Hello, hello! My name is Stefani, and I want to share a small guide on how to draw characters of different ages. These are small tips that have helped me over time, and I hope you like them <3

 

You can continue reading the tutorial, but I also recommend watching the video, as it is more complete:

I. Body Proportion ✿

Ideally, the proportion of a human body is 8 heads, guided by Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man

These proportions, however, vary according to age; the younger a character is, the fewer heads it is composed of.

 

This proportion guide below is based on "Ideal Proportions at Various Age" by Andrew Loomis from his book For All It’s Worth (1943).

Something important to keep in mind is that with age, heads lose their softness and roundness, becoming more elongated. Therefore, the heads of children and babies are more rounded and appear softer than those of adults. Furthermore, they are not the same size; the head, like the rest of the body, grows with the years.

Returning to proportions, what happens when people go beyond adulthood? Do they maintain the same height? NO, and this is due to bone wear and tear. From the age of 50, humans begin to lose height, very subtly at first, becoming more evident from 60-70 years old. From these ages, humans tend to stoop, making the change in height even more noticeable.

You can use 3D models as reference; since they are customizable, you can adapt them to the proportions you need.

There is also this material where the 3D models already come with proportions adapted to age:

 

Based on this information, we can play and exaggerate the attributes we want to make the character more appealing.

II. Babies and Children ✿

Babies and very young children tend to be chubby, so to make them look that way, we will draw small fat folds on their bodies, mainly in these areas

We are going to use many curved lines, no straight lines or sharp points; everything is to give that feeling of softness. The softer, the cuter the children will look.

Children have rounder heads than adults, and an important characteristic is having large, rosy cheeks

Remember that depending on the child's age, they will have more or less hair. We are not going to give a baby a huge mane because it wouldn't make much sense.

As characters continue to grow, the number of heads that make them up continues to increase.

 

III. Teenagers and Adults ✿

In childhood, bodies are quite androgynous, but with the arrival of pre-adolescence and adolescence, other aspects besides height and proportion change. In female bodies, hips widen and busts grow. In the case of boys, shoulders and backs broaden.

 

As we already know, faces lose roundness and begin to show more defined features.

Drawing the body is simple; just remember the proportions, and you'll be fine.

As adults, limbs lengthen and appear more stylized. Here, we can draw characters with rough edges, something we had avoided in children and babies.

IV. Adults and Elderly ✿

Once bodies reach adulthood, how can we make them look younger or older? That's when expression lines and wrinkles come into play!

 

We have several areas to work with on the face:

forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, glabella, cheekbones, and cheeks.

By simply adding a couple of strokes in the correct areas, we can add age to the characters.

 

Levels to age your characters:

 1\. Eyes, crow's feet + subtle eye bags, and nasolabial folds.

 

 2\. The wrinkles we previously added become more prominent; we can add subtle wrinkles on the forehead, chin, and neck.

 

 3\. The previous wrinkles become even more pronounced, and we also add wrinkles on the lips and chin. But not only that! With age, skin begins to sag and thin,

so the skin on the cheeks sags, the chin appears rounder, and the head, in general, looks less elongated and more rounded.

 

Ears and noses continue to grow throughout the years, which is why elderly people have large ears and noses.

 

On the rest of the body, you can also see that the skin sags and looks flabby.

The neck begins to show wrinkles, and a double chin starts to form. Wrinkles create volume in the skin; don't forget to add this detail when drawing your character at angles where they are visible.

Remember that the body is smaller than that of adults and they stoop when they are very old.

V. Extra 1 - Hands ✿

Apart from the face, I think the age of characters can be very easily reflected in their hands. In the case of babies, their fingers are chubby and short, and knuckles are usually noticeable, though very slightly.

As the character grows, fingers lengthen and become more stylized. In the hands, we can see how the knuckles become more obviously marked.

When drawing the hands of older people, we will take many more elements into account: veins, bones, knuckles, and bone joints.

We don't mark all the veins; we just select a few and draw their contours. At the bone joints, we will create more wrinkles and make the area wider.

 

For a more in-depth explanation, you can check out the video tutorial.

On the palm of the hand, to denote the age of characters, it is simply a matter of creating more folds in the volumes of the palm, and as in the previous explanation, at the bone joints, create more wrinkles and make the area wider. Don't forget to highlight the wrist + forearm area marked in yellow.

VI. Extra 2 - Hair ✿

Hair says a lot about the age of characters. The appearance of gray hairs is an element that symbolizes aging; these usually begin to appear between 35 and 40 years old, first in the temple area and then spreading throughout the hair.

Hair loss is also a symbol of aging, mainly in men. Hair begins to fall out in sections, particularly from the top of the head.

 

 

1. Receding hairline.

2. Area of hair loss.

3. Crown.

It starts with the receding hairline, then hair loss begins in the crown area, gradually worsening until the top of the head is left without hair, as you can see in the example:

VII. END ✿

And that's it! That's all for this tutorial. Thanks for watching and/or reading it. I hope it helped you; remember that practice is key. See you in the next tutorial! Bye!