How to create your own character drawing style. Sign up for a basic drawing course

Artists of all times and peoples painted only what they wanted. They depicted the world on canvas as only they saw it. Conveying their feelings, emotions, colors, shades and play of shadows to other people is very problematic, so they created new drawing styles and techniques. Of course, it is impossible to distribute all art into several categories, but it helps to see the big picture and create the right one.

impression. As in the case of clothing, in fine art there is a fashion for certain styles, which replace each other from time to time. Let's see what main categories they are represented by today.

Abstractionism

This direction is not recognized by many ordinary people, since in the paintings we cannot see the shapes and colors that are familiar to us. But this is precisely what artists focus on. The term itself when translated means removal or distraction from reality. The main goal is to achieve harmony of shapes and shades of colors, thereby evoking certain associations in the viewer. The founder was Wassily Kandinsky, but perhaps the most famous work of art was “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich.

Impressionism

The drawing styles of this direction recreate the impressions of what they saw; the form does not matter. Paintings are usually created with energetic strokes, and small details are practically absent. The trend originated in France at the end of the 19th century. The main thing for the artist was not what he painted, but how it looked on the canvas. The problem with this style can be called excessive positivity and a complete lack of social problems, which ultimately led to a split among the impressionists.

A prominent representative was Claude Monet (“Impression. Rising Sun”)

Surrealism

A distinctive feature of this style is allusions and incredible combinations of shapes and sizes of objects. The one who brought this ideology into art was and its most prominent follower was Salvador Dali. If we describe the pictures in a nutshell, they are more like something between a dream and reality. Drawing styles in this direction were far from rational aesthetics, since the usual details appear before us in an elongated, enlarged or overly reduced form, not to mention the fact that their very combination is absurd.

Realism

The drawing styles we started with are far from reality, but realism is still considered the most common direction.

It begins with learning at school the ability to display on a piece of paper what we see in the correct proportions and in natural colors.

Hyperrealism

But modern drawing styles, hyperrealism, for example, are distinguished by such verisimilitude that they look more like photographs than drawings. It is this moment that makes you freeze when you see the paintings painted by representatives of this movement. In the portraits you can see every hair, the slightest glare in the eyes and even wrinkles. And it gives me goosebumps. Now you know what drawing styles there are, and you can calmly go to the exhibition, without fear of exposing yourself as an absolute amateur in this matter.

When you draw a face, the first thing you should do is prepare the base. Is that what you do? If yes, what does it look like?

I use circle and line. Now the important question is: why?

Well well. Still simple. The line and circle represent a skull divided in half! “Nooo,” you say, “anatomy sucks!” Yes you are right. But listen to me.

Important features of the skull that you should definitely know are the relative proportions of the skull and jaw, as well as the position of the eye sockets, nose and teeth. Remember, a circle represents a sphere.

I draw horizontal lines mainly to show where the eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth will go. Since the skull is a sphere, then the lines will be curved, no matter what angle you look at them from. Notice in which direction the lines are curved in this and other examples.

It is very important to understand where the eyes, nose and teeth will be located because they determine the position of the main facial features.

I often use a rule that says: the eyes and nose form an isosceles triangle.

GREAT. So, at this point it's a good idea to go over the most important parts of the face. Remember their geometry!

EYES

They are spherical. The sphere penetrates your face (romantic, I know).

Sorry, the pupils turned out small.

What makes eyes old, young, wary, surprised? How can eyebrows help convey different emotions?

To check whether your eyes are looking there, simply remove the iris of your eyes. If the pupils look where they need to, then everything is fine! Hooray.

NOSE

Noses are usually pyramids with the nostrils located on the bottom surface! The line running through the center of the pyramid corresponds to the meridian in the sketch.

There are a huge number of variations on the theme of the nose! Consider length, roundness, pointiness, nostril size, etc. You might want to look for other tutorials that focus specifically on noses!

The shape of the lips also depends on the shape of the mouth. The shorter the length of the mouth (closed, with elongated lips), the fuller the lips will be. The longer the mouth (in a smile, when screaming), the thinner the lips.

The mouth is quite difficult to work with, but it is quite possible. You need to remember the position of the teeth in the skull! And the fact that the mouth is connected to the pharynx.

The shape of the lips also depends very much on many factors. It is necessary to differentiate between thick and thin lips. Straight and curved. Full top or full bottom. Oh.

Fortunately, you already knew all this. Now let's move on to the fun part: let's transfer everything to the face! Oh yes, you can even make your face shape whatever you want! If you don't want to bother yourself, you can go the anime route and stamp out identical faces as if they were spanked with a shovel. But if you respect yourself, you probably know that all people have different face shapes.

The only difference between a thin and fat face is where the fat is deposited! When working with facial fat, pay attention to the cheeks, jaw and neck.

Other places to pay attention to: cheekbones, eyebrows, chin, and the distance between all these details...

You did it! :D Now you need to take all your knowledge and apply it to create a living, breathing face. This means that we need to add angle and emotion, we don’t look at one point like robots. Well, most of us.

When you tilt your head, remember to curve all the lines in the direction of the skull!

The same circle and line rule applies when viewed from behind! Just imagine that you can see right through them.

When the head turns upward, the lines follow the same path. Conversely, when the head is tilted, the lines are directed downward. The most distant parts (forehead and, accordingly, chin) fall under foreshortening.

latest comments

1. The face is all about geometry. It doesn’t matter how cool you think you are, but if you try to do everything at random, I’m sure it will turn out badly. So no need to guess! It only takes a couple of seconds to draw a circle and a couple of lines. And don't even think about the details until you've built a good structure. Make sure that important elements line up exactly along the lines of the skull and face.
2. Avoid similar faces.
3. If you are not sure about the proportions of faces, transfer the drawing to Photoshop, and if the face looks normal when you rotate the drawing horizontally/vertically, then you are damn cool.
4. There are different faces. Study your relatives, for example (your own or others). Take a closer look at what they have in common and what is different!

Character design

The technique of creating characters and the characters themselves in cartoons, comics and products with a wide variety of manifestations of character and emotions

• Author
• 2 April 2019, 17:45

Creating cool, memorable characters is easy if you know certain rules. This post captures some simple but useful aspects of the creation process.

Tell a story

Stories are what pique our interest and help us believe in a character. Think about movie plots and games - we're usually intrigued by a character's story and personality traits, and this also applies to illustration. Even the simplest stories make a character more attractive and memorable. You can show the story in a picture through the environment, movement, costume elements, or facial features.



Shapes and lines

Many famous characters are made up of simple shapes and lines. Remember that the viewer subconsciously reads rounded soft forms as a sign of the character’s kindness, and sharp and torn ones as an attribute of a negative character. So if your cute character is made up of sharp pieces, it may cause problems in understanding.


Silhouettes

It's safe to say that people can immediately recognize familiar characters from their silhouettes alone if they are well designed and use the right shapes and lines. If you remove details from your character and test them for silhouette recognition, this is usually a sign of a cool design.



Proportions and exaggeration

Using distorted proportions or exaggerating the length and size of body parts, even with small details like fingers, can really help create your character's personality. You can make him appear stronger or clumsier, even angrier, by exaggerating his physical features. This is also true for their walking and movement if you want to go ahead and animate the character in the animation. Plus, when you need to show that a character is small and cute, his head and eyes are deliberately enlarged.



Expression

The first thing we look at when we see a character is his eyes. In real life, human and animal eyes are full of emotion and are a good way to understand what someone is thinking or feeling. So naturally we look at the eyes in the illustration. Another good tip is to exaggerate the expression so it actually reads and not make the audience think too hard.



Posture and position

Thinking about how a character stands or how they carry themselves is another way to reveal more about their personality and add detail to the story. You can make characters look strong, imposing, scared, confused, angry, etc. simply by changing their pose and position.



Scale

Knowing the scale and size of a character is important, and it can be difficult to visualize its size especially in abstract designs. This is where the introduction of other objects such as trees, houses or tables and plants can help us understand how big or small the character we are looking at is.



Color

Using color can help with a character's mood, making them more serious or cheerful. Using the right shades for skin tone, fur, clothing, etc. also helps the viewer understand what kind of character they are looking at, and even whether they have a friendly or not-so-friendly personality. Remember that using a more fun and unrealistic color palette will make your character more fun and playful.



Shadows

The shading can be as complex or simple as you like. It really depends on how realistic or detailed you want the character to appear. You can really play with the style and final visual appearance of your character when you think about shadows. This is a way to introduce some tones/shades of the existing colors you have been using.



Texture

You don't always need to use texture on your character illustrations, if you want a clean vector art it may be better to leave it without texture. However, if you want your illustration to look more organic, vibrant, and natural, it may be worth adding texture. There are plenty of successful examples, you just have to look around.



That's all the main points, this list can really help and be useful even if only some of the points are implemented.

• Author
• 18 December 2016, 14:35



Sometimes we need to draw animals that look like people, and there are some very simple ways to achieve this goal. The technique of humanization is especially often used in children's books and when creating mascots. There are several degrees of anthropomorphism (humanization).

1. Animal with human emotions - when animals remain animals, but have human emotions and facial expressions. Human poses can be used to enhance the effect.



2. The animal performs human actions - the effect works great in contrast with the technique above, when one animal only has emotions, and the other performs some actions. At this stage, animals may or may not wear clothing, but they usually have paws rather than arms and are usually not wearing shoes. Very often this technique was used by the famous English illustrator Betrix Potter (this is her illustration on the cover of the post).





3. Almost complete coincidence with humans - at this stage, in addition to the points above, animals wear clothes, shoes, usually walk on two legs and act like people. Sometimes such characters look like people with the head of an animal.





Here is a clear illustration of all degrees of humanization. The first penguin is just an animal, the second has emotions, the third becomes more and more humanized, but remains a penguin for now, and the last one is completely human-like.



I hope now drawing human animals will be simple and easy for you)

Honestly, I thought about this question for a long time, because the answer “everywhere” categorically did not suit me. As a result, several clear areas have come together, taking into account the features of which you can develop characters specifically for something.

Cartoons/animation
The success of cartoons largely depends on the uniqueness and originality of the character, so the image is usually not taken out of thin air, but carefully worked out. Cartoons can be 2D or 3D - it depends on how to draw the character. The character is accompanied by a set of diagrams for its subsequent animation (front view, profile, map of emotions, and so on). The introductory task is prepared by the film's directing group. Usually in feature films the artist works on the character throughout the entire shoot.

By the way, many large studios, after the release of cartoons, release art books with the work process and a lot of stuff with the character.

Commercials
Usually short and with an emphasis on what is being sold. All the character's actions should be built around the product being sold. Essentially a cartoon in miniature, only with fewer poses, environments and scenes. With the development of motion design, they are often made from vector characters with a combination of different transitions and frame changes. Just turn on the TV and wait for the commercials - the characters there are very different.



Computer games
The starting point is the general theme of the game, its plot, setting (the environment in which the action takes place) and the role assigned to this character. For example, you need to create concept art of the main character for a shooter, which takes place during the 2nd World War or during the Crusade. Before starting to draw this character, the artist must carefully study the clothing of that time (military uniform if the hero is a soldier), samples of weapons, etc. It is also important to work out every action of the character, how he runs, shoots, dies, and so on. Something like this.

Mascots
Mascot characters representing a company, brand, sports team, team, and so on. Mascots are often used as characters that represent products and services to consumers (for example, Ronald McDonald the clown). For street advertising, as a rule, they hire a person and dress him up in a mascot costume. Also, very bright mascots are usually used for the Olympic Games and sports competitions (in the video below, one of the symbols of the American basketball team). Even car brands can have their own mascots - for example, a Ferrari horse or a Lamborgini bull. At the same time, the character does not have to be cartoonish; a stylized brutal version can also very well be a mascot.

Book graphics/comics
As a rule, here you need to develop many different characters and their interaction with each other. Behavior, character and environment are closely related. The brighter the character, the easier it is to build a story around him. Comics in general are a separate large trend, very clearly represented in eastern countries such as Japan and the USA, but with a different style. Here's a great video on how to make characters different.

Here's a rather long but interesting tutorial on how to make a character cute.


Figurines
Usually these are collectible series with game or cartoon characters, but it happens that a character is initially created only for a sculpture in a small edition. With the advent of 3D printing, the impossible becomes possible even for amateurs and it is not necessary to make a huge print run at once.
By the way, I have several figures from Game of Thrones, excellent characters)



If you know other interesting examples of using characters, share them in the comments.

• Author
• 15 February 2016, 20:44


I decided to summarize all the useful tips that famous illustrators recommend for creating high-quality and recognizable characters. The main thing about a character is his recognition and readability. Accordingly, without a clear silhouette, it is difficult to achieve this. Therefore, the first thing to do is fill the character with black and check how it generally looks like as a spot. For example, here are a few silhouettes - of course you will recognize them immediately.


Denis Zilber works very cool with the silhouette, for example, the sequence of drawing his character and you can clearly see how he changed his pose in favor of the readability of the silhouette.



Lots of options

You shouldn’t immediately draw a character and concentrate on only one image - it’s better to draw several different concepts and choose the most successful one. In any case, you can take interesting details from the rejected options.



Simple forms

It’s easier and more correct to start drawing with simple shapes - ovals, pears and cylinders and only then build up the required volume and details on them. Drawing from shapes allows you to simply find the desired pose or angle without changing the entire drawing. And despite the fact that very often you want to go into details, at the initial stage a stick or a cucumber is our everything)





Unusual details

A character can be memorable not only for its figure, but also for interesting things that complement the image. For example, if you remember Harry Potter, then these are glasses, an owl and a scar in the form of a lightning bolt. I once saw a book cover design where these three things were drawn and the title of the book was not written and I was one hundred percent sure that it was Potter.



Correct proportions

Usually, if a character is smart, they give him a bigger head and big glasses; if he is a jock, he will have broad shoulders; romantic girls will have big eyes and long eyelashes. All these things make it easier to read the character's image without thinking. You need to remember the ratio of body parts, because... proportions create a character's character. For example, a large and pugnacious hero will have a small head, a wide chest, shoulders and legs, and a mouth and chin that will protrude forward. Cute characters will have the proportions of a baby: a large head, an oval body, a high forehead, and small areas of the chin, mouth, and eyes. Knowing these things, you can already achieve certain effects.
For example, almost all Disney princesses look cute due to their big eyes and small mouth.



The environment is also important

Understanding where exactly the character will act and work can greatly simplify the work. This is especially important when the character is “fitted” into a ready-made place. In some mysterious forest, goblin and sorcerers would be more appropriate than, for example, a horse rider or an African animal.
I love the Bikini Bottom example - it's the perfect style for SpongeBob and his friends, and they match it perfectly.





Why and for whom is the character created?

For some company selling travel packages, it is better to make the character simple, but for games they usually develop complex and detailed heroes. However, if a person is just walking down the street and sees a complex character, most likely he will not look at him.
Here is a Euroset character who can be easily changed and forced to do anything and who can often be seen while passing by another salon.


But here is the hero of Warcraft, where people sit for a long time and the atmosphere and every little detail is important.



And finally

It’s always interesting not just to look at the characters you like, but to analyze them and highlight their characteristic features. Once you know the basic techniques, you can quickly learn how to create interesting characters that fit the task.

Do you know any important points that should be taken into account when creating characters?

Child or adult, it doesn't matter. Sometimes it can be very difficult to immediately get a book on “How to Draw Anime or Manga” and adjust your entire style to the manner of a particular artist. From now on, develop your own unique creative approach. You can create a style consisting of a variety of anime and manga features!

Steps

Read real manga and watch real anime. Seriously though, children's anime-drawn books teach mostly "poser-manga" (not original anime). Always look for Japanese names. There are quite a few very good drawn manga books written by actual representatives of the Japanese people. Who will create a better example of Japanese art? Nice Japanese people, most of the time. Also, if you read real manga, you will be able to grasp the differences between manga and anime, and maybe even understand the meaning of the term "American anime" (check out kidsWB). There is a lot before your eyes.

Try drawing manga characters and/or animals BEFORE you find a book that teaches drawing. This way, the book's artist's style won't be subconsciously absorbed while you create.

If there are step-by-step drawing instructions in a book, don't just skip to the last picture and copy it. This is a deception, a way to begin to repeat the writing style of the artist of the book. Start working with the circle, head, eye lines and the like. You can even draw the hero in the same pose as in the book, only create your own character.

Practice drawing your favorite characters. This sounds like a big contradiction to what was said earlier, but it helps. It's okay to base your style on another artist's work, but you shouldn't copy his. If you draw your favorite characters and do it well, echoing that artist's style, then bits of that technique will rub off on you when you start creating your own characters. Not just draw already fictional characters. They're a great starting point, but if all you can do is Rena from Dot Hack, then it won't do any good for anything else you want to create (your drawings will probably be a hit on fansites though Dot Hack).

1. Don't let other people tell you that your drawings are stupid. Even if this is the case, with enough practice you will be able to show off in front of everyone when you arrive in Japan and make them say “Ah! Ii manga-e desu yo!” (Wow! Great manga drawing!). [However, if you do not speak Japanese fluently, do not understand their culture, etc., you should refrain from moving to Japan.]

   • How are you going to improve? Thanks to practice. Buy a sketchbook and draw in it every day. Once you complete it, you'll see how your illustrations have improved from the first draft to the last. That's not all! Keep practicing!
   • If you want to learn how to draw, look at pictures on the Internet and study them. This way you will most likely become better at designing your own characters.
   • Believing in yourself is also crucial. Just believe in your drawings, even if you think they are not perfect, because you WILL become a better person if you trust yourself and your drawing talent!
   • Ask people who know manga for help, either in real life or online. Sometimes taking help from someone more experienced can help you improve your skills significantly.
   • If you're having trouble developing your own style, simply learn a few existing drawing techniques that you love that will eventually merge into your style of writing. Also, don't be afraid to look beyond manga and anime styles for inspiration.
   • Explore the lives of real people and their daily activities, so you will end up learning a lot from them.
   • Draw real objects and see how they can be adjusted to fit the style of the manga (if the backgrounds and objects really don't have much of a look in the manga at all). Animals, in particular, are very diverse in American animation.
   • Study Japanese culture. You will gain a better understanding of what you are drawing. This is one way of saying that you are reading a poser-manga manual, seeing many examples of American customs and stereotypes. (Like, for example, the term “ghetto”. You won’t find anything about this in a Japanese author’s reference book.)
   • Consider your body structure. Yes, it’s boring to look at drawings of muscles and skeleton, but if you want to seriously engage in art, knowledge of anatomy is of utmost importance.

   Warnings

   • This process takes a lot of time. You won't become an amazing manga artist in a week or a month. If you have a lot of experience in the field of art, for example, studying at an art school or something similar, it will be easier for you to learn the material (or harder, depending on how). You'll also likely improve your skills faster.
   • If you do become great and start selling your work, make sure you don't violate any copyright laws by making your characters look like your favorite manga in costume, voice, or personality, it doesn't matter. They'll find something.

   What you will need

   • Pencils
   • Erasers
   • Ink
   • Clean, smooth paper of good quality. It shouldn't be grainy. (Copier or printer paper is a good, inexpensive option!)
   • Book “How to Draw Manga” (optional)
   • Computer (if you do digital art)
   • Various actual manga issues and/or knowledge of Japanese culture (not necessary, but very, very useful)

Children are the main audience for watching various kinds of cartoons. A good cartoonist is one who can extract the main features of an object or person and simplify them to attract a child's attention. Masters such as Walt Disney, Hanna and Barbera, Chuck Jones, Jim Henson, Walter Lantz and many others, by studying children's opinions and perceptions, achieved the charm of the whole world with their magical and eternal characters. In this lesson we will look at how to easily and correctly draw cartoon characters, which both children and adults will be delighted with.

The final version will look like this:

Lesson details:

• Complexity: Average
• Estimated completion time: 2 hours

Understanding Human Perception

Man is a creature that has a very interesting feature - we can transform parts that form a very complex structure or object into a fairly simple form.

Can you tell that the two images below represent the same object?

It may seem strange that you can look at an image and say it's a car.

What happens to most people, except artists, who cannot retrieve from their memory all the details of a car, the appearance of a dog, or the facial features of a child? They begin to associate very simple and primitive shapes with specific features of each object. So, for example, how many children came home from school with a piece of paper like that in their hand and said, “This is Mom and Dad!”?

You don't want to draw like that, do you? If you don't want to, let's pick up a pencil and start drawing!

1. Creating your first character

The basic shape of a cartoon shape will be a circle. A circle is all it takes. From the circle you can determine the basic proportions of the character's head.

Draw vertical and horizontal lines that intersect in the center of the circle, as in the picture below:

Step 1

We draw oval-shaped eyes with a slight slope on the sides. Necessaryleave a gap between the eyes about the same size as the eye.

Step 2

At the top of the eye ovals, lightly mark the character’s eyelashes. Draw above the eyelasheseyebrows that convey a kind of surprise. Draw the shape of the eyebrows that you get, in the future you will adapt to your own style.

Draw the pupils so that they are centered (this is a very effective tactic used by cartoonists to make characters look more likable).

Advice: To give more life to the eyes you can draw a small line underneath them to simulate wrinkles.This is another very interesting tactic that gives a special flavor to the character’s facial expressions.

Step 3

Now the most interesting moment of the lesson. It is at this stage that we will determine what our character will be: thin, fat, young, old. Our character will be young.

Drawing the jaw:

Step 4

The nose will be from the front. In order not to use a lot of details, let's draw it in general terms. Quite often the nose is drawn in detailon one side of the face due to the fact that the light falls on only one side.

Step 5

Our character is a child. Making a mouth - something simple and with an expression of innocence.

Please note that cartoon style Children, regardless of gender, have a fairly simple mouth shape without lips.

Step 6

The shape of the ears is quite simple.

Step 7

Finishing the boy's haircut.

I don't know how to draw hair. Help!

In order to draw perfect hair, you don't need to be a designer or stylist. There is no right way to draw hair, so you should try until you get the right one for the occasion. Just remember that hair shape can convey certain personality traits of a character. Oddly enough, hair can express age, rebellion, conservatism. Incredible, right? What's your hairstyle?

An accurate and fast way to draw cartoon hair is to find a matching photo on the Internet! Once you've found the perfect style, place an example image next to your tablet or piece of paper and start designing a simplified version of it.

First character completed successfully! Congratulations!

Now let's work on a different character using the same template as for the boy.

2. Creating an older character

Step 1

Let's start with the eyes. This time we will draw faster, adding wrinkles, eyebrows and eye pupils. Please note that we didn't change much, but we just widened the eyebrows a little. Older people have thicker eyebrows, which take up more space on the forehead. We draw eyelashes in the same way as in the previous version.

Step 2

The chin will be slightly larger than the previous character.

Step 3

Create the nose. The shape is completely different. Please note that the nostrils are located very close to the bottom of the eyes. The idea is to get a good result by slightly exaggerating the body parts.

Step 4

Instead of a mouth, draw a large mustache.

Step 5

Add the same ears as the boy. However, the hair will be of a different shape - we will add a little on the sides, and leave a bald patch on top.

Our character is like a mad scientist.

3. Creating a female character

Creating a sister for a boy:

How did it happen so quickly? Very simple... Women have a thinner facial structure. Consider some features:

• thin eyebrows;
• larger and more expressive eyelashes;
• thinner chin;
• small nose with fewer details;
• long hair.

That's all! Once you start to feel more confident, you can draw a few more characters with different details.

4. Facial expressions

Let's draw a girl after receiving the news that the school holidays have come to an end.

Now let's go back to the boy and ask his opinion on this matter:

It feels like he's up to something!

Notice the changes in the boy's face:

• one eyebrow lower than the other;
• eyes half closed;
• added a smile (one side is higher than the other, in line with the eyebrows);
• the pupils moved under the eyelashes.

That's all! Everything is as simple as shelling pears!

5. Draw in profile

Let's draw two circles.

We will create a boy and a girl in profile:

The ear remained in the center of the circle.

Pay attention to these details when composing male and female characters:

• the boy has thicker eyebrows;
• the girl's chin moves forward a little;
• the girl's nose is thinner and sharper;
• A boy has no eyelashes, while a girl has large and thick ones.

6. Playing with angles

Eyes, nose, mouth, ears - all these details make the face change its shape if you look at them from different angles. You can often observe this in cartoon characters.

Notice how real eyes are simplified when converted to cartoon.

The actual shape of the nose is made up of several cartilages. His form is radically simplified in the cartoon.

Understanding how the mouth behaves from different angles is important. Remove excess details and try to maintain only the basic shape of the lips. The ears are also greatly simplified.

Now we will put into practice everything we have learned. Below are circles with arrows that show the direction of view. We can practice our drawing skills in different positions:

Let's mark the eyes for each of the circles:

Now let's add different jaw shapes:

You can complete the drawings yourself, based on the knowledge that was provided to you in this lesson. Remember:

• the face needs to be simplified and rounded;
• exaggerate certain parts of the face and its expression.

Once you have managed to outline the direction of the eyes and select the corresponding chins, try to use your creativity and finish the drawing. If you draw for at least 10 minutes a day using the rules presented here, you will be able to draw cartoon faces as easily as breathing.

Let's summarize the drawing of characters:

1. Draw a circle for the skull;
2. We set the direction in which the character will look;
3. Make an oval eye contour;
4. Draw the pupils of the eyes that look at the nose if you want to create a cute character. Don't forget the eyelashes;
5. Choosing the right eyebrows depending on age and gender;
6. Create the corresponding jaws;
7. Add simple ears without unnecessary details;
8. We search for the required hairstyle on Google and use it in our sketch;
9. Let's celebrate!

Here's what happened:

An example of how to use the same template to create different emotions. Notice that only the eyelashes and eyebrows have been changed. Nothing more!

7. Nationality Research

We are approaching the end of the lesson. I would like to encourage you to continue to experiment with facial expressions and, if possible, explore more of the face. Learn how the eyes and mouth behave in different situations. Take a look at different nationalities and learn their key characteristics.

For example, African Americans have a slightly flattened nose and rounder cheekbones.

Whenever possible, try to draw your characters more realistically. Watch behind people's behavior in real life.Look at photographs, study the style of your favorite artist, or look online for inspiration. TOWhen we look at real life, we can extract quality information for our sketches.But remember: observing the real world does not mean copying it!You want your character to be unique and not a copy of the real thing, right?

Great job!

Now you know the basic methods that are used by the best animators around the world. Good luck!

We hope you enjoyed the lesson.

Explore other techniques for drawing cartoon characters' heads.

The sky is the limit!

Translation - Duty room.