How do you make characters look older?

[LadyN]

I don’t.

But I need advice. Because one day I will have to draw old characters and I don’t know how. The only thing I know about making old look character is to give them wrinkles however I feel my art style doesn’t make wrinkles look like wrinkles so I need other things.

Any ideas?

Edit:

I tried some things out based off the advice I got. Does it look fine?

Edit 2:

made it less sketchy and got some more feedback. This one was done on IBISPaint so it looks a little lesser in quality than the original

[TheGentleArtist]

The head is kinda more oval compared to a young character's head

Height of course plays into this. Older character are generally taller and once they hit senior citizen, they shrink

The color of the hair, depending on the age of the adult, there will be gray streaks and of course full gray/white for old timers.

a Crows-Feet helps to. They are the little wrinkles on the back end of eyes for old older characters.

The ears and nose would be bigger on old characters as they don't necessarily stop growing since they are made of cartilage.

[NickRowler]

Look up "how to draw Ojisan" and you might get some refs. There is also a book but it might be a bit embarrassing to own.

[VibrantFox]

Seconding what artisan has said above

Looking at photos of elderly folks for reference also helps to get an idea of how they look compared to young folks (family photos are good too since it shows appearance or physical traits that maybe run in the family and how they look on the younger person versus the older one

that's like when it comes to rendering wrinkles sometimes less is more or rather that you don't have to stick a million lines on a face to make it look elderly. simple stuff like eye bags, crows feet, maybe wrinkling on the forehead (like lines) or something to show inset cheekbones

like these are a couple quick sketches i whipped up

it's not super detailed but one could maybe make the assumption that they're of elder age?

You could also look at how other people draw old folks in their style and see what works for yours.

Also clothing helps as well given young people, adults and eldery folks don't always wear the same things so looking into fashion for folks in the respective age group you're looking to portray also doesn't hurt

and it's also worth noting the way hair texture comes into play as older folks not only deal with hair greying but thinning or straight up hair loss. so maybe loose strands look a bit more wiry or there's thin patches like at the top of the head or something

[candiedcotton]

I usually do little lines around the eyes or nasal labial folds, stuff like that. Thicker brows for men, too.

For example, this guy is early 30s and has a wee bit of aging. You can sort of tell due to the lines around his eyes.

[DualDragons]

There's a number of ways I do it (or would do):

• Head shape: a kid's head is usually more round and a adult's skull is longer, more like an oval.
• Facial features: Giving your character big eyes, a small nose and mouth can really make a difference as to when you give them more narrow small eyes and a bigger nose.
• Body language: body language alone can tell a lot about a character. Just making your character bend over can make them look older.

Of course these suggestions are not necessarily 'old' traits. But they can help suggest the age of a character.

[Kelheor]

Besides all those great points everyone already stated, I think what people sometimes forget is that the face form actually changes a lot with age? All facial features generally become more prominent, muscles and fat go down the face (one of the reasons for wrinkles, eye bags, etc.), full cheeks frequently become hollow, the jawline changes accordingly - it could become harder or "softer" depending on the weight and if they have more prominent jowls, brow ridges looking harsher too, eyelids becoming droopy.
(Just so happen to watch HxH right now, so here's one nice example of basically the same-looking characters in different ages)

[Shomin]

What I did is, depends on age.
I also received advice from here.
Middle age -> Sturdier, serious expression represent maturity. Some facial hair may enhance the look.
Older age -> wrinkles below the eyes are the key.

[silverraven0]

For me character looks like they're on their twenties, but not enough older than twenty five, or at least thats what it appear to me.

Can you gave more example of your style? The pixture you provided seemed very sketchy so i can't see anything that i can associated with wrinkles.

And just like what the people up there said, putting wrinkles, having different head and eyes shapes do works.
Below are the links to a few quick sketch i did months ago showing a cahracter face aging. At least it shows how their face change from a certain point. (Can't find the immediate pictures ATM)

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7xT_sthaq6/?utm_medium=copy_link

[igneriss]

There are a lot of ways that can make a character look older, though it also depends on how you draw younger characters ( : My 'basic' character look is something between 25-35, and then I adjust for younger/older characters. I try to keep my character's faces different so I don't always use all those methods, usually just pick some of the list:
- younger characters have bigger eyes, older characters have smaller eyes and set closer to eyebrows;
- for younger characters and seniors head looks bigger compared to the body;
- the older character is, the more details on the face they get- like drawing a whole nose instead of just a part of it, lines under the eyes, wrinkles, also face contour gets a bit more details;
- face is rounder/puffier for younger characters;
- there are people who look young even when they are older, so for those an element of tiredness and 'i'm done' does the trick.

[darthmongoose]

One of the most common mistakes artists make when aging characters is they keep the face shape the same and just draw on a bunch of wrinkle lines. It always looks kind of wrong, in the same way as how "old person makeup" on young film stars always doesn't quite look like an actual old person.

I've found actually that changing the shape of the overall face, especially the nose and jawline, is the big key thing.

Quick and dirty sketch (probably VERY wonky because I didn't flip it lol) but...

So one key thing is that the skin around the jaw starts to droop. This tends to have a softening and broadening effect to the jawline, and also the chin may appear more prominent on some people as the rest of the jawline sags a bit around it. The exception is on VERY thin older people, where the jawbone kind of starts to look shrink-wrapped.

The eyes don't get smaller exactly, but the eyelid and skin around the eye sags a bit over them, leading to a sort of hooded and more narrow look. This is a good thing to keep in mind if you want an aged version of an existing character to remain recognisable; try to keep the same eye shape, just lower the top lid's resting position a bit.

Your nose and ears aren't bone, but cartilage, so they actually keep growing throughout your life. Older people tend to have larger noses and ears, so making the nose and ears more prominent is a good way to show age.

Try to keep wrinkles to a few effective ones that define the volumes of the face rather than trying to ink in every last line if you're drawing in a simple style, otherwise the character will look out of place with the detail level of the comic.

[nekoendy]

Expression wrinkles and skin flaccidity will make your character look old, you'll realize it's too easy to make someone older, and if you're not careful, it'll look like a corpse...
Making the cheek bone stand will make your male more "serious", for an older guy, keep adding wrinkles until you're happy

[oshirockingham]

Make them complain about the younger generation, give them back pain, make them hoard boxes, and think that it might be useful someday.

[BlairFujin]

Hey, me and my friends are already doing that and we're still in 20s 'xDD

[jurinova]

There are some really good tips here already! Here's a few I keep in mind when trying to draw characters of different ages:

• Skin starts to sag as people get older. This means that older people will have their skin more loosely on their bones. This is not just for the face but the body as well. For majority of people weight gain also happens more easily once people hit 60, so often there is some extra weight that gives a softer, droopier look for elders. I've seen some older people who are fit and even then they have a softer belly and skin sagging over their muscles.

• Wrinkles happen and not just on the face. People's hands and neck especially show their age quite easily.

• 20's to 30's are a difficult age to draw because this is the age range where it's hard to tell someone's exact age. Some people can be 28 and look much older, or some people can age more slowly and end up looking much younger than they are. Smoking, stress and sunbathing are some of the things that can make people age faster, though even then it can be quite subtle. But it's not impossible to have two characters age 30 who look like different ages.

• Body proportions also change as people age. For kids their heads are bigger in proportion. Teens can have weird proportions since their body parts grow at different times, so they might have longer arms or their feet might look huge for awhile. Then when people get old their proportions start to shrink, so they get shorter and often their posture changes with this as well.

Finally: If you want references, try not to use Hollywood stars. They are made to look young and beautiful no matter their age, so they are not a solid reference material. Instead look at photos of regular people or observe people in real life to see how age affects everyone.

[system]

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