elfin ivy
Drawing a front facing angle literally takes me hours if not a day just to get it looking right 💀Something abt the symmetry n proportions just make it hard for me.
Sooo Im here to ask for tips, advice anything at all. Im basically a beginner when it comes to front faces, so shoot me w anything you've got. Id prefer if anyone could include stylization tips, esp something leaning towards anime semirealism 
coral ferry
Drawing a front facing angle literally takes me hours if not a day just to get i...
A lot of my work leans more towards realism, but I do dabble in anime art occasionally. I think a lot of people's issues with front-facing views is how unforgivingly symmetrical the face can be, especially the more stylized the art is. Those perfectly symmetrical faces can look very unnerving, especially since it implies that the character is turned directly and perfectly towards the "camera", which looks quite unnatural (and often used in horror pieces/film actually LOL). Having the subject slightly tilt their head up, down, to the side, etc, can make the front view feel less "targeted" and more natural, since it also looks more like real-life portrait photography. It can be really slight, but imo it helps a lot.
There's also the whole "real-life faces aren't usually symmetrical" thing but when it comes to stylized art (especially anime), I don't think that's what contributes to why some stylized front views look weird. Imo it's just full-on symmetry making it feel like the character is staring directly at you in this weird robotic/inhuman way. So some deviation from that helps.
Some real life examples of what I mean! In many of these pictures, the subject is tilting their head, or their chin is pointed higher/lower instead of their whole head facing staring dead-on at the camera. You'll definitely find pictures of people looking and facing straight at the camera, but imo it looks less unnerving because there are asymmetries in their own face. When it comes to simplified styles where those asymmetries aren't there, it becomes unnerving to me. However there are artists that can pull it off! My advice is more to help you break into doing front views, and once you improve at that you'll likely be able to pull off those dead-on, straight-at-the-camera angles without it looking weird.
elfin ivy
ILSYM MAI TY THESE R SO HELPFULLLLL 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭