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FionaCreates — The Quick Guide to Character Face Design
Published: 2012-07-03 20:11:54 +0000 UTC; Views: 30544; Favourites: 651; Downloads: 212
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Description
A very basic guide to combining elements to make unique faces.To keep it simple I just used women in this tutorial but the same goes for male or otherwise character design.
Naturally I drew this tutorial the way I draw figures, but if you draw anime, or another style, you can use the same ideas about different jaw shapes, and lip shapes and nose shapes to diferentiate between characters.
SUPER SECRET INFO SHARING TIME
If you make each character have different features, then it's SUPER easy to redraw them the same every time. Like Reev has a thin pointy nose, and Charlie has a square face. Then all your consistanty issues vanish like they were never there.
If all your characters are drawn how your hand happens to draw figures today you'll have a much harder time making them the same every time.
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Some other tips
- If you like someone's eyes, or their nose, or their lips, their eyebrows their jaw (A celebrity or a friend or just someone you saw on the street) Do a quick sketch of that feature only. Keep it, maybe with a bunch of other lips, or eyes that you like etc. Then when you're 'stuck' desiging a character you already have all the shizzle you need right there.
-Not every character has to be 100% unique. A great way to show siblings or relatives is by using a similar face structure, even between males and females.
-You can also use a similar system for character's body shapes. Even amoung thin girls (who a lot of people tend to draw) there is a varity of body shapes. Pear, Apple, Hourglass. Every girl, every Person is unique.
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Comments: 25
Quick, simple and very easy to follow.
Really basic advice yet so many people miss it.
I thank you for this. Honestly, it helps a lot.
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Thanks 
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You know, when you said "It goes for Anime, too", I remembered Cowboy Bebop anime series. I think that anime would be a good reference and inspiration for beginner artist.
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When I was a teen I was really into anime, and I just kinda fell in love with one face shape and used it over and over and over because I loved it. I didn't think much about 'grown up' stuff like character in features and such, and it's not wrong to draw the same over and over if you love it, but if you're looking for something different, you don't have to just stop anime, because, as you point out, anime itself has lots of variety. Unfortunately what people find most 'attractive' is a certain cutesy big eyed face shape and so assume that all anime must be one shape.
Bebop and other shorter storylines also seem to make much better use of face shapes and character variation, but you find when a series is short they have a little bit more time and budget. It's easier to rush out 400 episodes of Naruto/Sailor Moon/(insert prolific anime here) when characters have a simpler cuter more similar face shape.
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Thanks
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This is going to prove to be super helpful. I hate when I end up drawing the same face over and over. Takes away any uniqueness the character may have had.
Thanks for the tut Pyro!
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we all suffer same face syndrome because there's a natural way our hands move and we like to draw, it's the sign of dedication to put the effort forth to break that.
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Now THIS is nice! 
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Male characters, Anthro characters, Beatrix potter style animal characters... the same principal applies to all
The illustration I made with 3 sets of eyes, noses etc is more a representation of my visual library in my head.
If you like having an actual visual library to look at one way to go about it would be to find lots of photos of males (celebrities, models, friends, video game characters), or drawings of males that you like the features of, then draw all the noses on one piece of paper, all the mouths on another, all the jawlines on another, all the eyebrows on another, you get the picture. Then select from your own drawings the different features you think would be apropriate for your new character.
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Wow!! Thank you so much for that detailed answer! I'm going to use your advice straight away. 
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It's an unfortunate 'default' that a lot of people who draw cartoons get sucked into because we tend to get stuck in a 'style'. Whether that be anime, or marvel or otherwise.
I've found myself more recently looking more at people in the street and on the bus and not just stealing their fashion or their hair, but their noses their eyes and everything else.
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oh wait! i read the description! i'm good
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this is why I always switch around with my noses and eye shapes.
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I like to think what feature personifies the character so their faces in a way reflect who they are.
ie Reev's face is sharp but with kind eyes, because she's short with people and opinionated and loud but not nasty.
Of course this doesn't work for all characters but it helps giving you a starting point.
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me too. also, people may find this helpful: [link]
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*guilty of the new-hair-means-new-character thing.* >.<
Thank you for making this.
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Variety is the spice of life
Like I said it also makes it easier to at a glance identify characters. One of the reasons some mangas annoy me (even professional ones) is I have no clue which character is which half the time unless someone is like wearing a nametag. It's annoying.
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Wow...only one comment. This deviation deserves more!
Also the tutorial is very simple, it has a lot of great tips for any artist! (Glad you included anime artists, as well!) It also motivates me to work harder on making my characters' faces much more different from one another. Thank you.
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Thanks
What I notice about anime is that a lot of people draw all their characters with the same eyes and face shape. When I can see there are thousands of ways of drawing eyes and noses, so it should be easy to have different eyes for different characters.
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