Little Pig #3 circa 2005<\/p><\/div>\n
At first, I drew Little Pig #3\u2019s dot eyes perfectly round with a little shine in the corner \u2013 they looked almost like little black buttons on his face.\u00a0 I found this way of drawing eyes much more challenging than in my past cartoons.\u00a0 Sure, I\u2019ve used dot eyes occasionally, but never on a main character.\u00a0 Using this method introduced some new challenges.\u00a0 How do I use dot eyes to show varying degrees of emotion?\u00a0 How do I show dot eyes looking up, down, left or right?\u00a0 It was always so simple with my usual way of drawing eyes, but now I was struggling.<\/p>\n
Error the robot from "Made To Malfunction"<\/p><\/div>\n
As long-time fans know, Suburban Fairy Tales took a two-year hiatus starting in 2006 so I could concentrate on Made To Malfunction.\u00a0 The star of this new series was a robot named Error, who also happened to have dot eyes.\u00a0 The way I drew Error\u2019s dot eyes differed from the way I drew Little Pig\u2019s.\u00a0 Error\u2019s eyes were drawn more oval instead of circular, and gone was the little shine that was present in Little Pig #3\u2019s eyes.\u00a0 Being that Error was now the star character, he was featured in almost every strip.\u00a0 So I really had to push the way I drew dot eyes the next two years.\u00a0 By the time Made To Malfunction ended in 2008, I felt I had come a long way with conveying emotion using dot eyes.<\/p>\n
When Suburban Fairy Tales re-started in 2008, I took what I learned from drawing the robot Error and applied it to Little Pig #3.\u00a0 Gone were the little circular button eyes with the shine that I had previously drawn him with.\u00a0 Instead I took the same eyes what I had used for Error \u2013 big, black oval dot eyes \u2013 and put them on Little Pig #3. \u00a0Humpty Dumpty and Goldilocks (a new character) also used these types of eyes as well.<\/p>\n
Little Pig #3 with BIG dead-looking dot eyes in 2009<\/p><\/div>\n
The problem with the big black oval dot eyes on Little Pig #3 (and on Goldilocks and Humpty) was that Error was a robot.\u00a0 Big black oval dot eyes worked well on something made of metal and circuits.\u00a0 But Little Pig #3 was organic, a living thing.\u00a0 Taking a machine\u2019s eyes and applying them to Little Pig didn\u2019t turn out to be the best idea.\u00a0 Error\u2019s dot eyes were just too big for Little Pig\u2019s face \u2013 he looked like he was dead!\u00a0 So as time went on, I shrunk Little Pig #3\u2019s dot eyes (along with Goldilock\u2019s and Humpty\u2019s) to a more acceptable size.\u00a0 Now the size I draw dot eyes are just a tad above what Charles Schultz used for his characters in Peanuts.<\/p>\n
The way I draw dot eyes has been a bit of a roller coaster ride from when I first started, but I\u2019m very happy with the way they have evolved. As they say with anything you do — you only get better with practice.<\/p>\n
Little Pig #3 as he looks in 2012<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"