Kef Schecter (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} furrykef) wrote,@ 2009-05-21 06:51:00 |
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My favorite facial expression
It recently occurred to me what my favorite facial expression is. But upon further reflection I also realized something odd about it: humans don't actually do it. Well, not the same way cartoon characters do.
The expression in question: when a character lowers his or her eyelids as if to say, "Wow, you're being a fucking idiot." (Example here, at 0:48 -- not an ideal example, but it gets the idea across.) Of course the expression isn't entirely in the eyelids... it's necessary for the eyebrows to be lowered, the mouth to be "flat" rather than smiley or frowny, etc., but the eyelids are the most prominent feature, particularly if your character has large eyes.
But humans just don't do that with their eyelids. They do assume a blank face in such situations, but lowering the eyelids just isn't part of it. In fact, the eyelids play very little role in facial expressions (except when they're closed, of course). Yet if you tried to do that in a cartoon without lowering the eyelids, it just wouldn't convey the same idea at all. Weird, huh?
Another odd thing about it is that it's actually something of a cross between an expression and a gesture. It's not the expression itself that conveys the idea... by itself it just looks bored. It's the act of putting on the face -- the transition -- that sends the message. One moment you're bright and smiley, and then the smile fades and the eyelids come down.
I know this is a bit of a silly thing to make a post about, I guess, but it's kind of funny how we see this expression all the time and don't really think about it. Makes me wonder what else we don't think about.
- Kef
It recently occurred to me what my favorite facial expression is. But upon further reflection I also realized something odd about it: humans don't actually do it. Well, not the same way cartoon characters do.
The expression in question: when a character lowers his or her eyelids as if to say, "Wow, you're being a fucking idiot." (Example here, at 0:48 -- not an ideal example, but it gets the idea across.) Of course the expression isn't entirely in the eyelids... it's necessary for the eyebrows to be lowered, the mouth to be "flat" rather than smiley or frowny, etc., but the eyelids are the most prominent feature, particularly if your character has large eyes.
But humans just don't do that with their eyelids. They do assume a blank face in such situations, but lowering the eyelids just isn't part of it. In fact, the eyelids play very little role in facial expressions (except when they're closed, of course). Yet if you tried to do that in a cartoon without lowering the eyelids, it just wouldn't convey the same idea at all. Weird, huh?
Another odd thing about it is that it's actually something of a cross between an expression and a gesture. It's not the expression itself that conveys the idea... by itself it just looks bored. It's the act of putting on the face -- the transition -- that sends the message. One moment you're bright and smiley, and then the smile fades and the eyelids come down.
I know this is a bit of a silly thing to make a post about, I guess, but it's kind of funny how we see this expression all the time and don't really think about it. Makes me wonder what else we don't think about.
- Kef
