One of the first things I said in Art Tutorials 1 was "No portraits, I have a difficult time executing eyes". From that moment on I became absolutely fixated on this idea of intentionally distorting eyes in a series of portraits. They say eyes are the window to the soul. After reading a psychology segment focused on eyes I have learned the reasons behind this saying. The best way to get to know someone is looking them in the eyes-they reveal truth about ourselves and our emotional state. Our eyes are the most sincere part of our face; a sense of vulnerability, trust vs. distrust, security, contentment, fear, etc. There is a nonverbal language in our eyes; happiness, sadness, attention, anger, uncertainty. The eyes are involuntary. For example, the dilation and contraction of our pupil size is not something we can control. Therefore, our eyes are a direct reflection of how we feel. I also looked at quotes relating to eyes in a religious sense. Bible verse Matthew 6:22-24 states, "The eye is the lamp of the body. You draw light into your body through your eyes, and light shines out to the world through your eyes". My idea for my tutorials project is to have the eyes of the subject melting away. If our eyes are melting they cannot reveal how we are feeling. These melting eyes are a shield, a form of self protection against having to be vulnerable. I have been sketching eyes for the past few days trying to figure out how exactly I want to execute them.
