May 2021
9 / 15
May 2021
May 2021
BarBarKetrab
May '21

If a character has long bangs which partially cover their eyebrows, how do you draw them?

Do you make the character's bangs transparent and show the eyebrows anyway, like so?

Eyebrows.png1038x960 30.8 KB

Or are the character's eyebrows covered by their hair, like so?

Eyebrows2.png1033x916 29 KB

  • Transparent fringe - eyebrows visible
  • Opaque fringe - eyebrows covered

42voters

Choose up to 2 options

Votes are public.

I'm just curious.

  • created

    May '21

  • last reply

    May '21
  • 14

    replies

  • 1.6k

    views

  • 15

    users

  • 22

    likes

rajillustration
May '21

I go back and forth depending on how far away my character is, and how much they're emoting. Most of the time I'll expose the brow, though. But if it's a serious scene--no, I wouldn't do that, I'd go more realistic.

starless
May '21


I voted for eyebrows covered, but then I realized that my characters barely have bangs. That can be also a solution haha.

Tanako
May '21

I love to draw eyebrows and noses. mine is always transparent. I like it that way.

GloamingCat
May '21

I always show them, my characters' emotions depend 100% on their eyebrows to be clear. I only hide them if I deliberately want to hide their emotions, and in that case I usually hide the eyes too. But normally, no hair has the power of hiding eyebrows. Not even eye patches have!

Screenshot_20210530-211414.png738x711 545 KB

sorible
May '21

I like to change the color of the parts of the eyebrows that are covered by hair, like this:

Screen Shot 2021-05-30 at 8.57.18 PM.png1800x1125 874 KB

Either this or I lower the opacity to make it lighter so it doesn't look like the eyebrow is over the hair. Eyebrows are important for emotion and facial expression so I always want to show them.

Kura
May '21

It depends on what the expression needs.

Some character expressions will come out better when you can see the eyebrows.

Some character expressions will come out better when they are more hidden.

Eyebrows are very useful for conveying expression and both showing or hiding them can help show whatever expression you are trying to make your character use.

Kittyfox
May '21

I switch between the two, but mostly I draw the eyebrows over the bangs. It's a style thing XD

DualDragonsMaster of Yeet
May '21

I used to do transparent eyebrows, but nowadays I draw my hair over them. I feel it fits better with how my style evolved.

KelheorRegular
May '21

See through fringe. Most of my guys have quite a heavy fringe and big brows, so I can't just take away that emoting part. Also I suppose I just got used to it through years :pumpkin:

UmD2gHhaSnU.jpg1148x639 206 KB

iHateFridays
May '21

Pfft I just draw them as black lines, but for some characters I give em thicker lines XD

gabriellabalagna
May '21

I personally don't draw eyebrows over the hair. But I think either way can look good, just depends on the style.

DNoble
May '21

when it comes to cartooning, you are inevitably simplifying the real world down and removing details. It's an intrinsic aspect of comics that it simply can't be as complex and nuanced as the real world we see with our eyes.

With that in mind, exaggeration and abstraction become massively important tools for a comic artist. You can't capture every tiny detail of real life (which your eyes pick up automatically), so you are forced to find another way to represent the world around you, often by intensifying things that are normally more subtle in real life, or by showing it through some form of symbology that communicates a larger idea (think sweat drops, motion lines, impact effects, etc.)

When it comes to human expression, the brow is possibly the single most important facial feature when it comes to communicating mood. In the real world, humans have literal dozens of tiny muscles that can move and shift our faces around in a bajillion different ways, and our eyes evolved naturally to perceive and interpret all the tiny little variations of those muscles and the changes they make to the face.
Unless you are drawing in perfect photorealism, you will inevitably lose some of the incredibly intricate detail that is inherent to human faces and human expressions, and therefore need to exaggerate the aspects of it that you still have.

Thus, the highly expressive and communicative eyebrow being visible when they otherwise wouldn't be is an incredibly common and useful technique for making sure emotions read clearly to the viewer even in the simplified artwork of a comic.

TL;DR, eyebrows super important for reading expressions. Usually very useful to have them visible even if it's unrealistic.