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Throwback: Melting Eyes

sumbenton

At some point in high school, I started drawing lots of characters with weird melting eyes. I have no idea why. If it held any kind of meaning to me back then, I've forgotten it. I suspect I was doing it for no actual reason besides thinking it looked cool. It was probably just my attempt at having a recognizable style. Now, looking at these drawings with my 25 year old brain, I find the eyes so bizarre I simply have to analyze them.

bald man illustration with dripping eyes
illustration of woman with melting eyes

At first glance, the eyes look sad to me. They're almost like an eye combined with a dripping teardrop. But the pupil being dragged down with it also makes them seem sort of drugged up or something. I find all the people I drew this way hard to look at because their eyes are so inhuman. Staring at them for too long makes my own eyes feel weird; like they're dripping down my face.

illustration of girl with green jacket and zebra
illustration of man with melting eyes and leafy background

Their gaze is weird because it's sort of looking out at the viewer, but sort of not. In art school, we studied Manet's "Olympia" (1863) and talked about how it was controversial at the time of its creation because it depicted a nude woman staring out at the viewer in a confronting manner rather than averting her gaze demurely. This really changes the way it feels to look at the painting. It's the difference between watching someone who doesn't know they're being watched and watching someone who watches you right back.


These droopy eye drawings sit somewhere in the middle for me. They might be staring straight ahead at the viewer, but it's hard to tell if they're really looking. The result is uncanny and unnerving.


illustration of man with melting eyes and wavy hair
illustration of girl with melting eyes pouring wine

At one point, I started what I thought would be a whole graphic novel in this style. Like many projects I began as a teenager, it went unfinished. I don't think it would have turned out very good anyway with eyes like these. I find them too distracting, not to mention sort of emotionless and dead.


illustration detail from comic of girls with melting eyes
illustration detail from comic of girls with melting eyes

I haven't drawn anything with eyes like these in a long time, but I still have the same impulse to make weird looking art. Exaggerated proportions, unnatural features, and random style decisions remain an important part of my work. I'm happy to have evolved past these freaky melting eyes though.


Now I have to stop looking at them before my eyes drip into my lap.


illustration of shark with melting eyes
illustration of girl with melting eyes and braids
illustration of grandma opening gifts with melting eyes
illustration of girl in weird pose with melting eyes

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©2022 by Summer Benton. 

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