Maci’s tips on how to defeat same face and same body syndrome!
I never thought I’d be asked this, but today I got an ask on my inbox, requesting some help with this, and I am more than happy to help!
The asker prefered to stay anonymous so that’s why there is no mention of who it was
Let me say, this may be long, cause I’m gonna go in depth to make this the best it can be. Without further ado, Let’s do this
Ok so I personally struggle more with same body syndrome, but i used to struggle with this a lot, so i have quite a few tips.
First off, I usually start by drawing a simple circle, no matter who’s face I’m drawing, it’s always a circle
And from that circle, I start giving shape to the face
Notice how right off the bat, they are very distinct from one another. Something really important is to not be afraid to experiment with many different shapes! for example:
The way in which you shape your characters’ faces can tell a lot about them! For example, those who follow Seniors, know that the first face from the bunch is Lucio’s face. His face resembles a long, inverted teardrop, which i thought would be fitting cause under his flirty facade, he is a very sad character. Another example, Edgard’s face is squared, sharp, just like him.
In my opinion, having many different head shapes can be what helps tell your characters apart, but this is about same F A C E syndrome so we need to talk about that too
Using different nose and eye shapes, you can bring more life to your characters! This can still tell things about them as well
The more different you make things like eyes and noses from one character to another, the better. Of course, you can re-use these features, but in different combinations, to make characters not look the same, and Most of the time, the main focus will be on the head shape and nose.
I show you these 4 pictures of Lucio, and you can still tell its lucio on all 4 of them, even with different hairstyles and expressions!
TL:DR: The most important thing to make characters look different (at least from my perspective) are head shapes and nose shapes. If your style doesn’t use noses, then eyes and also eyebrows will do the trick. It is VERY important to use MANY different shapes! shapes are your best friend here. Don’t ignore them.
Like I said before, i struggle a bit more with this, mostly with the part of putting it into practice, but here is what I’ve got
First thing you need to draw your character, is a skeleton. (funny cause these are the seniors and they are based on sanses ahahhaha anyways) It doesn’t have to be detailed, just a general idea of the body shape, made by a few lines
Now something i’ve found helpful, was to make things as exaggerated and varied as possible. Push things to the limit, until they look weird, and go for variety! Practice drawing many body shapes and combining different things while doing so!
Once you have your skeleton, you go onto the sketch. Here it is important to apply some things that the skeleton won’t represent, like muscle and body fat, or the lack of thereof. Make characters that are buff, chubby, skinny, curvy, etc!
After that, you can move onto lining.
Make different body parts be thinner or thicker, depending on what you are trying to achieve (Daniel’s arms look too skinny here whoops)
For female characters, most of these things apply as well, however you also add things like, boobs and hips!
Again, something really important to remember: SHAPES.
TL:DR: The most important thing for same body syndrome is variety, and shapes! shapes are very important!!!
Here is a list of other things you can do to battle Same face and same body syndrome:
Follow reference and tutorial blogs like @art-tutorial or @artxreferences or others, like @theredlinestation
PRACTICE!!! I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! KEEP GOING! EVEN IF IT DOESNT LOOK GOOD THE FIRST FEW TIMES! KEEP ON DRAWING UNTIL YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE! YOU CAN DO THIS!!
This is just a guide on how i do things in MY style, and it may not work for everyone, but you can take what i say and adapt it to your comfort and style!
If any of you have any sort of questions about this, FEEL FREE TO ASK!
