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Unique Features Tutorial: Pt 2
Published: 2010-02-20 05:08:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 233784; Favourites: 12603; Downloads: 5813
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Description
Hey! I have two webcomics where you can see this in action: Miamaska and Trial of the Sun . If you liked these tutorials give them a shot!Check out part 1 here! jeinu.deviantart.com/art/Uniqu...
and part 3 here! fav.me/d3a6v8u
Part 2: Lady Faces! Sorry I took more than a week! The next one will be next month sometime, keep an eye out for it. Feel free to pass this along to artists who are struggling with this sort of problem. I hope it helps
All those characters up there are copyrighted to their respective owners, I do not claim ownership to any of them.
This tutorial series was inspired in part by an article on the TvTropes website. tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php... Click there to see more examples!
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Comments: 431
I love noses. Β They're my favorite part of the face to draw.
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I found this while looking for something on body types and I'm glad I did. Great resource
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THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME helped me and much more people.
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Oh god, I have nightmares about the dreaded "Only 6 faces" trope
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I usually draw very similar body and face types for my characters, I used to draw them all the same, but ive slowly been crawling out of that habit.
anyways, ty for your tutorial, it'll really help me since i'm going to try and draw my guild so I want to make sure I can make them look a bit unique and special
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This is so helpful! I've been trawling through all of my characters and making their facial features varied, but I sometimes need a reminder of all the nose types and faces that exist. Thanks so much!
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your tutorials are SO HELPFUL.
i always have problems with drawing faces too similar, so hopefully this will help
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This is a great tutorial; it's helpful, to the point, and I love how you identified the "beginners rut", because that's always been a big problem for me. And the 5 OC's thing? That was fantastic!
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Lovely! Although I'd like to mention that most animators or cartoon artists draw with a one-style face format because they have to draw the same character(s) over and over and over again, so having one style simplifies things.
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Yeahhhh I kinda don't buy that. There are a lot of cartoons out there that do this well that are also clearly on a budget. I know a lot of cartoons are also trying to be loyal to the source material style, so i don't really put all the blame on animators.
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Its to save money and make it easier. Seriously, every cartoon example in the list is a tv cartoon. Big motion pictures have more facial and wardrobe variation because they have more time, a bigger budget, more animators and more frames per second. A big part of the teaching we got was how to save time and cut corners. Which sucks, but is the nature of the beast.
That being said, Scott McCloud has a section in his book about this naughty technique. Its lazyness. The worst examples I've seen actually have very little hairstyle variation as well, and I've had to give up reading certain comics cos I can't tell which character is which. :S
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i've always had problems with that! thanks!
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And now to figure out how to actually draw those new face shapes. lol
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This is a really wonderful tutorial! Thank you so much for making it, it's super informative, and so pretty too! I've been struggling with making characters look different, and this is so helpful. I will treasure this tut forever. Congratulations on the DD!
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yes finally someone that notice this!!
thanks a lot! its so helpfull!
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I can't thank you enough for this tutorial; the dA community needed to see this!
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that's the problem with most video games, too: the characters, especially the secondary ones, are made from a small set of types
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Noses are the bane of my existence. Thanks for simplifying them for those of us who struggle.
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Noses are one of my favorite things to draw!
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is the triangle also the "pear" shape?
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... don't know why I didn't fave this one before...
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This is so helpful! I recently watched Avatar and thought that the variety of characteristics was really inspirational. I'm usually the anime/manga type, but I'm starting to get sick of every character looking the same. Thanks a lot! I hope you make more of these
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Same-face syndrome is not okay, but the examples you used aren't very good ones.
In stuff like Foxtrot or Fairy Odd Parents, where you're not supposed to take it seriously, the characters aren't complex. That's simply because you're not supposed to see the series as complex.
With the magical girl animes you used, it's the same thing- the design wasn't taken too seriously for a reason. CLAMP uses a bit more diversity in their other animes (Tsubasa being the best example I can think of right now, though there are others), but why would any artist try too hard with an anime about a little girl who collects cards in frilly outfits or a group of teens who fight aliens with bad morals?
I also don't understand why the same character is there twice. Tsubasa Sakura and Cardcaptor Sakura are literally the same person- of course their face is similar. Those shows are targeted at kids who wouldn't take it seriously anyway.
I admit that Winx was literally a repeat in every face, though. There was no attempt at diversity there.
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I think you can have face diversity and have the cartoon not be taken seriously at the same time. Just because something is silly, or for kids doesn't mean you can skip putting the effort into making uniquely designed characters. You could even have characters with all the same face types but varied features (I think full metal alchemist handles this well from what I've seen).
The overarching problem I'm trying to address is that many young artists say to themselves "oh i want to be a character concept artist/designer when i grow up!" ...and they think all that entails is drawing a different colored hair design on the same head. Professionals can get away with it because of time-saving efforts or budget constraints, but if an artist really wants to make a character visually memorable, they need to learn how to make them stand out, either from their own cast of characters or from a style subtype (like anime).
And with the Tsubasa/Cardcaptor Sakura ther twice, I think i got mixed up copypasting images into the final file and forgot to check them for doubles. Wups.
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I kind of agree with =NuclearQueen. I think some cartoons are purposefully made for all characters to look somewhat more or less alike (in terms of facial expression). I have a hard time considering those to be flawed in that aspect.
That being said, AWESOME tutorial! I'm learning so much
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As much as I LOVE this tutorial (and I really do love it, it's insanely helpful!), I don't think it's very fair to put down simple cartoons just because the characters look alike. Half the time, that's the point. Yes, a simple cartoon can have varying body and facial types, but not having very many doesn't make it better or worse.
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Your tutorials are without a doubt the most helpful I've seen, perhaps ever. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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I've been trying to fine detailed references for female and male face shapes for a very long time. Most I've ever found were from tutorials on how to put on makeup. I'm so glad I stumbled upon your tutorial. I know this is a 2 year old tut, but it is still very handy. I do not want to live in the "same face" universe any longer.
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amazing! ''they use always the same shortcut of the face. Every. Single. Time.'' lol that's true
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uuugh. the oc's.. perfect example of me in 5th grade.
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These are really helpful! Hurrah!
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The problem is that some artists think that making all characters with the same face/body type does means that author got consistence in drawing style.
I'm trying to get rid of this bad habit.
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LOL at the captain planet joke xD thanks a lot!!! keeping these as personal references. <3
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LOOOL i know, we've seen a lot of those first part where 5 characters or more have same face...
BUT! this is really helpful and i truly am helped by this! thank you!
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I love you! You're so awesome! You work is outstanding!
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Hey! Can you give me some advice? I'm being commissioned to do a cartoon portrait of this young woman who has full cheeks, which cause those lines that come down from the side of the nose, and lead into dimples. I can't for the life of me figure out how to draw those without making them look like massive old lady wrinkles. And I can't very well leave them out because then she looks like a different person. Have you got experience with drawing dimples and the like? It's maddening.
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I would first suggest trying to draw the lines originating from somewhere else besides the nose, maybe having them start at the edges of a smile instead. lines suggest an edge to a form, or an area where there is the most contrast of light and dark, so sometimes putting lines near the nose suggests wayyy too much darkness/weight (hence old lady winkles). To keep a young persons's face looking young, you really have to use as little as possible, it may be better to suggest the dimples entirely with shading/color. you can get far subtler depths with shades than with pure black lines. hope this helps!
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The facial structures definitely showed me new approaches on drawing faces. I will have to try some of those types.
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