My question today is about what I call the “eyes on paintings phenomenon”.
What this phenomenon is…is…I look at eyes on a painting or drawing and the eyes move or follow me from left to right/right to left. This happens to others I know too.
The eyes of the man or woman subject of a painting follow me as I look at them and move from left to right…They don’t just stay in one place looking straight ahead. Is this a common phenomenon?
I don’t know if there’s a name for it, but it has been commented on before, yes. 
I’m like the guy in that Gary Larson cartoon – no matter where I am in the room, the NOSE on the painting seems to follow me around.
These guys claim to have the answer: STUDY REVEALS WHY EYES IN SOME PAINTINGS SEEM TO FOLLOW VIEWERS
On a painting, the amount of white you see around each side of the iris doesn’t change as you shift position. We humans use the appearance of the sclera to determine gaze direction:
So when our perception of a painted figure’s gaze direction doesn’t change as we move about the room, we interpret that as the painting’s eyeballs moving.
I’ve honestly never noticed this, except at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. I think it’s because for me, when I’m looking at the portrait from an oblique vantage point, it’s too distorted due to foreshortening, and I just don’t pay attention to the eyes the way I would if I were standing in front of it.
I don’t suppose that this phenomenon mainly occurs when you’re accompanied by three friends and a dog?
Thanks!
Not only is it common, it’s dead easy to do with a camera. All you have to do is to have your subject look straight down the barrel of the lens, and the resulting shot will have the same effect.
If you get a closeup of yourself done with this technique, have a large print made and put it on your wall, your SO will never bring home a lover. 
If you’re referring to the two busts in the hall between the stretching room and the Doom Buggies, that is a different thing entirely. The busts are inverse carvings creating an optical illusion. Some portraits in the ride also use the same technique on the eyes only.
Sometimes it’s because the eyeholes in the painting are cutouts and there’s someone standing behind it, observing you.
Not a clue, but my parents have a monet [i think the name is some variant of 'young girl in a spring hat] that gave me the heebies growing up because the damn eyes would always be looking at me … I detested that picture.
But then again I also hated the clown doll they out on my mantle when I was about 4 or so … it moved when i wasnt looking… :smack:
I find the fact that people are puzzled by this phenomenon quite strange, because I figured it out when I was about four years old, from watching the TV at an extreme angle and the newsreaders still looked like they were looking at me. Why? Because they were looking straight ahead.
It’s such a simple answer, and glaringly obvious to me, I can’t figure out why people think it’s so spooky.
As an artist and in the past having been very into painting portraits, I must add that the effect is rather challenging to achieve.
I’ve never understood why this is controversial. I’ve always thought the explanation cited by Squink is obvious. It’s pretty much the same reason you can’t lower your head to look up someone’s skirt on TV.