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Hey there buddies ol’ pals!
Long time no chat! Haven’t sent anything out in a while because I’ve been hard at work on my very first graphic novel!!! I can’t say much more than that at this point, but I got a grant at the beginning of the year and honestly? It’s nerve-wracking as hell but it’s coming together, and I think it’s a good book. But making comics brought up the subject of likenesses and I thought, hey, people are always asking about that and I have work I’m supposed to be doing instead, so maybe that’s something I can do a quick talk about here!
Let’s just jump right into it!
First of all, likeness isn’t the same as portrait, or even caricature. It’s just… recognizability. Portraits focus on accuracy, caricatures are exaggerations, but you need to understand likeness before you can apply it to either of those.
The first things I look for when I’m trying to draw somebody are the distinctive features that really set them apart.
- The really in-your-face stuff is the first, most important layer that you MUST get right.
- noticeably unique facial features (Adrian Brody’s nose, Ron Perlman’s chin/brow, Eugene Levy’s eyebrows, the space between Anya Joy-Taylor’s eyes)
- beauty marks
- recognizable/unique fashion choices (glasses, hairstyle, makeup, jewelry, etc.)
- The less obvious stuff like face shape, hair, general colouring (do they often wear bold makeup? do they shave? do they have dark circles/bags under their eyes?) is next up.
- Look at the line between their lips–is it straight? Does it come to a point? Does it come up higher on one side?
- Vibes! Are they a dour kind of person? Bubble? Earnest? Sarcastic? How does their mouth move when they smile? Does it reach their eyes, or create lines in their cheeks? Dimples? Are they expressive, or do they have a more flat affect?
- How do all their features line up with each other? This is more important in some people than others. Often I find if something isn’t looking right, it’s because of something like their eyes being too close together, or their mouth is too close to their nose, or their face isn’t long enough, that kind of thing.
I don’t know if you saw the TikTok meme going around a while back about Pedro Pascal, but Pedro is incredibly easy to at least get a general likeness of. You can draw him SO shittily as long as you have messy hair, moustache, and stubble, and it’ll still kind of look like Pedro Pascal, where if you label it Pedro Pascal people will be like “yeah ok i guess i can accept that”
On the flip side, Zendaya? Fucking impossible. Her face is so pretty and so average (in the sense that she doesn’t have any super distinctive features) that it’s insanely hard to nail down her likeness without looking like a dollar store version of her. Conventionally pretty people are the hardest to draw, because their entire thing is about how all their features work together to make them look like themselves as there are no obviously defining features to latch onto.
So here’s a quick example of Ke Huy Quan at the Oscars
Of course you have to get some things mostly right, like his hair must be smooth and dark, and his face can’t be round, it MUST be vaguely angular, but I’d argue that the REALLY key things that read as him are his glasses and his mouth. plus vibes. he has to be EARNEST.
To expand on what I mean: look how his mouth comes to a point in the middle, and is open at the corners. It’s also creating strong expression lines/wrinkles. This, and his glasses, are arguably THE key to making it read as him at a glance.
To drive it home: Without his glasses you might not recognize him because his glasses are KEY to his image, but it still has his essence.
Without the lines it doesn’t look like him at all.
Bring the glasses back but change the mouth entirely, it’s just a bad likeness.
Take it all? you have NOTHING
This is really simplified, but yeah, figure out what the important like.. 2-5 elements are and really focus on them. the rest can be scribbles.
OKAY COOL i hope that was interesting for you I don’t know if it’s helpful at all but it’s definitely a good basic summary of some of the things I think about when I’m drawing people!! Do a bunch of practicing and you’ll quickly figure out which elements are important and which ones can be simplified. It’s fun!
Okay I have to get back to work now! Pray for me!! Bye!!!!!
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