Do these characters look too similar?

[JoshRaed]

I've been told that they do. Here are two images of them facing forward and facing to the side, for reference. Maybe it was just because they weren't colored in, or it just looks that way from a certain angle.

[allisoncandraw]

Not at all. Their facial features and color palettes are completely different. Good job

[theyrebothakilogram]

They're good, don't worry

[igneriss]

Who told you this, they are definitely different
But to be honest, I wouldn't worry about it too much? I mean, it's always good to know how to draw different faces and to have nice various designs. But on the other hand, there are series where all characters have exactly the same face and just different hairstyles and people can still tell them apart.

[moontokkym]

Was the remark for their faces or for their fullbody versions? Because even if their faces seem quite different right now, if the rest of them is a similar shape, size, colour palette and general aspect they'll still look very similar, especially if you were showing just lined versions because you have a very simple style.

Generally the simpler the style the more drastic you want the differences in shapes and sizes of your characters to be so they're quickly and easily recognisable.

[JoshRaed]

Who told you this, they are definitely different

https://forums.tapas.io/t/any-advice-for-how-to-make-more-visually-interesting-and-expressive-character-designs/77213

Someone in this thread said it.

[JoshRaed]

Was the remark for their faces or for their fullbody versions?

It was for the fullbody version but also for an image of just their faces kind of. I thought maybe the question I asked was too leading in nature so I made this one.

[igneriss]

Dude, what are you doing, that wasn't even the same drawing as you posted here
I think you're focusing on wrong things. In that thread you got LOTS of AMAZING tips on how to improve, and got some really good feedback from different people. One person even told you that they do look different and helped in finding shapes that other comments where talking about in your own drawings.
Getting feedback from others can do wonders for your art improvement, but also can stop your improvement completely- and it depends only on what you decide to do with that feedback.
Like... seeing that older topic, it seems that you either completely misunderstood the feedback from the person you're refering to, or got offended/upset and created this topic with 'tell me that this one guy was wrong!' intention. But also, countless people in that thread told you that what makes characters easily recognizable is their design as a whole- shapes, colours, attitude, everything. And they gave you tips on how to work on that. You don't have to take evey single suggestion to the heart- just see which thing people tell you about would be the best to practice to lead you to the direction you want to go with your art style.

[KevinReijnders]

Welcome to a Josh thread

[JoshRaed]

I watched the videos on character design, did an experiment of breaking down characters into shapes to see how to make them more pronounced, and have full intentions to revamp the art style like I don’t think I intend these characters to look like this in the final product at all.

I want something more like that one old drawing of Angel Dust before hazbin hotel, and the youtuber I can’t sleep, because this thread made me reconsider what I was doing and why.

So what part of it did I misinterpret? I fully agreed and considered turning one of the characters fat and/or emaciated because I desperately needed to think of a way to change their designs to be more distinctive, and even revamped the punk mom to be buff even though I hated that and it looked even less like I wanted than before.

I asked this because I could not understand why everyone thought these characters looked the same, but then I realized “wait I never asked if they looked the same I asked how to make them look different” so I asked if they actually did look similar.

I did consider shape language, like I actually wanted to redesign the little girl to have a dress made of triangles of fabric just to push the triangle thing because I couldn’t see any other ways to add triangles. That’s why these characters have a rounded chin-less face with a button nose and a sharp chin with a pointed nose respectively.

I think I should get to drawing the next set of sketches now. They’re probably going to be pushed as ridiculously as possible just to really get these characters into a distinct version of themselves, like more so than I even want. Like spherical heads, skeletons with skin on them, stuff like that.

[NickRowler]

My issue with your designs is that the side view and front view don't match.

I want something more like that one old drawing of Angel Dust before hazbin hotel

I am not sure which design you are talking about but when it comes to animation, characters are often changed from concept art to make them easier to animate. Even in comics, a character may look good in one pose but weird when put into other poses. That is why it is important to teak your drawings and experiment with different designs.

[JoshRaed]

My issue with your designs is that the side view and front view don't match.

I don't really know how to make them fit together, like the shape of the nose doesn't really show from the front, not in art or in real life, and the jawlines are both genuinely impossible for real life and when translated to the side can't not look wrong.

[ThunderChicken]

Just a quick example of what @NickRowler pointed out: On the boy, face on, he clearly has bangs. His hair is down over his eyes. In the side view his hair is well up on his forehead, nowhere near his eyes. Similarly, the front view of the girl has that long string of hair down over her right eye. The side view does not show thar string of hair, but it should be visible in this view (with the nose in front of it). The side view also gives her much thicker hair in the back.

[IndigoShirtProd]

like the shape of the nose doesn't really show from the front, not in art or in real life,

or in real life...

Huh?
Uh, yes the shape of the nose shows from the front in real life.

the jawlines are both genuinely impossible for real life and when translated to the side can't not look wrong.

That's ultimately an excuse for you to not improve. Of course rounded jawlines exist in real life. Plenty of children and adults have round face shapes that are obvious from a side view. It's not that it can't not look wrong, it's that you're not putting in the time and work to make it look right.

[JoshRaed]

Uh, yes the shape of the nose shows from the front in real life.

I've seen people (and been the person) who hear(s) about an internet person getting a nose job and are shocked that their nose didn't already look like the after photo the whole time. Also a soft incline doesn't quite show in a pencil drawing. Like if you drew an unshaped sphere and unshaded ellipses from the circular side, how would you differentiate them?

[IndigoShirtProd]

I've seen people (and been the person) who hear(s) about an internet person getting a nose job and are shocked that their nose didn't already look like the after photo the whole time.

But that doesn't negate what I said.

Like if you drew an unshaped sphere and unshaded ellipses from the circular side, how would you differentiate them?

Aren't ellipses stretched or longer circles? Like circle are a round shape whose outside boundary is equidistant from the center from all points and an ellipse is not that. And in terms of drawing, an unshaded sphere is just a circle.

[JoshRaed]

Plenty of children and adults have round face shapes that are obvious from a side view. It's not that it can't not look wrong, it's that you're not putting in the time and work to make it look right.

I don't see how I could make this face shape rounder than the smooth curve that culminates into another smooth curve, unless I go full bean mouth or make him fatter. The only jawline I can see that is rounder than his jawline is that of a baby, or a jawline that is invisible from the side. Like all the jawlines I see are either invisible or sharper than i've ever drawn, even on buff manly men or very skinny women.

[IndigoShirtProd]

I'm not trying to get into the minutia of this one character design aspect with you, I'm just trying to say that you shouldn't so quickly doubt that you can make a round jawline work.

I don't see how I could make this face shape rounder than the smooth curve that culminates into another smooth curve, unless I go full bean mouth or make him fatter.

Nor am I saying you need to make the jawline rounder. It's fine as is, but both the front facing and the profile view lack structure imo.

[JoshRaed]

What do you mean by lacking structure?

[KevinReijnders]

What do you think it means?