Help! I have Sameface Syndrome!

[Quinineer]

So I was looking through my sketchbook when it occurred to me...I draw faces all the same!

Cue the next hour or so trying to fix things. After a lot of tweaking, they still look too similar- do you guys have any tips on variations? Here are a few character faces after. They all literally looked the same (except maybe some of the adult's faces/noses were longer).

The top left and bottom right still look way too similar.

[phen]

Hey, I wouldn't bash these -- it's definitely a good start, yo. And it's even more awesome by the fact that your artist's eye is making you hyper aware of how you construct faces. I think your strongest differences here are in the first, the third, and the fifth. They've got great variations in the chins, eyes, and overall contour

Just push those shapes more, keep experimenting with the contours. Build your face-vocab up from rough studies of basic shapes -- circle, square, diamond, oval, heart. Once you're comfortable with that, start mixing and matching shapes. Heart+circle, Square+diamond, etc, etc. In the example below, you'll see how simple shapes can bring out different looks and character designs!

This is from Lucy Marie Illustration>>

[nessiefynn]

I think one of the reasons your faces look so similar is because they're all very simplified, but not very exaggerated. If you want to stick to more realistic face shapes, you should look into making your faces more detailed! Try adding some more detail to your faces! For example, for all your mouths you only draw a line. Maybe try giving some of your faces prominent lips, and experiment with different shapes there. Your eyes are also very simple and similar, perhaps give someone prominent bags or wrinkles around their eyes, or epicanthic folds. All the characters you drew have small chins that taper off. Why not give someone a really big chin, or a cleft chin?
I could go on, but you should try to experiment more with your character designs! You seem to be trying it with the faces you presented, so keep trying to diversify! Try looking at photos of real life people and try drawing their faces in your style while keeping all of their unique facial features! : D

[Kayke]

Same-face and Non-same-face

I think you'd probably find the this thread helpful. It gives a lot of examples of diverse looking casts and same-faced casts.

[MidZM]

One way you can fix same face syndrome that I know of is changing the chin, eye shape, facial structure, and eye brow style. Characters in my story tend to use a lot of different styles of face but sometimes it is similar during the concept drawing phase and I have to find ways to make them look different.

Especially with the case of the girl in color and the girl beside her, their faces look a bit similar but because of how I draw the characters hair style and eye style, and the rounding of the cheeks, It makes people able to differentiate them if they were to stand side by side.
Not sure if this will help but it's what I've got for ya

[shazzbaa]

I feel like there's a bunch of different ways you can approach it!

Some people start with shapes (edit: like @phenylketonurics posted up there!) -- if one character's face is based on a circle and rounded shapes, and another's is based on a triangle and pointy shapes, and another's is really boxy and rectangular, then you're gonna end up with pretty different faces!

You can also look to real people and steal features from them. Looking at blogs like humanae or humans of new york, or even just a bunch of different actors (tho a lot of times actors have sameface too so, ymmv) are some ways to observe a whole bunch of different kinds of faces, and maybe get ideas for faces you hadn't imagined. A lot of times I'll look up random stock photos or google image searches. It's REALLY, REALLY hard to just pull different kinds of faces out of your head and make them all look distinct.

Another place you can approach it from is focusing on giving everyone different features. Giving different characters different headshapes, and then changing up their noses so some characters have really distinctive noses, and giving some characters really defined eyebrows, and basically thinking about individual features that set them apart from each other. I really like this meme as a fun way to hone in on this and see the specific traits that aren't getting changed up very often!

[spadesart]

Try different face shapes than just the pointed chin! It looks like there's some foundation for it right now but don't be afraid to exaggerate. Do they have a hard squared jawline? Or is it round? There's also a lot you can do with cheeks, they can be chubby or completely flat or pointed etc. Noses also do wonders. Don't be afraid to draw hooked, bumped or big noses. Changing nose shapes can do wonders for same face. It's something I struggle with a little but I've been trying to make them as varied as possible in my comic. Eye shape also helps, are they wide eyed? Small eyed? Are they narrow? angry? Teeth are also tons of fun to play with, I love drawing middle tooth gaps.
here's some of my own

[phen]

Your samples here are gorgeous! I really like the dimension in your character's facial structures, man alive. Beautiful example of cohesive noses, eyes, and eyebrows!

[Mineu]

A good way to stop the sameface syndrome is to look at people around you and as others have said, exaggerate some of their most prominent features. You must pay a lot of attention to detail, you'll notice that even minor things can make a person entirely different from another one (for example a round nose or pointy nose; wider or thinner eyebrows, marks such as freckles and moles and others).
I think one of the reasons why we have this problem is because we usually think that only that type of face looks good. But when you broaden up your perspective, you start to see there is beauty in every single human face, in every aspect of it. Your style seems like it was very influenced by anime/manga so you can try looking at other styles and learn from them and then apply what you learn to your style. Also you can study anatomy in terms of difference between ethnias, races and even age (children, adults, old people). It will help you a lot to understand many things and will help you portrait your characters even more. Also you'll have lots of fun!

[vocaloidno1fan]

Hey, if you're just starting out as an artist, it's ok. I have "Sameface Syndrome" too, but I'm working on trying to make my characters NOT so similar.
What helped me was drawing other people's characters. Ask for cameos or just to feature some of their characters/artwork and then basically try to copy it as best you can. It's ok if it's not perfect, but it may help you with this problem

[Quinineer]

Yeah, I am relatively new to digital art and find that I usually fall back on the same old brush strokes. And thanks for the cameo idea! I'll be sure to plan a scene which allows cameos. c:

[Inspector_Spinda]

If you want to go for a subtle, cartoony, by not super cartoony style, there are little details you can change in terms of nose, eyes and face shapes that will make the character unique looking.

[Quinineer]

Wow! These examples really highlight the small (but important!) differences! Thank you; this is very useful!

[UrMom]

I don't have anything to add that everyone else hasn't added, and shazzbaa already beat me to the Humanae thing (which is a super awesome resource, seriously, check it out), but I have some related tuts I collected over the years if you're interested?

How to Avoid SFS
Understanding Your Style part 1, part 2
Expressions
Construction

They're not all about SFS, but they can all relate to it. Learning how to construct different faces, how to make them expressive, and how to stylize said them are all part of moving away from SFS. If that makes sense. Good luck! Sorry if this wasn't really useful. Lol

[Kawaiiyusra]

I have this same problem. However, I notice the obvious fix to this would be to make them super cartoony, which isn't what you're going for. A good show that has characters with different faces is Attack on Titan (And that's an anime shocking I know). You can shave the heads of all the characters and know who is who.
To break it down parts of the face which will make your characters different are.

• Different shape and thickness of eyebrows
• Different shape eyes (wide, narrow, slanted, tired etc)
• Different shape noses (rounded, pointy, defined, simplfied etc.)
• Face shape (Round, angular)
• Put the eyes lower or higher on the face depending on the character's age (or portrayed age)

Try checking out Pixel Lovely It's a gesture drawing and practice site, they have slides with different photos of people (Just like in art school). Take some time to practice by drawing those people in your style and you'll eventually figure it out.

Hope that helps