Fight Against Same Face Syndrome In Your Characters

Same Face Syndrome, T-shirt Torso Syndrome, they’re really just two of the ways that artists end up with characters looking too similar to one another. Not in a cohesive, and aesthetic, or even functionally efficient way, but in a detracting, amateurish, using-hair-color-to-tell-them-apart kind of Same-Character Syndrome.
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[@dprototype6431]

I’m incredibly guilty of only having one head shape, but I feel so trapped in my art style that any other head shape looks wrong.

[@ali32bit42]

always try with photorealisem first. the thing with any art style in general is that you develop art styles due to Limitations in time or scope or resources. we draw things simpler because the alternative is complex lines and shading and thats how art styles are invented. if you practice more photorealisem you will not only get better at your own art style but you will be able to develop a proper method to stylized and simplify any unique design.

[@picklejuicemcjaberson2229]

I'd encourage you to try new things and disregard the idea of it looking bad since it's all for the sake of learning. Doodle and experiment with different techniques until you find something that seamlessly marries into your style and changes it for the better Real talk, you're bringing something that didn't exist into reality, so you've gotta cut yourself slack with the idea of 'right' and 'wrong'. Art does have rules, but those rules are based in context and they aren't always hard and fast guides to good art. Do what furthers YOUR art, not conforming it to ideas that might not work ^^

[@racheln8563]

I’m guilty of having one child head shape and one adult head shape, but on the other hand, it seems that newspaper-strip characters can get away with same-face syndrome more than comic-book or animated characters. “Peanuts” is probably the most notorious example. With the possible exception of Charlie Brown, all the human characters are virtually identical save a few minor differences. And it is one of the greatest strips in the history of the medium. I guess I’m having difficulty distinguishing Same Face Syndrome from style in the case of of newspaper strips, which is the area I’m pursuing.

[@ali32bit42]

@@racheln8563 you should consider that in those cases, its mainly done for efficiency. those older shows and comics were hand drawn on paper and making unique designs every single time as well as drawing complex models thousands of times per character in the case of animations was not cheap at the time and consumed too much time. other times its done for Toy sales . yes really, since making unique injection molds and assembly lines for plastic is expansive, they make one base design and everything else is recolors. this is why modern shows like My little pony have the exact same body for every character.

[@JSSMVCJR2.1]

ali: "always try with photorealisem [sic] first." picklejuice: " try new things" What to choose, what to choose...

[@ali32bit42]

something i noticed about same face syndrome is that it is noticeably common among even very skilled artists. they have perfect line work and shading and composition, yet their character designs are extremely similar . once you strip out small features and colors. they are almost identical . i have come to the conclusion that same face syndrome can even be caused by your audience. if your audience is used to and demands "cute" designs from you and any deviation from that results in low likes and negative comments. you will be alot more hesitant to experiment and try new things. and eventually, as you keep progressing your skills by creating artwork for this audience. just like how some environments force animals to evolve to be crabs. your art will evolve to be perfectly in the "comfort zone" of your audience regardless of how skilled you are. once that happens , the comfort zone of your audience will become your own comfort zone. which kills any progresses you can make in terms of making new and interesting designs. it might even trap you in a bubble of sunk cost fallacy. i have an artist friend that can literally paint Photorealistic digital art ! but all of their characters are the exact same thing.. cute ponies. the only thing that has evolved is the quality in which he paints them. but they are the exact same face and body. the only distinction is color. and they refuse to design anything else because they are too uncomfortable and his fans would not support it. i have several other friends with the same problem. they started their art journey drawing pony characters so now despite their skill they are only capble of doing pony based designs.

[@CinzaChumbo]

Heck, your comment deserves a pin, at the very least! I see that kind of thing happening a lot on deviantART. There are artists there which are quite skilled, but their audiences... The comments do not help. At all.

[@ali32bit42]

@@artrosear the easiest way to get out of the habit is story. most people only create OCs for decoration. but if you have a real story in mind you will be able to shape the character perfectly according to their story and personality. this is because your designs are no longer decoration . they serve a real function to a bigger narrative

[@Tijopi11]

Link to your friend's art? I'm curious

[@ali32bit42]

@@Tijopi11 are you sure you want to see it ? he makes some "disturbing" content

[@sandwich3044]

The advice I always keep on hand is 'be comfortable with being uncomfortable' esp since the pipeline of animal to human leads to some pretty dang bad results at first usually. But if you push through you will succeed.

[@danzilturner1330]

My goal is to draw a martial arts comic that has Jackie chan comedy and set pieces with looney tunes inspired physics and 90s anime vibes

[@juneru2]

I agree, having a variety of face shapes and different styles/positionings of facial features really helps distinguish characters from one another. Even having characters with distinct faces/hair but similar body proportions is better than having the same face on vastly different body types. Faces take priority over anything else in a character, and beyond that the eyes are the most important as it's the first thing you look at.

[@octologue3206]

My main problem for now is that I tend to always draw the same character everytime I improve something in my art style instead of making new characters. More precisely, it happens with human character, I really have trouble of making various character because I take too much time for drawing one and it's generally the same three characters, I really need to go out of my comfort zone on that point

[@setin8720]

You could even try opening requests or commissions to try drawing other people's characters if you aren't up to making more right now.

[@octologue3206]

@@setin8720 I thought about comission, but I'm really not ready, and I'm not a fan (lol) of fanart. I just need to stop to redesign the same characters and begin to draw new one, it's just a block.

[@apocalypseofplush]

Love your Pikmin amiibo turned microphone

[@WorldWeaver]

Drawing is telling a story with pictures, writing is painting pictures with words. I've found that the knowledge between them can be transferred very easily, too. I watched this so I can create unique characters for my stories.

[@EternityKingdomsHeadHoncho]

Sometimes same-face syndrome works if that’s the point of the character(s). It’d be weird if a clone army was composed of dudes who all looked comically different from one another*. *yes, I know the clones grew more individualized over the war, but still.

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Yeah, definitely no shade against intentional clones here 😄

[@Vizible21]

That's literally not the point of the video but ok.

[@bai-zewarrior]

Super excited for the baby Aibo pin! The aibo species was actually the character that finally pushed me to doing a patreon tier with beko's backpack! They're so cute!

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Oh yay, that makes my day! Thanks so much!

[@sandwich3044]

If you want a fun way to study shapes and such, draw IP's you love in the canon style vs your own. You dont have to post that kind of work, but training yourself to try the various face shapes of others and deconstruct the shapes they used can come in clutch for introducing new things to your own work!

[@LARADEKA]

This happens to me... a lot. Usually with the main character and the persona I use (Lara and DECALINE). Both are alike in appearance, but the latter is currently revamped into much of a humanoid to tell apart between a human and an eldritch character. *_And then there's me playing around with the human body, so when I use it on the other characters, I can be able to play around with character design. I'm stuck with the persona, and I am... well, guilty of this, RIP._*

[@HyperImaginative]

This actually something I'm not guilty of. Lately I've been drawing a wide variety of characters and they all have unique shapes and sizes.

[@setin8720]

Same here. My characters are quite easily distinguished.

[@pkjose1343]

This was a really great video! I remember being worried about Same Face Syndrome when I was first making my characters for my story. And while I usually do still to what I know after realizing that some of my characters did look a little similar (mainly the eyes), I tried to make at least a little bit different between them, and hope that the rest of their design compensates for it. I don't exaggerate my designs too much so I stick with a more simplistic and clean style for my art. Just wondering if it was enough. SFS wasn't really a problem for me but I always kept it in mind basically so I put more effort into making each (relevant) character look unique depending on their personality and what I think they should where for their base design.

[@pkjose1343]

Wow my grammer is trash lol.

[@the_goodest_boy]

it was so kind of the pikmin to hold your mic for you :)

[@hyzmarie]

Hmm… I’d say I don’t necessarily have same face syndrome, but I usually choose from only a few different types of ears, horns, snouts, and eyes (dragon artist ;P). Meaning my designs look similar, but not exactly the same, even for the same character because some of the characters I like to draw have designs that are fun to play with and interpret differently (SilkWings go brrrrrrrrr)

[@cde3003]

I always get excited when a new video drops

[@agnesleuenberger3713]

Very well explained and detailed! That will be helpful, thank you! My goal is to stop being so impatient and dropping a drawing right after starting it just because it didn't magically finished itself or because I didn't improve fast enough... =( No art tutorial can help me, the problem lies probably somewhere else. XD

[@maninanikittycat4238]

I like to vary the faces by changing up the eyes with the shape and pupils because eyes are the windows to the soul!

[@pinkinkNZ]

u have reminded me to incorporate shape language into my OCs more. i always love ur vids and hope ur doing well :)

[@ThisAnimeFOXGirlLovesToDraw]

I can't explain how much I love your channel and how much you have helped me grow as an artist! Keep up the great work! :D

[@ReishaVanBern]

One thing I recently did to help, is force myself to give characters a specific body shape--and I mean the Kibbe body types. I pick one, then exaggerate it, and that also forces me to pick a different head/face shape, and even eye and mouth types. Humans still have a lot of variation, even in semi-realism, if you just force yourself to pick a specific body type and do that. For example, a woman with a "Dramatic" body type would be long, angular, and almost masculine-looking, where as the "Romantic" type would be more 'Stereotypical' woman--curvy, soft, round, all that. Making myself research this, I've learned a lot and I think it really helped give me new ideas, even for cartoony characters.

[@ncascini01]

I'm liking these videos. Good thoughts!

[@mikejox]

amazing video as always

[@beauvance11]

How do you do an effective character reference study? You pick a person/animal and draw it in different ways?

[@BlackPeerama]

I Love Your Videos They Are Great And Helpful Have A Great Day

[@PaintingPuff]

Yay! New video! 💖

[@salvidomum5287]

I've been struggling with face variety as I've been trying to use more references and I end up skewing too close to realism and losing the design distinctions

[@conner121100]

Do you still need an animator for Stormfellers? I would love to apply if I can

[@CharacterDesignForge]

For sure, hit up [e-mail] with a portfolio!

[@CatLover-gk8uu]

Quick question, that drawing you did, did you do it with those new brushes that you got recently?

[@CharacterDesignForge]

The Oil Maxpack? Nope, same brushes as usual

[@CatLover-gk8uu]

@@CharacterDesignForge ah, well great work as always. But yeah I was asking about the oil brushes pack.

[@4_seagull]

4

[@areoants9453]

4

[@Helios810]

4

[@yourfavoritebrendan]

4

[@Vizible21]

Some artist hate it when you call them out to have "same face syndrome" because what they think is you're judging their talent when that's not the case at all. It's just obvious that they're doing the same "pretty face" just with a different type of hair or costume. Whether we admit it or not, we're actually not drawing pretty face for personal preference. A huge part of it is because of beauty standards. It's what get clicks and engagement. SamdoesArt, Koleen, Rossdraws and otyer popular Instagram artists - they literally have one oc and a cat. Lmao. The artists that are actually professional most of the time doesn't even have an OC or at least something they claim to be their own original character.

[@salvidomum5287]

VIBEO

[@hanaom5375]

Guilty 😂

[@giggymuun]

Dragon Ball is the prime example.

[@carlosroo5460]

As a Live Caricature Artist, I feel offended specially since I learn caricature from Stephen Silver and he said caricature and character design are the same.

[@CharacterDesignForge]

That definitely tracks- its not caricature itself, i think its more the brand of quickly made art that essentially just makes fun in a kinda bad-faith way, and thats what more people associate the word with than interesting takes on the face- kind of like “cartoons” applies to all kinds of animated work but most people make a sort of reductive assumption that it just means silly kids stuff

[@CharacterDesignForge]

But nothing intended as an attack or belittlement of caricature as a craft. Im advocating for it in the video after all 😉

[@That_cloud_barked_at_me]

It’s hard to add variety when your art style is so simple to the point your characters don’t have eyebrows or noses ☹️

[@stinkywhizzleteats3673]

Then you're just not a good artist 💀

[@baalfgames5318]

Every anime human ever.

[@kaleido9631]

Helpful video. What would you recommend for a basic practice routine for fundamentals?

[@SHROOOOM]

SHROOM!

[@RosheenQuynh]

I don't usually like mentioning my main special interest here due to needless bullying, but as a non-artist, this phenomenon is why I love anthro art so much. That kind of thing just doesn't happen (from my experience) in anthro art. Everything is unique

[@juandominguezmurray7327]

Really? I always struggle to draw the same character, they all look different always...

[@AliDraws]

I suffered from same face syndrome, too. So, to fix that, I quit. THE END!