How To Draw Characters Consistently
I've had a couple of people compliment my ability to draw comic characters consistently. Hearing this always makes me happy because having characters look the same from panel to panel is something I'm constantly worrying about. This skill is really important for cartoonists, animators, or illustrators to have. Whenever you're creating a character, they need to be recognizable to the viewer at all different angles and in different clothes. If you're drawing in stick figures you can give one a bow tie or the other a hat, but this consistency can get trickier the more detailed or realistic your style gets.
Other than learning basic human anatomy and drawing faces until your hands fall off, there are a couple of things you should keep in mind when designing your characters. Today, I'm going to share a few tips and tricks to make sure my characters look recognizable from panel to panel.
Knowing The Features
When you first start learning how to draw the human head, most start out by using basic shapes. You got an oval for the head, some almonds shapes for the eyes, perhaps a triangular shape for the nose. When learning the basics, you keep things simple and generic. But real human faces are anything but generic. I was always taught that you can break the human head into three parts (the forehead, the eyes & nose, lips & chin) and each section should take about 1/3 of the face. But in reality, sometimes people have larger foreheads. Some have smaller chins. Another example is that generally, eyes should be one eye width apart. This is a good rule to go by but in reality, people's faces don't follow these rules. Some eyes are closer than that "one eye-width rule".
So when designing your characters decide what unique features you want them to have. Does your character have a small or large nose? Is the tip of the nose upturned? What kind of eyes do they have: almond shaped, sleepy eyes, narrow eyes? How about eyebrows? Are the angular or rounded? There are countless features to choose from; giving your cast of characters a diverse set of features is not only a good way to keep them looking consistent but a way to avoid "same face syndrome".
Working With Shapes
Simplifying your character down into shapes is a really good way to keep things consistent. Try picking a shape for the head. For this character, I went with a heart shape. As for the hair, I simplified it down to four sections.
I normally don't make an actual diagram, more a mental one, but for the purposes of this post I wrote down the keys aspects that make up this character. It's basically like a checklist.
Once you've figured out what is disctint about the character, start drawing them in all different angles. Make sure to keep the features the same no matter if it's a front view, 3/4 view, or profile view of the face.
Just Keep Drawing
This is probably the most commonly shared piece of advice for people learning how to draw; just keep drawing. Obervation, repitition and practice are the only ways to really get comfortable with drawing, no matter the subject matter.
Happy Drawing!
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Website: https://www.theresachiechi.com/
This was very helpful! I came up with a new idea and wanted to create a character but I was worried about how to get it to look the same. The angles are gonna be real tricky for me but I’m determined to get it right. Reading this made me feel more confident so I’m going to start practing now! :)
Yay! I'm happy it was helpful :) Yeah it's always tricky trying to figure out how different physical features will look at different angles, which is why reference photos are also an excellent way to help.
I can also see the appeal of 3D modeling now. I’ll start collecting references and do a few more sketches before I design my chacrcter!
Thanks for the reflection on character consistency!
I remember that the guys at Penny Arcade webcomic had to create a character guide for other artists when they were making either a video game or a card game out of their characters. I have to see if I can find it. Gabe, the artist, was pretty detailed, down to the particular pen stroke for the hairs and if certain facial features were or were not allowed to cover others.
I actually think I know what you're talking about; I think I saw something like that online.
Still looking for it. Meanwhile, I stumbled across this gem: http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/01/animation-school-lesson-9-_116873606139658339.html
A very interesting topic that I want to write about in my series about how I make my comic too. I'll make sure to link to this post when I finally get to it. Some of the comic artists the I like the most draw their characters in new ways every time - Moebius/Jean Giraud for example. It was actually my greatest concern when I started a year ago. I come from fine art and was not sure if I could make it clear enough who was who, but now I just draw the characters in all kinds of ways.
Oh awesome, I can't wait to read that! And yeah one awesome thing about comics is that there are rules but you can totally break them if you do it in a creative and interesting way. You can even look to anime as an example. Like in FLCL for example, characters go off-model all the time and it totally works.
Yes, art is like that. I remember the shock I had when I realised I had been completely captured by reading the Greek play by Aeschylus called Agamemnon. I was rather young and it was a wonder to me that something as old and rigid in its way of presenting the story could grab me. The sudden change to small chibi-characters in manga and the large drop of sweat is no problem when you read it. I love that.
Such good points on recreating characters. I love your sketching! And the final result is as always, wonderful. When I have for fun recreated the same character in simple line drawing one panel comics I am always drawing them differently, so some good advice really here.
Aww thank you!
I always struggle with recreating characters ... very bad when you try to draw illustrations for a book with the same character over and over again :D
you got a new follower, so i dont miss your latest posts :)
It's a hard skill to acquire, I still struggle with it all the time. Thanks for following, I followed back :)
Your characters have such personalities in their faces and design! Great blog post <3
Thank you!
Very interesting post, thanks for sharing your knowledge! So who is this good looking guy? ;)
Thanks for reading! This is the main character from a personal project I'm working on; it's a gothic comic about an immigrant who uses the spiritualist movement to escape the societal pressures of the time. I have a lot of other posts about the comic up on my page, if you feel inclined to check them out :)