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thundercake — Younger vs. Older Features
Published: 2009-06-25 08:26:14 +0000 UTC; Views: 42402; Favourites: 1599; Downloads: 769
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Description
disclaimer-ish...I like writing down things I have sorta "figured out" over the years, and some people seem to find it helpful, but this isn't the word of god and I'm sure a lot of much smarter people have given better over the years, so please understand that this is just my personal experience/opinion speaking and nothing else.second disclaimer: as I said in the tutorial, this is aimed at strictly cartoony styles, NOT REALISM. I realize there is sometimes a boob-space in real life. My argument is that a cartoony style with lines requires some realism sacrifices in order to draw your attention to more important things, like gesture and shape.
Also I drew the examples in like 10 seconds so.. sorry, they're not the best, haha. PIIIINK
anyway, these are all things I would have liked to know about 5 years ago, so that's why I wrote this. (I'm looking through my old art. YEEP! it's scarier than that ghost I saw the other day.)
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Comments: 141
Some things I agree with! Some things I do not (such as lines on the face, when it's my "style" to delineate planes and shadowfalls). I'm taking this more as "possibilities to consider" as I think characters are not always going to look their age.
Also, lol, "ranticle." Great word.
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your style is a lot less cartoony than I was aiming for here, I think.
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Haha, true, though I do also do a more tooned style.
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heh this is definitely a problem i've had, thanks so much for this info, it's really going to help out a lot!
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This is, like, infinity times helpful. Thank you. <3
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hey this is great to have all in one place. Thanks!
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ah thats so smart! thank you for posting this, its stuff that you would'nt really know unless someone told you
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good one but as it's in real life, when somebody has very round-ish face it doesn't mean that he/she is young
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Nope, and a single young feature by itself won't carry the design, it can only help suggest something. If your character has one or more of these traits but is meant to be old, you can compensate by exaggerating another "older" feature. good point.
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cheekbones can have a LOT to do with ethnicity/race
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I still don't see them very often in children, who have a lot more pudge on their faces.
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true, cheekbones tend to come out more during the teens. Though I've seen children with VERY defined cheekbones at 10-11. And they weren't malnourished <<;;;
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oh my god, I love you!
I have so much trouble with making people look
their age, this will be a gigantic help!
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Good stuff here folks! This information is helpful for a project I am working on. Please share more of your master-craft wisdom with us.
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Thank so much for this! It's so hard to find good comparisons of young/old. I'm really curious about those 'rage lines' you mentioned, and would love to see you do one like this about expressions.
Sidenote: I can't figure out why all the "young" examples are on the left, and all the "old" examples are on the right, except for in the bottom one. xD
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You know when you go "grrrr!", the lines that appear from the tops of your nostrils leading down to the sides of your mouth, that's what I'm talking about
And uh.. the explanation is that I screwed up, but I guess it doesn't hurt if you can tell which one I meant!
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Oh well, I see what you mean. I'm just too stupid to isolate it.
Pleeease do expression tut for stupid people like me! We need your genius, even if you mix it up at the end. 
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I'm definitely not the authority on expressions, you should check out `alexds1 , she's really good at them
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I added her to my watchlist. Thank you for the suggestion. 
Though you say you're no authority, I think you're awesome.
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I don't know why, but jutting cheekbones always equaled a capability of pure evil/malicious planning.
Oh wait. I do know why. Cruela Deville. D;
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textbook evil character.. great example.
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The thing that most aplied to me were the breast...and maybe the face thing. Meh, I'm working on it.
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You really catch the differences between young ones and old ones. Altough I already know about some of them, I also find some new to me. Thanks for sharing, It's really helpful for beginners.
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I believe the "neck tendons" you're referring to are actually muscles, the SCM's.
But this is actually pretty good, I think. Clear and simple, right to the point.
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haha thanks, I need to get better at my terminology.
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quite useful, and all very common sense items that most people tend to forget.
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Hmm...I haven't noticed a lot of characters that look too old, but I can never get characters to look old enough.
While I agree on your breast arguement, I've found that the problem with most drawn breasts that I see isn't the outline (or gross misshapen-ness or sizing issues, even), it's that the costume and the breast shape/outline don't make sense together. That's what pisses me off. As well as 'Y' cleavage when the character is topless/there's nothing there to hold them up. Breasts are magical, but they are not beyond physics. DX
Huzzah for tired drawing and ranting!
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Old enough is a different story! I find a lot of it is in the posture and where the weight of the body is situated.. when I see old people standing up straight with most of the muscle they had in their youth, it just looks odd to me.
Y cleavage with no top is definitely dumb.
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Oh yes. Definitely helpful. 
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you know, i think i always knew these things subconsciously, but seeing it somewhere on paper kind of makes me realize it's all true. i guess just because i LOVE pointy cheekbones doesn't mean it looks good on everyone. haha, thanks for this. i'll definitely keep it in mind.
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