In your case, You have to check only if it is present or not null - Validating When there is value. So use sometimes
"In some situations, you may wish to run validation checks against a
field only if that field is present in the input array. To quickly
accomplish this, add the sometimes rule to your rule list"
$v = Validator::make($data, array(
'email' => 'sometimes|required|email',
));
In your case,
$v = Validator::make($data, array(
'avatar' => 'sometimes|mimes:jpeg,jpg,png,gif|max:100000',
));
Note:
The following code will do nothing because there are no rules to validate against, done because even if it's present in the POST array, you should specify rules. and the doesn't make any difference.
$v = Validator::make($data, array(
'avatar' => 'sometimes',
));