Cross eyed dolls?

i never noticed that o.o usually i have an eye for such things, but i guess the dolls usually arent photographed from the front, so its harder to notice

 

I sometimes have a very hard time adjusting my dolls' eyes,
because I happen to love extremely squint-y/narrow-eyed dolls. ^ ^;;
I've yet to find a pair of eyes that fit perfectly in all of them,
so a lot of the time they'll look slightly crossed eyed, but not on purpose.

Other times (and precisely because of the bad fit) the eyes will just
readjust themselves while I'm in the process of taking photos,
so that's another issue... they'll have a slightly lazy-eye, bad fitting eyes are a pain,
haven't found a solution yet.

I do notice misaligned eyes (most often in real-life-people though! It's disturbing),
whether they are crossed or just not aligned properly when they are side-glancing,
or staring into space... but don't do much gallery-browsing so I don't see it too often
in many dolls. I would never mention it though, I think it is rude to mention things
like that to people you don't actually know (I don't think I actually "know" many
people in this hobby, so...). XD


- Enzyme ^ ^

 

Some heads do tend to make eye placement difficult because of the way the inner eye sockets are shaped and the way the eyeholes sit on the head... however I think most cases of cross eyed or wall eyed dolls are simply people who aren't very good or very practiced at eye placement (and probably a few who have poor eyesight, arthritic hands, or other medical/health reasons that would make fine adjustments tougher). It can be tricky, but taking your time and looking at the head from multiple angles can help improve the placement a lot.

Personally I also find that oddly placed eyes can really decrease my enjoyment of doll photos and sometimes even make them seem unsettling to me- so much of human expression is in the eyes and of course our minds carry that over to dolls very easily. A small adjustment can make a huge difference in the doll's "expression", even though the sculpt and faceup may remain identical.

 

That bugs me too, but wall-eyed dolls bug me more. I wont look at either, >.<

 

If it's really obvious then it does bug me a little...though for a while Sophia had crossed eyes because I really am rather mean to her XD it actually looked quite cute!

 

I usually have a difficult time changing my dolls eyes cuz my dolls strings are incredibly tight, makeing it difficult for me to take of the top of the head in order to fix the eyes.

When I notice I did it wrong, I usually try my hardest to fix it and most the time it comes out fine.

But I can't help but OCD with you about really wanting to change the dolls eyes just because they don't look, well not straight in the sense, but in the samedirectin as the other eye.

 

Good question - I do find it hard to look at askew eyes - and find it a challenge to see on my own dolls if the eyes are aligned properly - sometimes it takes looking at a photo of them to know for certain. Being short on eye putty can create slippage later on.

In many cultures gazing into the other person's eyes is how we find out about each other. When the eyes look crooked or are covered with hair, we often experience discomfort or mistrust. I suppose it holds true for dolls sometimes too. I like to "look 'em in the eye"

 

The third from bottom pic on here always makes me lol: http://www.raurencio.net/shop/step1.php?number=598
And this is an actual promo shot! I think this sculpt coud look ok, actually, but some sculpts always seem to look a bit cross eyed.
It can be a bit off-putting. Especially when a lot of care has obviously been taken with everything else in the photo.

 

Either wall-eyed or cross eyes make me pretty much unable to enjoy a photostory or gallery post. >< All I can focus on is the eyes, and how it would be so easy to fix and did they even look at the dolls? ...Sorry, spaz moment there. But yeah, it bothers me SO MUCH when the doll's eyes are off. It's so much more noticeable when it's a really nice doll for me, for some reason. I remember lately seeing what would otherwise have been an absolutely beautiful gallery shoot, with dolls with lovely clothes, nicely combed wigs, pretty faceups, great light.... And their eyes were going <_> I had to close the window, I just couldn't look at anything but the eyes. ._.

 

See I think he looks quite sweet! Though I do get what you mean, and I could never keep a doll like that permanently.

Am I the only one who thinks this way?

 

I agree! Some people like to place the iris so high, that the pupils are almost totally invisible. From the setups I usually get the impression that the doll is supposed to look strong, rebellious and cool....but for me they just look like they are about to faint...or are really high on some drug

Heh, but I can commiserate with those who have a hard time with adjusting the eyes. Most of my boys are sideglancing, and darn, it's so hard to find the perfect angle in both eyes....and I'm actually not sure if I do it right. Half closed eyes are even harder (I've found that the only placement I can stand with half closed eyes dolls is a sideglance. Otherwise they just seem so sleepy to me )

The worst is though when I think it's perfect, take a picture....and he comes out cross eyed

 

YES
Omg it bothers me too XDDDDD I especially hate it if it's a gorgeous photoshoot, everything is perfect and then the doll is cross-eyed. T.T
Very, very annoying.

 

Not sure about you guys but alot of times I see crossed eyes are in the marketplace (granted, I hang out there 80% of the time xD; )

sometimes, it's to show how the eyes look inside dolls. Not a very convincing sales photo, I'd have to say. It doesn't help much if it looks like they slapped the doll together just to model some wigs for sale either.
Once in a while, it's the doll for sale that's wearing the eyes all crossed or walled-out.

It makes me wish some people would take two minutes of extra effort in making their sales photos sometimes....

 

Sometimes putty slips--I need to get more of the silicon ear plugs. They hold eyes in place rock solid, and I haven't found sticky tack to be terribly effective. If there's a little uneveness in an eye well, that can also cause one eye to want to slip over. I have a head like that and fixed the problem with silicon eyes since they'll squish to fit any shape eye. But yeah, sometimes it may not be that the owner doesn't care, but there maybe some minor issues that just need to be worked around or they just need more practice with eye placement. Depending on the shape of the eye sockets and what kind of putty you're using, getting eyes in place can actually be a little tricky at times.

I do think eye placement is important, because it greatly impacts the dolls expression. A slight adjustment can mean the difference of a doll looking like a deer in the headlights and looking very natural and expressive. It is the sort of thing I tend to notice since I find that eyes in general are very important to the look of a doll.

 

I just got my first doll in January, so when I went to change her eyes for the first time I had a hell of a time getting it right. I got them straight, but then they were just staring straight on, like she was possessed.

I went through tons of pics to see what I was doing wrong, and I saw what you're speaking of. I felt so OCD about getting them straight, and still I find myself readjusting frequently. I use sticky tack, and it holds well for a while, but they always seem to slip a bit, and it takes me a while to figure out which one slipped and which way... it's slight, but annoys the crap out of me...

....I just hope I'll get better with time, and maybe I need to move away from the sticky tack...

 

I find that on some of my dolls -especially those with narrowed eyes- I have to watch where I want the gaze of the doll focused plays a big role: if I position the eyes to look natural when I am holding the doll in my hands (so the doll would be looking at me, they look myopic and a bit cross-eyed when viewed from three feet away.

Some of my more-difficult dolls, I have been tempted to leave them totally ( o)(o ) and say 'I meant to do that'! It's a look that can be pretty cute on a tiny or critter, too.

At my last eye exam (there was a security lockdown in the health centre and doc and I were killing time chatting) the eye doctor suggested trying their 'field' test for eye alignment and tracking (which plays a major role in visual acuity): shine a small, bright light (like one of those wee MAG lites) central and perpendicular to the eyes and check where the resulting highlight lands - for correct alignment, it should fall in the same location on each eye.

And yeah, silicon earplugs ftw for doll eyes - positioning was a nightmare for me until I found them - all the other types of putty stick heinously to my nails and fingers.

Some of my dolls' eyes tend to get wonked out of alignment if i am moving their heds around a lot, from the S-hook colliding with the eyes or putty...annoying. The one I had that was very bad for that, I eventually found a fix - large, pupil-less eyes that can be nearly any-which-way and still look good; fortunately, that style also fits the character perfectly.

 

i don't change eyes very often, and when i do i usually find them crossed when i've already closed the head ^^''

once i find out that they were only after taking pictures in the sunlight...

 

I find this very true as well - even when eyes look fine in person, sometimes a photograph will show a glaringly obvious mistake in how they've been set that makes me wince and scramble for the poor doll's headcap to correct it!

It really bothers me when looking at photos here on DoA too (and as hyschara said, it seems to happen much more frequently in the marketplace than it does in the gallery, which strikes me as a little odd since you'd think that someone would make as much effort for a photo they were trying to sell a doll with as one that was just to show it off in the gallery )

One of my major annoyances when it comes to eyes are the ones in Volks Limiteds that are hot-glued in by Volks before they're sent out and are fixed in that cross- or wall-eyed position! I lose count of how many of my dolls have arrived to me in that state -- I always remove the glue and the eyes themselves and replace them with urethanes, but it's not a particularly pleasant or easy job and I don't blame people who don't remove hot-glued eyes for that reason... but that's why I wish Volks would do a better job of setting them nicely before they glue them in in the first place!

 

Well, THAT one looks kinda funny to me, personally. XD;; But I can see how it looks cute on some dolls, like cute girl ones with big eyes maybe. I don't think I ever think "that doll looks cross-eyed" because I just assume it's kinda supposed to be that way, and dismiss it..