this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2024
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So this is a Japanese drawing of French people? Interesting that they still give them Japanese style eyes. I'm guessing that's down to artistic habit.
Like western paintings depicted Jesus as a white man with (sometimes) blond hair.
It's not like the Japanese's eyes are that narrow either. It's more of an ukiyo (this style of pictures) thing. At the time narrow eyes were considered a sign of beauty (citation needed) so they drew eyes like this.
It's funny to me how a lot of older woodblock prints and such narrow eyes are the thing, and then anime comes along and everyone gets massive eyes that take up most of the face.
My wife's half-Japanese and her eyes nearly close when she smiles. Is that what you mean by narrow?
The eyes are somewhat wider than in depictions of Japanese, but stylistic habits are hard to break.
It's also interesting how much thicker they make the eyebrows for non-Japanese, as well as their facial hair. I suppose they were trying to be accurate (or stylistic) of hairstyles at the time.
I think it comes down to them drawing an eye almost as kind of a symbol or representation of an eye, as opposed to drawing from model or reference to capture the actual shape.