Have you ever notice that you tend to draw the same facial expressions over and over again? How do you escape from that?
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Jun '22last reply
Jul '22- 16
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Have you ever notice that you tend to draw the same facial expressions over and over again? How do you escape from that?
Same facial expression syndrom is something else than same face syndrome for me.
Same face is when all your characters have the exactly the same face and can only be recognized by
their clothes or haircuts.
Same expression is when you tend to draw the same expression all the time.
Hergés Tintin is an example of it. He has 4 expressions and he has the open mouth expression
all the time
Many superheros (when you can see their faces) always have exactly the same expression and the comics are more
focused on their body and the dynamic action scenes.
I think my characters have many facial expressions but I tend to draw shocked and angry expressions a lot
Obviously there will always be "fallback expressions" that get used over and over, but I'm always surprised by people who like... pre-draw a head in a basic neutral expression and then copy-paste it for drawing pages because I'm always like "...but how do they get the nuance of the expression?"
The human face is very expressive. It has a lot of different moving parts to it. So when drawing expressions, I always want to try to get across as much of that as possible, and for comedic purposes, I also mix in simplification and manga or cartoon shorthand.
It's important to think about what exact feeling your character is experiencing right now in detail. Just "happy" or "sad" aren't enough. You need to really get on in there.
When people are excited or afraid, their eyes tend to widen. It's a reaction to make our eyes take in more light and see more and react more quickly.
ie. "Rekki is excited about the prospect of violence". Her eyes are wide because she's excited, and her eyebrows are pulled down adding a fierceness to her wide grin.
"Felix is desperate and harried." He's been given a really important short-notice order he's not sure he can fulfil. His eyes are wide, but you see the eyebrows pull up into a mixture of fear and confusion. His mouth is a grimace like a caged animal, and even his neck is tensed, along with his shoulders.
When we're angry, fierce or confrontational, our eyebrows tend to go down, and when we're leaning more on the "flight" end of "fight or flight" and we're scared or want help or to avoid a conflict, the eyebrows tend to go up. Raised eyebrows can also communicate a sort of "lol, okay I won't fight you but I'm skeptical" kind of tone.
Just as eyes can widen to take in more information, eyes tend to narrow when we want to see less of a thing because it disgusts or confuses us. That said, the eyes can narrow in different ways for different reasons. The eyes being pushed up at the bottom into a more arched shape is a characteristic of smiling, while the upper lid drooping over can show tiredness, boredom or disdain, but can also show relaxation and therefore confidence.
"Rekki is incredulous" It's like mild anger, but pulling up the lower lids to narrow the eyes creates and expression of "WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?"
"Urien is confident and also being an absolute creeper and flirting with a fourteen year old girl to manipulate her, seriously what the hell, Urien?" The upper eyelid is relaxed and low here creating what's called "bedroom eyes". Bonus background Sarin here with an expression that's a mixture of incredulity that he'd even do this and disgust and anger that he's seriously doing this.
Basically I never feel like I have to avoid drawing the same expression over and over because I always try to draw an expression that's very specific to what the character is feeling, and that's almost never constantly the same for more than a few panels if the scene is dynamic and actually changing the status of the characters (and if a scene isn't changing anything... why is it even in the story?).
Same-face syndrome no, I now have three basic faces to choose from
As for same expressions, also no, because I really enjoy drawing silly faces and exaggerated emotions/reactions. However I've noticed that in my sketches I tend to favour a 'sad soft smile' expression. Or without a smile, just softly sad.
I used to have a really big case of same face syndrome! I drew everyone the same and it frustrated me for so long. At the time the character either had a round or sharp face shape and that got boring quick
So what I did was try and exaggerate specific features, playing around with different eye types, face shapes, noses, distance between features, chin, eyebrows ect. I'd say I don't suffer from it that bad anymore.
(But ofc I have patterns I fall into, as seen below, but I try to keep my characters looking pretty distinct) The top row of characters are the most distinct looking since I needed a very clear ref for their faces for my comic. But yeah, ngl long pointy faces are my comfort zone.
Some of my art here is kinda old, so I'll probably continue to update character faces. AND I CAN'T SHOW MOZZIE MAN'S FACE DESPITE THE FACT ITS SO DISTINCT AHHGGHH. At least you can still see his prominent cheekbones (it's not him without them)
Having same-face syndrome and overusing the same facial expressions are two different things, but I do think it’s (usually) a good idea to have a nice variety of both.
I’ve been told “all my characters” look like me lol, but I’ve gotten better at giving my characters distinct faces and nuanced expressions over the past couple years, and though I’m still learning, I’m fairly happy with them now. :]
I think we can improve at creating accurate, varied expressions once we realize that every part of the character and even their environment (ex: lighting or composition of the panel) can be manipulated to communicate the desired emotion, and then learn how to best do that through practice and observation of the behavior of real, everyday people or fictional characters in other visual media…
And also simply by knowing your character, what they’d be feeling/thinking in the given moment, and how they’d respond to it. Some characters are more expressive, others withdrawn. Some are good actors, and others are really, really bad at faking it. Are they able to maintain their composure under pressure, or do their expressions betray what they’re feeling?
When you’re angry at someone, your entire body might tense up. Your shoulders raise, you clench your hands into fists, your nose wrinkles as your lip raises into a snarl, your eyes widen, your eyebrows furrow, you might fall into an almost imperceptible crouch- preparing to defend yourself or charge at your enemy, and lower your head slightly as you glare at them…
Or maybe you’re the kind of person who’s better at concealing your emotions. You don’t want to let your enemy know they’ve succeeded at upsetting you, and you don’t want to appear afraid. So you stand straight with feet wide apart, throw your shoulders back, casually stick your hands in your pockets, lift your chin a little, and challenge them with a grin. You bare your teeth, but the smile doesn’t reach your eyes (a non-Duchenne smile) and your eyebrows furrow ever so slightly. You seem relaxed and confident, but if someone looked close, they might notice the tension you’re hiding.
Like darthmongoose said, it helps to put yourself in your character’s head and imagine yourself in each scenario.
Lololololol XD Thanks everyone for correcting me about the words-placement. I would say give me advice for *both when you’re suffering from the same-face syndrome and drawing the same facial expressions.
(Now that I think about it, those are two different words, but could be used interchangeably in the same context for comics. Sorry for the confusion.)
As some other people have mentioned, same face and same expression syndrome are two different things. With the same expression but a diversity of faces, you have some leeway. But if all the faces physically have the same features, that is when you'll run into issues right away. Both is a deadly combination...
But, as for escaping. Use your own face to mime and draw expressions from life. That way you can make any number of expressions and base characters off that. This requires a little bit of face acting. Another tip is to think of the personality of the character and how they would express certain emotions. You can even give characters random ticks or quirks, like maybe one character's left eye twitches or squints when they're mad, for example. And finally, use reference photos. If you struggle to make a variety of expressions yourself, or feel they aren't different enough, looking for pictures online will be a big help. Good luck!
Surprisingly....i don't......got a trick if one wants to overcome it.......and learned it from miis....
it's all about combinations.....learn to draw different eye shapes, face shapes, nose shapes and so on in your style.....
Let's say you started lightly......you learned to do 3 eye shapes, 3 face shapes, and 3 nose shapes that you can draw well, now you have:
3X3X3=27
27 faces......
each variation of categories adds a multiplier and each alternative increases its number......
one could to the same with body type, maybe you have tall, short, medium height, and thin, average, chubby, muscular body......now you got:
4x3=12
12 bodytypes for your characters......
Of course the degree of variation a person may aim for depends of the stylistic choices they do in the story....as long as readers can tell characters from each other one shouldn't have a problem, but in more realistic styles same face syndrome is extremely more noticeable......
Hope this helps!
I use to! Though I'm not sure if I have improved, I've been trying new face structures for my comic characters. I tried to design different faces like eyes, nose, and lips too!
It took some time to realize you've been using the same face repeatedly. But I think what made me realize is that I have created numerous characters in my life and noticed I have no variety in my designs, haha.
Haha, on the contrary, I think I rely on stuff like lighting, composition and body language for expression a bit too much to the point I use it as an excuse to not worry too much about the face XD It's like
Happy Saku = ""
Passive-aggressively annoyed Saku = " but backlit"
With same face syndrome though, I do think it sticks out more when you have a detailed, realistic art style. e.g. if you can actually see the nose in detail, it's going to be kind of weird if everyone has the exact same nose o_o
Oh good point! I was trying to think of why I like same-face syndrome in some cases and not others, and that sums it up nicely. :]
I prefaced my wall of text with "(usually)" with bitwam in mind actually haha. Your style definitely embraces "same-face syndrome", but it's somehow better that way. It's visually pleasing, fits the story and tone, and doesn't fall into any of the negatives that might accompany same-face syndrome (for one, I don't have trouble telling characters apart because the rest of their designs are plenty distinct).
Now that you point it out, what seems to make same-face syndrome so jarring to me is when a ton of work is put into drawing the details of the characters' faces, bodies, and outfits... but everyone looks the same.
Reminds me of one fantasy/romance comic I'm reading where every panel is a beautiful, fully-rendered painting... but the whole cast has the same stock face and body type. Even the male and female lead (love interests at that) have the same face shape, eye shape, etc. And it doesn't help that the range of expressions are limited and a little flat. They're even about the same height/build...
Maybe since reality is incredibly varied, the more realistic or detailed an art style is, the more its lack of variety sticks out like a sore thumb.
a simple fix for same face syndrome for me is to have unique features for each characters. Thin brows vs bushy brows, eyes slumping downward vs upward, double vs single eyelids, round v square jawline, pointy vs round nose etc. I even have a "feature" chart for each of my characters to keep them consistent.
I think same face syndrome occur largely because of our learned beauty standards, so you really gotta actively push that boundary. Beyond small feature changes, the best way is just to have diversity in body types, age, race etc, which will influence your face as well.
Facial expression imo is mostly eye brows, eyes, and wrinkle lines tbh. Just take reference photos and get wacky with it.