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LuciieR
Apr '17

Do yall have trouble drawing your own characters?
I've Created Ofélia and Henrique, my main characters, for about a year now, and their faces were always very explicit to me when I drew them, but I've been revising my drawings of Ofelia and I noticed they are very inconsistent, as if it were different people drawing her each time?
It made me very mad about myself, and I'd like some tips how to avoid that.
So, is this normal and should i keep doing it until I unconsciously "settle" for a face/coloring i enjoy more? Or I should actually do something about it?

I put some images of her side by side, and i'm not sure if it's a matter of Improving My Skills, cuz some of them are out of order, and in most recent panels she looks more like the first few than the latest ones
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GreenSpleen
Apr '17

Hmmm well coming from a friendly fellow artist, I will point out that what helps is her hair. Obviously. We can tell she's the same girl in each example. But your claim makes sense as I do see rounder chins and then more angular chins after. Besides that, she looks pretty cute and I relate so much to this.

I draw myself in GreenSpleen10 and it bugs me that I change styles sometimes I guess? I'm not too sure (which is where we can relate), but I try to put a purpose behind the changes.

So like for example: In a scene where there is emphasis I add eyes behind my glasses. Ya'know? I don't see an issue in doing this. But when alternate styles get REALLY noticeable, that is a problem. Avoiding this is important.

Hope that helps @LuciieR smiley

LuciieR
Apr '17

But the problem is that We can see you made your own comics, the details might change, the drawings get more smooth, but you keep it simple and consistent: expressive faces, thick lines and simple colours

This is so hard on me i was actually accused of stealing my own character once! (well, not ofélia, another character) lol @GreenSpleen

goobermation
Apr '17

Well since comic is an art form I wouldn't say it's something you HAVE to correct. It depends a lot on what you want. If you are unhappy with the differences then by all means practice. But if the inconsistency comes from you enjoying different styles there's no reason you can't incorporate style changes in a comic. You can give it a reason to be there like the more cartoony style can be for comedic situations or long shots.

You can even incorporate the style changes on the story itself, give it a reason besides just looks to be there. There's tons of things you can do to creatively play around with style within a story.

In short, it's only a problem if it bothers you.

NanettesClouds
Apr '17

So - First things first, your style evolving over time as you get better is natural. For some people, seeing how the artist evolves is one of the main appeals to reading a webcomic, and yeah that goes for how you draw induvidual characters. I mean just look at how much Garfield and Bugs Bunny evolved over their lifetimes.

Keeping a character looking consistent isnt as huge of a deal as people make it out to be - drawing "off model" can lead to more expressive and lively drawings, because you're not constraining yourself to drawing the character in a stiff robotic way.

The important thing to keep in mind is to make sure that the visual signifiers for that character stay consistent (in your case pink hair and a big build(?)) and that their silhouette is recognizable when their around other characters. No one is going to notice slight differences in the face shape.

You're doing fine, dont worry too much about it. If you want to keep the characters a little bit more consistent though making a model-sheet/turn-around would help with that.

revisionstudios
Apr '17

Have you tried setting up a character sheet? With front, side, back, and maybe a 3/4s view? Style will always naturally evolve, but things like that will help to remain consistent.

I personally do see style jumps as a little off putting--so I think it would help to choose a style, both in linework and coloring. That doesn't mean you have to be married to it forever of course, but having a scene or even a chapter remain consistent looks better imo.

The biggest inconsistencies I see with her is her nose, the cheeks/jaw(?), and the coloring. Sometimes eye spacing. I think the nose is the most critical though? Like, in the images with her hair up, her nose is higher than in the ones where she has makeup on. And I think BECAUSE the nose is higher, you end up drawing her face shorter and her cheeks fuller.

If you do a character sheet (even just headshots) draw the front, then on a layer behind it, make straight lines across the canvas for key features: hair line, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, chin. Then when you draw the side view, you can draw it so everything is lined up. If it looks wonky, you may need to adjust the front view a little too... but it's a good process to go through, because it'll make your characters look more like they occupy 3D space, if that makes sense.

LuciieR
Apr '17
goobermation

I already do it actually!! sometimes I draw them in chibi or realistic style(like those spongebob closeups hahah), but they are not a problem for me like the main one is, and it's acutally bothering me bc if i decide to make a redraw from something i just made, it will turn out completely different!

LuciieR
Apr '17
revisionstudios

That's a good idea!! a character sheet! I'm just not sure of how i'm supposed to do that if every try of sketching my ocs they turns out to look more like someone else cosplaying them lol

Also, would a character sheet just be the same as tracing? This is not a joke question bc if I cant mantain proportins my only way out(that i can think of) would be putting in a layer and sketching above it? Or it's be ok cuz the artwork is mine?

I also aint a fan of style jumps, but wouldn't that make me a hypocrite? Lol I used ofélia as the example because she's the easiest to identify, like "yes this is the same character bc of the hair", but if i'm to make a group of friends who share caracteristics, for example a blond cheerleading squad or fraternal, I'm afraid each time they'd look so different ppl would be very confused as to who is whom

((i know about the nose, the first was a terrible mistake bc i most certainly can't draw it,,,, ha))

revisionstudios
Apr '17

Even with a character sheet, it'll take practice before your character features become second nature! The thing with the sheet you draw is that it's a guide--if you sketch them in the comic, and something looks off, you can look at the reference and easier pinpoint what looks weird and then correct it. The more times you correct things, the more it'll build muscle memory.

And absolutely, you can trace your own stuff. If that's what helps you build muscle memory, do it. Eventually you won't need to lean on that crutch anymore. If you have problems with proportion, I would also suggest blocking out quick silhouettes with a flat color first before you do sketches/lineart. Sometimes lines make it hard to see the full form of a character, if that makes sense!

It doesn't make you a hypocrite! You're just learning, and striving for it. It's okay to not be 100% all the time. I'm sure I've drawn my characters off model, but MOST of the time it's passable and within a set margin of error. They're still readable as that person, and that's what's important.

To give you an example of what I was talking about earlier, I whipped up a quick pic of my main character front and side. I drew the front view first, then put in those lines, and drew the side view. Luckily I don't need to use something like this much anymore but it's a good exercise!
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punkarsenic
Apr '17

ugh, i feel you. i have a main character who i keep changing because im never satisfied with her design - im also learning and developing rapidly which leads to inevitable change, so thats likely also the case for you.

your character remains recognisable - the pink curly bob, the round nose, big lips, heavy eyeliner, thick brows, round face. that remains consistent, so everyone will always know this is Ofelia - it just looks like shes being drawn by 9 different artists. so maybe its your art style changing as you develop that youre noticing more in your main character?

that said, going through your comic i can see some places where she seems off model (model being the features i described above). if you want to do something about it to keep the faces consistent, you should develop a model sheet, like this
1
or heres a simpler one

making one of these, you can check back to it while drawing your character (you could make notes like 'her nose is round, it looks like this at this difficult angle,' and 'this is how far out her hair goes' to remind yourself to focus on those things as you draw)

DoubleAA
Apr '17

Both.
Make a character reference sheet; this helps you while you're drawing, just in cause you missed important aspects of her. If you do change styles, try to keep her design the same, or throw a few panels where the character changes her hair color, or ties back her hair, you know, appearance.

While you should definitely try to find a style you like, do try to be consistent. Its OK to change though, it marks another point where you've improved!

Take my comic, Understanding Nothing4. the first 3 comics were made on an iPad. Then suddenly, BOOM. Massive style changed when i picked up on my sibling's old Wacom and all those Adobe products on my family computer. I started to pay attention to more things, and overall, i highly preferred it over my previous method.

Good Luck!

lynestjules
Apr '17

I've been told time and time again that what they despise in some webcomics is a style that doesn't evolve. It's like the artist is stuck in time. Obviously this works differently in animation since it's moving around. But in comics, it seems to be different. People like the evolving style, it just means you're becoming a better artist. I see a change from my first chapter to my 2nd one... heck! I see a change from the first few pages of my current chapter to the ones I recently drawn.
It's really obvious that all of those drawings are of Ofélia. She has a consistent look that you can recognize, the style varies, but it won't confuse the reader.
I think you can pretty much look at almost any series on Tapas and see something changing from the first few pages to the last few pages.