Do your characters look like blood relations?

[Harishankar]

I've noticed this tendency in many comics. Either because it's a stylistic choice or unintentionally, many comic characters drawn by the same artist tend to look like blood relations (because of facial features, general body characteristics and so on) even when they're not meant to be (or in an obviously non-blood relationship like husband - wife, etc.)

Is this a choice dictated by the art or by the artist? In other words, does the artist decide that characters in a particular comic HAVE to look very similar or does his/her style merely reflect in the character?

Personally speaking, I've not yet reached a stage where I can say I have a consistent grip of my characters or drawn enough of them to be confident either way, but I can say that many other comics I've read tend to have this innate feature or limitation (depending on the way you look at it).

At the same time, I've also seen some great comics with talented artists draw consistent looking characters who DON'T look blood-related.

Of course, this topic will apply only to comic writers who use human characters or at least predominantly human characters. Also this doesn't apply to Manga/Anime, where almost every other character looks the same to me...

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

I like to think that mine are pretty well differentiated. Except for the ones that are related, at least I hope. Gotta walk the thin line of making them look enough alike without making 'em twins...

A good way to think of it is
-If the characters had no hair/eye color or all wore the same outfit
or
-If a reader were looking at silhouette profiles

then the reader should still be able to tell the characters apart (within reason).

I think sometimes what happens is that when developing a style, people get into the habit of drawing a certain way which ends up restricting how they can vary their characters. To cover this they use the method (I notice it most in manga, but it's a million other places too, even in my own old drawings) of just making hair with radically different colors or styles, or assigning each character a specific outfit to wear in order to make them recognizable.

It's okay depending on what you're trying to accomplish. If it's the kind of story where plot/gags come(s) first, like XKCD for example, no one cares if everyone looks the same. But in a story where character plays an important role- and the narration or dialogue keeps saying things about Gordon when you thought for sure you were looking at Britney- having clear differentiations becomes a lot more important.

[RobboAKAscooby]

Below are the underdrawings for bio-card image of my characters (updating my cast page) and I'd like to think even without ink & colour they are distinctly different (recognizable) despite any inconsistencies from comic to comic:


I think the most important pieces to character drawing are:
* size and shape of face and facial features
* colour of hair, eyes and skin
* body build - height, weight, measurements, etc
* clothing style and colour
Just as important as varying these details is making sure they fit the personality of the character, I've seen far too many examples of overly cute characters been given dark or tough personalities that just don't fit.

[Nikara]

I hope not! Although I call my comic a manga, it's really more of a hybrid for precisely that reason. I think in some cases, artists want their characters to look similar, but they tend to be the exception. If my characters ever look blood-related, it's because I'm still refining my skill as an artist... :/ Still, just some ways that I've tried to distinguish them is by changing the nose shape and eyes.

[Redtech]

My lead characters don't, but the bit-cast (who are literally disposable and easily killable) are probably grown in cloning vats. Would make a good plot point actually.

I suppose I should learn to use a wider range of head shapes and species types, so on.

[W M]

I've noticed this tendency in many comics. Either because it's a stylistic choice or unintentionally, many comic characters drawn by the same artist tend to look like blood relations (because of facial features, general body characteristics and so on) even when they're not meant to be (or in an obviously non-blood relationship like husband - wife, etc.)

Is this a choice dictated by the art or by the artist? In other words, does the artist decide that characters in a particular comic HAVE to look very similar or does his/her style merely reflect in the character?

Personally speaking, I've not yet reached a stage where I can say I have a consistent grip of my characters or drawn enough of them to be confident either way, but I can say that many other comics I've read tend to have this innate feature or limitation (depending on the way you look at it).

At the same time, I've also seen some great comics with talented artists draw consistent looking characters who DON'T look blood-related.

Of course, this topic will apply only to comic writers who use human characters or at least predominantly human characters. Also this doesn't apply to Manga/Anime, where almost every other character looks the same to me...

Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about.

I would like to write off constantly reoccurring character traits as a lack of skill or practice (when a beginner learns how to draw a feature right for the first, they tend to develop a dependence on that newly-learned trick, speaking from experience ), but I've also seen professional works where the artist has reverted back reoccurring traits (maybe as an artistic choice for keeping consistency?).

All in all, I think this occurrence holds different purposes for different people.


As for myself, I have an ocd-kind of detection for this sort of thing in my works; I always try to avoid similar eyes above all other traits (the second avoid trait being hairstyles that are too similar, which can make it very hard to separate characters )

[Bookwyrms2]

It's something of a risk in the comic medium, where characters are highly simplified to start with. If the artist isn't paying attention it's very easily to 'simplify' the distinguishing characterisitics out of the picture.

[Wendybird]

This reminds me of something I heard - that every artist subconsciously makes all their characters have facial features similar to their own. I don't know how true this is but I've definitely noticed that once you get into a pattern of how to draw faces it can be hard to get out of it. One way I've been getting around this, especially in my more realistic comic, is to intentionally choose a close friend or celebrity and use their features to distinguish a character. This could work in a lot of different styles - and if it doesn't, that probably says something about the flexibility of your style.

Most of the characters in my other comic are blood relations.

[Lianweijun086]

It's something of a risk in the comic medium, where characters are highly simplified to start with. If the artist isn't paying attention it's very easily to 'simplify' the distinguishing characterisitics out of the picture.

I can't completely agree with you here. Yes comics can be simplistic, but in most cases, comic characters are maleable. There are far and away more expressions than an actual person could hope to show. For example, an ACME favorite eye-popper/jaw drop, anime favorite sweat drop, mallet summoning, & chibification. I guess it all boils down to what fits your style and drawing ability, because after all, the artist is in complete control of the characters. If you want to disappear a limb, so be it!