and I anxiously awaited the opinions.
What I found out was that exactly half of the people agreed with me, and half of them agreed with my husband. Normally in a situation like that I would go with my gut, BUT, the people who preferred the closed eye generally made comments like, "Oh! I love them all, but the closed eye is my favorite!"...the people who agreed with my husband commented things like, "I don't like the closed eye AT ALL."
It was enough to make me go back to the drawing board. I googled the type of animal I was making (a surprise for someone who reads here, to be revealed later) and grabbed out the sketch book yet again. I came up with this. I think it's a decent compromise.
I liked the half open eye the best, and I still stand by that...it gave a lazy look that you've lost by leaving off the eyelid.
ReplyDeleteI do like the new brown iris better than the old blue one, though...and I really like the white highlights on the pupil.
As a compromise, you've done very well...as you always do :)
Wow...I'm glad I proofread that before I hit the post button, I had typed "gave a lazy xxxxxxxxx look..." I would have blown the surprise and you would have whacked me upside the head. Yikes.