Spongey's style and face

The art style in SpongeBob has changed over time. For the most part, the colors are simply brighter and the lines bolder. But there have been some more noticeable changes, too. It seems like the entire style of the facial expressions will change depending on the episode. It's like, on episodes where he's really annoying and childish, he'll be drawn with his face looking out of whack a lot. It seems like on those eps, his eyes will be drawn weirder-- I can't explain how, just weirder-- and he'll often have eyebrows, which will look wrong on him. And his nose will go down a lot.

This was the norm for a while, especially during season 4. They used to do it every episode no matter what he acted like. That, along with his new, squeakier voice, now seem to only be employed when we're supposed to think he's annoying. For the most part, he has now gone back to his regular, kinda dorky-cute look. But his expressions can be wildly different sometimes. It's okay, though; aside from a few truly ugly episodes, the art has improved overall.

I love it when he makes really ugly faces for humor, though, no matter what episode or season. XD My personal favorite is on Can You Spare a Dime?

I'll grab two pieces of official art from the Group Pictures section on this blog to illustrate the change.

The latter is the more recent one. I personally prefer it to the first, but both are cute. ;)