How to Avoid Same Face Syndrome When Designing Your OCs!

Struggling with Same Face Syndrome when you design your OCs? Learn how you can avoid it by using shape language and more!

Same Face Syndrome…The OC designer’s nemesis…

Have you ever looked at your OC designs, only to realize…everyone has the same face?! Same Face Syndrome is something most OC creators experience from time to time…and it can be a habit that’s hard to break out of! But before we get started, if there’s other OC tips you need, there’s also articles on…

Now, back to avoiding Same Face Syndrome! Unless your story cast is a family of quadruplets, you probably don’t want all your OCs to have the same face. When several characters have a similar face, it can be difficult to tell who is who. So how do you avoid Same Face Syndrome while designing your characters? Let's talk about it!

Keep in mind your art style when designing faces!

Everyone has a different art style, and that means how you design a face will be different from how someone else designs one…and that’s perfectly okay! That just means you’ll want to play into the strengths of your art style. You might simplify one aspect of the face, while enhancing a different part. For example…

An anime inspired style might have big eyes, but a small nose and mouth
A cartoon style might have the eyes simplified to dots
A semi realistic style might have mostly balanced features, with slightly exaggerated eyes

Your art style will affect how the faces you draw look! With that in mind, you’ll want to decide what to focus on when you draw faces. You might have big eyes that can have lots of detail, or you might draw semi-realistic noses. It’s up to you and what you like most!

If you’re not too sure what you want to do, try looking at the real world or your favorite media for inspiration! Simple observation can be really helpful for seeing what different features look like. How does your favorite animated show draw eyes? How many different nose shapes can you spot while on a trip to the store? Inspiration is all around you!

Pick a head shape for your OC!

First off! You’ll want to pick a different head shape for your OCs. Some faces are more rounded, while others are more angular. Some faces are long, while others are shorter! There’s lots of variety when it comes to head shapes, so you’ll want to be sure to give different OCs different face shapes that suit them. If you need some ideas, here’s a few head shapes you’d see in the real world!

Round! A circular head shape!
Oval! Similar to the round shape, but longer and with more balanced features!
Square! A more angular head shape!
Rectangle! Like the square, but longer!
Inverted triangle! The chin has a more angular point, while the forehead is a bit wider!
Diamond! Like the inverted triangle, but with slightly more balanced features!

There’s more than just the ones listed above, too! Depending on your art style, you might draw head shapes differently too. The shape might be a little more subtle if your style is closer to semi-realism! If your style is more cartoony, the shape might be more exaggerated instead.

With head shapes, you might pick one based on your OCs’ personalities. You could give a more friendly or innocent OC a rounder head shape and give a different OC with a more aggressive personality an angular face shape! Shape language is especially useful for head shapes!

If you want more ideas for how to use shape language in an OC design, there’s an article all about that right here!

Design your OC’s eyes and eyebrows!

Next up! Eyes and eyebrows! They do say eyes are the window to the soul, right? Eyebrows can be pretty important too. There’s lots of different shapes you could choose from, for both the eyes and eyebrows! If you need some ideas for both, you could try…

Large, round eyes
Thin eyebrows
Sharp, angular eyes
Thick, angular eyebrows
Square eyes
Bushy eyebrows
Dot eyes
Dot eyebrows
Upturned eyes
Triangle eyebrows
Downturned eyes
A unibrow

Both the eyes and eyebrows of your OCs can say a lot about them, so it’s good to have some variety! Choosing different types for different characters will ensure all your OCs look distinct and recognizable! Just like with the head shapes, you can use shape language to pick the shapes of the eyes or eyebrows.

If you have a more cartoonish art style, you can really stylize the look of the eyes! You could make them really big…or even make them simple dots! With more stylized art, you might even pick unique shapes or designs for the pupils of your OCs eyes!

I also have an article specifically about designing eyes for your character! If you’d like to check it out, you can find the article here!

Pick a nose shape for your OC!

Another thing to consider when avoiding Same Face Syndrome while designing your OCs is nose shapes! There’s a lot more variety with nose shapes than you might think. Some noses are round, others are pointed! Some are long, others are short! If you need some ideas on what kinds of nose shapes you could give your OC, you could try…

A button nose
A round nose
A hooked nose
An aquiline nose
A flat nose
An upturned nose
A downturned nose

You can play around with the proportions and structure of the nose when designing your OCs to ensure that each one has a unique shape! You can change the length, size, and shape to fit your characters. Whether you have a cartoon style or a more realistic one, there’s plenty you can do with nose shapes! (Unless you don’t give your OCs noses…Then I can’t help you…)

You can keep it simple, or draw it really detailed! You could even draw the nose as a simple shape, like a basic square or triangle. You might even base the shape around your OCs motif if they have one! For example, if a character has a bird motif, you might give them a more “bird-like” nose shape!

If your OCs take place in a fantasy setting or something similar, you could even have an animal nose instead of a human one for a more unique look! If you’re looking to add more cool features to your OC’s design, check out this article on choosing unique details for your OC!

Pick a shape for your OC’s mouth or lips!

Lastly, it’s time to design the lips of your character! It’s easy to forget about different lip shapes when designing characters, especially if you have a more simplified style. If you do draw lips, there’s plenty of different shapes you could give your OCs! If you need some examples, there's…

Thin lips
Full lips
Heart-shaped lips
Bow-shaped lips
Round lips
Downturned lips

When designing, you could adjust the corners of the mouth, how wide or thin the top and bottom lips are, or even the shape of the “Cupid’s bow.” (The part of the top lip that looks like an “M” is the Cupid’s bow!) If you want to utilize more shape language, you could make the overall shape more round or square!

If you don’t draw lips, there’s still an opportunity to give your characters different mouth shapes! Even if you draw mouths as a simple line, you could change the shape of that too if you wanted to! You might draw the mouth as a “V” shape, a “W” shape, or something else. It’s up to you and what you think will fit your OCs best!

Another thing to consider is makeup! You could give your OC lipstick or other kinds of makeup to make them look more distinct from your other characters. If you need more ideas for how to choose makeup for your OC designs, check out this article all about the topic!

There’s lots to choose from when picking features for your OC!

Check out the new Blog Community!

Want to share your own thoughts on how you avoid Same Face Syndrome, or show off an OC inspired by one of the blogs? Share your work in the Unvale-Blog Community! Feel free to post about any OCs, art, or writing related to a past or recent blog…Solar and I would love to see them! (If you want to do fanart of Solar, you can also post it in the blog community! …But you didn’t hear that from me! Shhh…)