Eyes and Hair: an amateur's study (edit)

(note: I'm not bashing on these images.  These images are usually where people are coming from when they have an interest in character design)
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I may not be a professional that anyone wants to hear me lecture on this, but even I know this stuff and if I can share my thoughts, it can still help anyone!

I wouldn't really let a topic like this get to me, but so many people are asking these questions to Pros, fellow artists, and me; This is an amateur question that can lead to amateur mistakes, and I feel like I should help the misguided in anyway I can.


Now, I'm not talking about the habit of focusing on the eyes and hair, nor am I trying to say don't waste your time studying them.  But in honesty, some artists use the eyes and hair as a cop-out to character design in the idea of making different characters (example: changing the shapes, color, etc).  Sometimes people spend all their time studying things like- “angular eyes mean they’re evil”, “soft eyes show innocence, used on cute characters”, and so on.


I can tell you that the tutorials you know can be broken by the spear of inspiration and the shield of creativity.
My advice is don’t sit your whole day looking up what makes what work, you’re gonna have to make your own rules if you want to be satisfied with your creations.  If one can't make their own decisions and their own observations, then they won't be your own creations.

I think this will cover for now, but do expect more!

Thank you!

~Matt “Wretneck” Billingsley