How do you avoid Same Face Syndrome

[TheBryceKrispy]

How do you avoid Same Face Syndrome? Does it bother you? Does it really even matter?

[joannekwan]

If the art style overall is more detailed than Adventure Time faces then yes it will bother me if the characters have same face syndrome, especially if they don't have much other defining characteristics. Sometimes it can get very difficult telling characters apart.

I avoid it by having a stock of several different face shapes, eyes, noses, and mouths that I'll pick and choose from when constructing new characters.

[Raven_C]

I try to just keep in mind different eye shape, eyebrows, hair, and expressions (though I probably should work on those noses! lol). My dad is a caricaturist and even though I don't do caricatures, watching him draw makes me think I could really use that practice to improve my face-drawing skills. It all comes down to practice in the end Try to sketch real faces of real people.

here's also a nice little advice from the artist Phobs on avoiding same face syndrome:

Full tutorial here

[SheiDraws]

i think it matters if you decide that the face is one of the character's distinguishing features. My characters all have the same face but I try to counter it with brightly colored hair, different body types, and unique expressions.

[Kann]

Does it bother me? Depends on the art style. Less detailed styles are more likely to get away with it.

I draw different eye shapes and eyebrows to avoid it. I'm also trying to learn on how to make my mouth nose and face shapes look different.

[DiegoPalacios]

I try to have a variety of face freatures.

Different shape and size of eyes, different eyebrows size and thickness different face shape, different nose size and shape, different mouth shapes and sizes.

If you go with different body types you may have a bigger difference between characters too.

[baasinsimple]

Does same face matter? Does it bother me? If it isn't AT then yes. How do I avoid it? I take some of the rules of caricature into my style, a face should show what kind of person it is if the face doesn't subvert it. A sorrowful or sick old man might have a long, gaunt face.I also guy by a rule, I don't draw super models. I draw people, so they have to have their own facial faults or something that doesn't align with beauty standards. like a hooked nose, a lazy eye, wrinkles etc. As long as I keep that in mind, I can avoid it. Maybe it's because my style is much more detailed than a lot of peoples, that it's easier for me.

[Rhonder]

How to avoid: simply draw the face in different ways. If you're always drawing the exact same jaw shape, eye shape, nose shape, ear type, etc. across all of your characters they're bound to look similar to one another. So play around. Wide faces, skinny faces, long, short, pointy chins, rectangular chins, round chins, pointy noses, stubby noses, etc.

Does it bother me?: Not particularly. Although it's the "lazy" way to differentiate characters, if they're identifiable enough through their clothes/hair/or other features I'm not too bothered.

Does it matter?: I'd say yes. While it's passable to get away with differentiating characters in other ways, it's a powerful tool in character design to be able to differentiate things like their face or body type as well. Don't sleep on experimentation just because same-face is the easy way out :> All of your chars don't have to be 100% unique, but it's good to focus on the important features of each to work on.

[Luminosophy]

It largely depends on the art style which largely depends on the story. For some it doesn't matter, but I can't take a dark anime story seriously if the entire cast is just cutesy moe clones. It's largely a matter of how you want to work in, if at all, and which features you choose to change if not all of them. The kind of stories I like to illustrate are more serious in nature, so if there's realism in the story there needs to be realism in character designs. I usually have an idea of what the character would look like in real life and then try to find photo portraits of people that at least have some of those features for reference. Then by observation, abstract those features into simplified symbol versions.

One thing that did bother me was an excuse I came across in the anime community for not drawing outside of the single symbol they use for every jaw, nose and mouth. "It's not my style to draw that." That's the same as saying you can only draw Golden Retrievers and not other dog breeds because they exist in a limbo realm outside of your "style".

[amortelito]

I'm honestly not bettered about "same face syndrome" unless the charters are hard to distinguish and you confuse one with another. In anime and 80's American cartoons thinks I pretty common to have same face different hairstyle.

What I dislike is when the characters don't have their own personality, that one is lazy. Like those "harem" animes: the girls have different body types, diverse skin colors, distinctive hairstyles, and their unique type of clothing. But they all act the same!! They are literally there to scream "onii chan!!" and get their tits squeezed by accident.

[Hodge]

How do you avoid Same Face Syndrome? - I brush up on character design and the like. Personally, I tend to just vomit details on a page so this isn't much of a problem for me. If anything, I struggle with consistency since I don't have an established "style".

Does it bother you? - Yeah, I mean if it becomes hard to differentiate between characters its annoying. Also, it can make it difficult to get immersed in a story. Like if an aspect of their character is that they are "attractive"/"ugly" but basically looks like everyone else, then its not believable.

Does it really even matter? - Kinda just a small lil thing that bugs me, but just because a character might not have a typical nice looking appearance doesn't mean I can't care about them. I get it get, humans are superficial and there are those who really wouldn't read a comic just because the main characters were not pretty/handsome because they are often seeking some fantasy (particularly evident in romance). And maybe this could lead to a discussion on western vs eastern comics since the latter often focuses on aesthetically appealing characters (to a morally questionable point sometimes haha). But I've really enjoyed stories that were willing to explore unconventional characters and would like to see more of it in webcomics.

[Kann]

If you go with different body types you may have a bigger difference between characters too.

This is also a good idea.

[Zhengo]

I'm not super bothered by Same Face Syndrome, though I do have an appreciation for series that actively try to avoid it. As for tips, well characters are supposed to be different by personality and desires, so I tend to base my designs off of that, either the face will reflect the character straightforward or do it ironically. Also, I find something that kind of helps is to base it off of an animal or object that you can associate with the character. Take traits from that animal or object and think how it would translate into a human face and body (or even an anthropomorphic one).

[silverraven0]

Since I'm drawing with manga style mostly, it is unavoidable for me to made the shapes of the face and to be the same for the characters in the same group age. The things i can do to make them different is to use a different eye shapes, different hair style and making them having a different temperament.

[LordVincent]

I don't mind same face syndrome. For me personally, different eyebrow and eye shapes are quite enough.

Could I read a comic with more varied faces? Of course. It doesn't matter to me.

Could I vary faces more in my own art if I wanted? Yeah I could. It's not hard, really. I just don't want to. My art, my time spent, my rules. I like drawing a certain type of face and so I will.

I will second @amortelito's statement, what matters much more to me is personality and the way the characters are written. Visual character variation does jack shit if the characters are all stereotypes or just plain role fillers.

[krislalev]

Create a a sheet of paper, with a vertical section on the right with different categories: Name/Nickname, History, Hobbies, Likes/Dislices etc. The more The better. I personally have 2 Pages and Print them everytime I want to create a new character. Write everything on your categories and VOALA. Your character will be recognizable by silhouette once you start drawing him!
Good Luck

[LordVincent]

I think it's also worth noting that same face syndrome is not a new phenomenon, it's not exclusively tied to anime or american kid's cartoons and it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with "refusal to improve".

Same face syndrome is as old as this:

Now you could argue that the egyptians that created this type of art were under immense pressure to finish a lot of work at a fast rate... But isn't that also the case with comic artists?
Besides, for an experienced artist, varied faces don't take that much more time to do. It takes a bit extra mental effort to keep it consistent, but that's it.

It's about artistic choices. The reasoning varies, but at the end of the day there is no logical reason that cartoons with similar face bases would be somehow fundamentally less well done than those with more varied faces. It's a matter of personal preference.

I understand and think it's fine for people to dislike sameface syndrome. But talking about it as if it's a matter of skill or refusing to improve is rather condescending, just saying!

[spadesart]

oh yeah it bugs me big time. i follow one popular comic (not here, internet-wide) that suffers from every. single. character. having the same exact face and it really hinders the author's style (to the point where any characters with similar hair color to another looks indistinguishable from each other). it gets hard to tell characters apart if they dont have ridiculously different designs.

changing facial structure and nose shape does wonders for sfs, on top of that it gives your characters more personality. characters that all look the same facially just kinda meld into each other and dont stand out much imo, and its really fun to experiment with different shapes and sizes.

[Stardust-clearwater]

Same face syndrome in detailed artworks is really irritating unless it's in a darker story. Then it becomes eerie. Like if everyone in the story was just a clone of one person and the originals are the ones who really run the show.

Having a variety of eye shapes and nose shapes does wonders to change up the pace because you can always mix and match. Freckles, moles, scars, and tattoos also work. if the art style allows for it you could also have different kinds of pupils.

[onyisart]

Play with head shapes.
Play with eye shapes
Play with eye/nose spacing
Play with hair styles
Play with body types

CIRCLE. SQUARE. TRIANGLE. are the main shapes bodies are composed of. Use those to play around.