INTRODUCTION

Illustrating characters by age is very easy regardless of artstyle. All you need is to add certain features to make your character look younger or older. You might say that just adjusting the height of the character is good enough. While height is important, once you draw in portrait mode it probably won't help much once you draw a young adult to adult.

 

So join me and let us learn together how to improve our own characters. I'm going to introduce some key points to emphasize a person's age

 

PROPORTION OF THE FACE

The face plays a huge role in determining the character's age.

 

For the younger ages their faces tend to be rounder or wider. That's because cheeks have a huge role in this even in real life scenarios. For example, we have something we call "baby cheeks". Those cheeks contain fats and strong muscles since they need all the energy they can get so they can eat and grow well. As they grow up, jaws and teeth will developed more so their face will be slimmer.

 

That's why a younger person facial feature is more compact since it's still undeveloped.

 

As an artist, we sometimes enlarge a younger character's features to emphasize their cuteness. Eyes will tend to be bigger and as they grow it will become more sharper. Ears will be more on the round side and will eventually become more elongated.

 

SIMPLE FACE GUIDELINES

While these guidelines are not for everyone since we all have different artstyle, I think these will be helpful for some who are beginners. It is very simple. I will just briefly discuss it step by step.

 

To do this.

1.Draw a big circle that will be the head.

2. Now draw your "guideline" where the character will face

3. Sketch where the eyes will take place.A simple line or circle will do.

4. Draw a small circle below the eyes. This will guide you where the cheeks or cheek bone of the character will take place.

 

► Baby

Babies are adorable… until they cry and wake you in the middle of the night. But that's because their body is growing and they feel uncomfortable so salute to all parents out there. To emphasize the adorableness of this young creature.

 

Keypoint of a baby face

1. Eyebrows are place higher.

2. Big eyes

3. Have a chubby cheeks

4. Flat or round chin

 

Here's a step by step procedure on how to draw the head.

 

1. Follow the circle's line upto the red arrow.

2. Draw the face by emphasising their cheeks. So you can just follow the guide upto this part.

3. Draw the chin, you can either just make a flat line or a round line. The key here is not making a pointy chin.

 

Now that the shape is done, for the details we tend to exaggerate the baby's feature. In my case,

►Draw the eyes bigger

►Add some small nose and mouth.

►Eyebrows will be in a higher position.

For finishing touch just add some details.

A few hair, a bow or some eyelashes

 

Here's some other eyes example.

► Child

Appearance of a baby and a child is similar but the difference is visible.

 

Keypoint of a child face

1. Big eyes

2. Have a chubby cheeks

3. Jaws are slightly form with a curve chin or slightly pointy chin

 

Here's a step by step procedure on how to draw the shape.

Front view, angle view

Starting with the head.

.1 follow the circle's line upto the red arrow.

2.Draw the face by emphasising their cheeks. So you can just follow the guide upto this part.

3.Draw the chin. At this age the jaw will be slightly developed. So slightly adjust it. You can just make a curve if you like.

 

After that, you can just add the facial features.

► Teen and Young Adult

I put this two age group together because they are quite similar. The only difference between them, one is slightly more mature than the other.

 

Key Points of a teen and young adult face.

1. Eyes will start to become sharper.

2. Jawline will be more noticeable.

 

Here's a step by step picture on how I created the head.

 

On the left side is the head of the teenager and the other is a young adult.

Other key point:

While this is not usually seen in anime, at teen's age pimples are very common. Young adults can also experience this.

 

► Adult

The face is actually similar to a young adult. A slight wrinkle can form usually on the eye area.

Young adulthood is around age 18 to 25 while later Adulthood is around the age of 30s and older.

 

Keypoints of an Adult Face:

1. Eyes will become sharper or smaller. Wrinkles are also beginning to form around the eyes like crowfeet.

2. The face will be slimmer.

Even in the early adulthood, male adult will grow beard. This facial feature can make a person looks older than their age. So if you want a cool hunk character tthen you might want to learn more about facial hair.

Other thing to consider, Make up is a good tool to use. It can make you look fresh, young, or more mature.

► Elderly

Keypoints:

 

1. Wrinkles are form and depending on the age it can be adjusted.

2. Eyes looks smaller.

3. Cheeks will begin to sag.

 

Let's talk about how aging affects the body.

 

Recalling on what I said in the beginning about the baby's cheek. Babies are chubby in general and that's usually normal as they need fats and muscles to grow. As they grow old, muscle begin deteriorate so usually skin will get saggy.

 

This is applied to both face and body.

 

1. At age 40, wrinkles on forehead and mouth will appear.

2. At age 60, wrinkles will become more prominent.

3. And as the person grow older skin will become dry and age spot is common. Facial volume is loss resulting to drooping cheeks.

 

PROPORTION OF THE BODY

Height will vary from person to person.

 

Usually a baby's height will be about 3 heads while an adult height will be about 7-8 heads. Once they grow older, as an elderly their height will decline. Sometime due to their bone and muscle.

 

 

While this is only a guide, when it comes to art anything is possible. An elderly can be dramatically be as smaller of a kid. A kid can be taller than an adult and this is also true to others in real life.

 

Arm length difference is also noticeable when comparing a baby and an adult.

 

Babies can barely touch the top of the their head while an adult can create a whole circle.

--------------I hope this guide help you.

 

Thank you for reading.