Character designer struggles

[steel chasm]

hi ! So im building my kofi as a character designer. I wanted to draw faces with different shapes in mind, to show how diverse i can make a cast look in design. However, at first glance, there is a huge similarity between some faces. Like, green haired girl is similar to black girl. And blonde guy and pink girl also looks similar. Any idea on how ti accentuate their differences? (Im okay with other people editing my drawing)

[tall rock]

what shapes did you have in mind for each of them (i can see pink is triangle, maybe blondie too)

[steel chasm]

black girl is circle, green girl is square, blondie is like a mix. Maybe i should get rid of him tbh. He was supposed to go heart shape and then i kinda…went in other directions.

[velvet crater]

It's a good start but you mostly focused on changing the shapes, not really more. It's good that you can draw these diverse face and eye shapes but more matter.
Something else important is size and distance. You did kind of do the distance one. Distance is basically how close or far curtain features are depending on the character, like how black haired girls eyes are further apart and guys nose is bigger so his face is more stretched out than the rest.
Size is what the name suggests,varying the size of the eyes, nose, eyebrows, mouth, chin.....
These are good things to begin with

[steel chasm]

tyyy

[fossil quiver]

sorry i dont have any advice as im not very good with face features, but i just wanted to let you know they all look different to me!

also good luck with your kofi :)

[tall rock]

if black girl is circle, i think you should make her jaw much rounder bc it's quite triangular. and you could make the chin of green girl more flat
if you want to, it might make the shapes clearer : )

[steel chasm]

I mean yeah but i orefer to keep some looks of…humanity?

im not that much into the whole cartoon look of chnaging your character’s anatomy into litteral shapes to fit character designing

idk if you see whzt you lean

okay i tried i dont like it.

Therwise for black girl yes

[tall rock]

that's fine, it's all stylistic choices anyway

[main solar]

DRAW THEM BALD! >:D
(At least for practice)

I found that real helpful with practicing different faces!
That way you don't rely on the shape of the hair to make the different :)

You managed to achieve different eye shapes but the distance between them, size, eyelids and eyelashes are all the same 🤔
The chins are barely different, you could experiment with the HEIGHT of the cheekbones and look for some references of how other artists depict diversity :D
The way you drew their noses looks more like the difference is in shading/rendering rather than shape
Also main thing I'd focus on is spacing on the faces! :0

[steel chasm]

tyyy

[steel chasm]

tbh i used to be very good at like...face diversity. But like. Idk

its targetting a shape the issue?

[main solar]

This is my general attempt at doing it haha
Still needs work but I hope you can see what I mean ^^

[steel chasm]

yess

[main solar]

Nah! My ocs are also based on shapes :)

[steel chasm]

no im sure, im like, talking about me

[main solar]

Still no! :D gimme a sec I'm looking for some refs I have saved that helped me personally

[steel chasm]

ohhh ty

nose diversity is kinda a hard balance for me tbh when its not from profile view…since i prefer to have them almost inexistant in my style

but yeah il, tey to incorporate ‘

[main solar]

That's okay! :D you still have plenty else to play around with

[steel chasm]

this is a work in porgress, but sinc ethe docus is character designing, its always better to have advices early. I tried to play around with the settings if the face, with whatveer fits. I think i only stayed standard for the grandpa, cause i wanted to portray stability and all…so i only lowered the eye placement. Also, my kofi has lots of fantastical elements to it…i think ill try to incorporate it to the others, like the circle one, who is still wayyy too normal

[main solar]

Youre getting good ad different shaped heads :o
And the chars do have more variety

But the proportions all remain the same throughout the different characters
Maybe try to play more with, for example, one face shape but different features

[steel chasm]

i see

yeah i should try to give them a ethnicitical background, when i do that, it often ends up getting more diverse

also i really trioed to make circle's eyes closer, triangle's farther but yeah ig it wasnt enough lol

[main solar]

I mean you dont have to haha
But looking at people from all over the world can help with inspiring more diverse features :)

[steel chasm]

ye lol

[main solar]

Hmm i can see that a bit ^^
Tho it reads more as if the circle is facing a 3/4 view while the triangle faces forwards

[steel chasm]

yeah

alr imma guess ill go back and play more with their features

okay im copy pasting random heads, and ill play with the features.Updates to ome soon.

okay i just started why does everyone already feels similar help

[dreamy nimbus]

Because you put them all on the same base head shape, if you give everyone the same of one trait they're all gonna look similar to an extent

[steel chasm]

yeah but im following corey’s challenge

they said that i should try one with every same faces but diff features

[dreamy nimbus]

Oh I didnt mean it as in your doing it wrong, just explaining the feeling😅

[steel chasm]

OH OKAY IM SORRY

this was a struggle but here you go. The two downside looks like theyre related lol

[dreamy nimbus]

Your good your good😂, I always try to change the nose the most, that's what I find makes characters look the most unique

[steel chasm]

yeah understandable

[steel chasm]

i wouldve played with age but i felt like that would be cheating

[dreamy nimbus]

Your doing really good! Keep experimenting✨ its your study

[steel chasm]

yep

[main solar]

Dude yeah lets go! :D
Id say now apply that to different head shapes and hairs etc. and youre golden!

Do you think you improved from the first character sheet you sent? :o

[steel chasm]

DEFINITELY

i think ill like…take a new step now when drawing the faces cause man.

[steel chasm]

okay shit how do i make the other stands out as much as triangles….i got so passionate and inspired for him tha5 now….well…

Character designer struggles

[main solar]

Hmmm I mean triangle is really contrasty and flashy, combined with the unnatural hair color? Really eye catching! :D

But yk maybe not all of them should be like that, that's completely okay :)

But if you would want them to stand out some more then brighter color and contrast are your friend

Same with unnatural skin colors :)

[steel chasm]

alr ! Ty

[steel chasm]

okay so. To feed my kofi, i need to display me making a design for someone. So…if anyone has any design-less characters?

preferably solething that has soem fantasy to it, for brand consistency

[dreamy nimbus]

Uhm I have a teen-ish character who's ancestral trait causes him to grow crown like horns in a halo around his head, and that's about it I have for lore feel free to make him any race/ethnicity with any hairstyle
Feel free to ask me any questions🫶

[steel chasm]

i see! Any…personality? Things he often does/i good at?

[dreamy nimbus]

He's a little temperamental, he's good at speaking in front of people and he likes piano but hardly gets to play, he's rational, clever, and can be a little immature. I will say the reason he has the crown of horns is because he's meant to be king, so he doesn't exactly get to do the fun things that he wants (sorry for the late response you caught me while I was asleep)

[steel chasm]

(ahah its alright!) thank you kindly. Will proceed with your oc when ill have the time for it!

[steel chasm]

i am currently doing your character ! Updates are to come !

[dreamy nimbus]

👀

[steel chasm]

yall i had TOATLLY forgot i cant have discord during the week.(cant expkain why’ too complicated). So i drew but could t access discord. I wanted to do a full turn around with different expressive poses telling thinsg about the acharacter, but i this week was overwhelming. But i did manage to finish the front facing !

it took a lot of time for i did nit know what to amplify

And since i couldnt access discord to ask @dreamy nimbus about whats their most important trait…i had to struggle on my own

so, i went for a long thin triangle, and asymetry. Since he doenst want to be a king, i decided to show that by making a design that doenst take much place.

[dreamy nimbus]

I love the design!

[steel chasm]

tyyy

[steel chasm]

i also didnt knew what culture to give him, so i looked up what culture has a conceotion of horns that is the most fitting with this character. And it was celtic ! So white skin, high cheekbones, and i did took inspiration on a cletic robe fir the coithes

since he’s good at talking, i wanted to portray that charisma by making him kinda attractive

[dreamy nimbus]

Thats really smart!

[steel chasm]

tyy

[dreamy nimbus]

Did this adequately feed your kofi?

[steel chasm]

yesss

and im very grateful lmao

also it was nice to actually experiepent what would a comission be like

[dreamy nimbus]

Ofc!

And even without being able to ask more questions you did really well with the information u did have!

[steel chasm]

tyyy