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Close-Set Eyes · Squirrel / Fox · Hybrid

A real a close-set eye, the shape this map is drawn for.
The lid itself reads almond — that part is not what makes this shape. What defines it is the distance between the two eyes, which no single-eye photograph can show. The diagram below does. Photo source & removal
Close-set is a gap, not a lid shape the gap one eye width the gap is narrower than one eye length goes outward lashmatrix.org
Eye spacing measured against one eye width — the thing that makes this shape.
PEAK inner outer peak high, then eases to the tail soft base + wispy spikes lifted above lashmatrix.org
Where the peak sits and which way the length tapers.
Why Why it is laid out this way

An arch with a broken edge is a common ask, and on this spacing it comes with a rule attached: the broken part begins at the arch and runs outward, never before it. Singles build the climb and the top of the curve, fans fill in behind, and a handful of spikes sit on the outer slope. The inner half stays plain and short so nothing invites the eye to stop near the nose.

Zone order · bar = relative length Z1 Z2 Z3 Z4 Z5 PEAK Z6 Z7 inner outer
Build order, inner to outer — the peak zone flagged.

The order the zones go in

  1. Plain climb inboardSingles only from the inner corner up to the arch. No texture on the nose side of the high point.
  2. Singles own the archThe top of the curve is single strands, so the arch keeps a clean outline you can actually see.
  3. Fill behind from mid-lidSoft fans behind the singles from mid-lid out, sitting just under them in length.
  4. Spikes on the outer slopeThe few spikes go on the falling side of the arch, tucked inside the length rather than standing over it.
  5. Keep the fall softLength eases down to a real corner. Texture is not an excuse for a short tail.
Length curve · one peak, gentle taper inner outer
The length curve: one soft peak, then a gentle taper.

The length curve

The arch over the outer iris carries the shape, and the texture is placed to back it up. A spike reads as a bright point, so the same spikes on the nose side of the arch would put the busiest part of the eye where the spacing is tightest — which is why the whole textured half sits outboard of the high point. The soft fall then keeps the outer third occupied, so the eye finishes there instead of walking back to the middle.

Built wrong, it looks like this

Texture scattered on both slopesThe line breaks up on the nose side as well, and the eye finds a bright point beside the bridge before it ever reaches the arch.
✗ WRONG both slopes broken up ✓ RIGHT only the outer slope
Spikes built taller than the archThe high point moves to whichever spike is longest, so the shape you mapped is no longer the shape anyone sees.
✗ WRONG spikes outrank the arch ✓ RIGHT arch stays the top
Using texture to justify stopping the tail early.A broken outer edge still has to reach the corner. If the fall ends short, the map slides back toward centre whatever the spikes are doing.
When not to use this mapNot for a client who wants tidy — a hybrid squirrel is meant to look slightly undone, and on a sparse outer slope the spikes read as strays rather than as design. And if her lid folds over the arch when her eyes open, the texture disappears along with the height it was sitting on.
Deep The physics underneath

An arch, a fill and a few spikes, sharing a lid that gets shallower the further out you go. Below is who is carrying what.

The same map, built four ways

Classic 1:1
Singles hold the arch and the climb into it, which is where this map is either right or wrong. Nothing you add afterwards moves a high point that was placed in the wrong zone.
Handmade volume
Fans fill behind the arch and along the fall, keeping the outer third occupied without adding length out there. That is where hybrid earns its keep on this spacing.
Promade / pre-made fans
Fine through the plain inner half. On the falling slope their firmer base has less lash to grip, and this map's separation depends on that slope staying populated.
Woven / clover
Predictable width from one bond, and predictability is the enemy of a broken edge. Once the texture reads as a pattern it stops reading as lashes.

Spread angle versus weight

Spread moves mass — never removes it narrowload on the axis widetwists off-axis

The spikes here are closed fans, all their mass on the axis, behaving like the heaviest single strands on the set — and they land on the outer slope where the lash line has already begun to shorten. Keep the open fans behind them narrow, because on a falling curve extra width sits off-axis on lashes that are leaning already, and it turns up as visible twist within weeks.

What the natural lash can carry

  • The arch row is the strongest part of this map and the outer slope the weakest, which is awkward, since the outer slope carries all the texture. Its ceiling is whatever the shortest lashes on that slope hold square.
  • A spike costs full length in mass and in lever wherever it lands. On the fall, where the natural lashes are shorter, the same spike works through a longer effective lever than it would at the arch.
  • Fans stay the cheap option only while they stay under the singles beside them. The moment one is longer, it is paying a single's penalty with a wider footprint on a thinner lash.

Where this map fails first

Where this map fails first inner outer outer slope spikes turn arch loses its top lashmatrix.org

The outer slope goes first, holding the heaviest objects on the shallowest lashes. Its spikes rotate rather than shed, and a turned spike beside a soft fall looks like an error rather than texture. The arch settles later and more quietly, and when it does the set reads flat rather than sparse. If she stretches her fills, warn her that the texture is the first thing to go — it is also the part she will miss.

FAQ Common questions

Can spikes sit on the inner half of a squirrel map?

Not on close-set eyes. A spike is a bright point, and the nose side of the arch is the one stretch of lid that has to attract nothing.

How does hybrid change a squirrel arch?

It softens the edge without moving the shape. Singles still draw the arch; the fans and spikes only decide how crisp or how undone that arch looks.

Where do the fans sit relative to the arch?

Behind the singles and just under them, from mid-lid right out to the corner. They keep the outer third full without adding length to the shallow zones.

Does the tail still matter when there is texture out there?

More than ever. Texture on a short tail is busyness with nowhere to go — the fall has to reach a real corner or the separation collapses back to the middle.

Also in: Close-Set eyes · Squirrel / Fox · Hybrid