Author notes

Bricktown Through the Years 03

dragoncrestprod

on June 20, 2012

I'll admit it. I went through a "everything I make must look like manga" phase. I'm pretty sure nearly everyone who's really into anime and draws goes through that.

It's not to say that the style's bad - on the contrary, shows like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, the works of Naoki Urasawa, Nobuhiro Watsuki, Hiromu Arakawa, Akira Toriyama, and Takeshi Obata are all beautiful and some of the best animated and comic art out there.

The problem comes from trying to make art look like anime by using anime art stereotypes - i.e. pointy chins, far-too-large eyes, etc. Note that none of the above artists or shows universally do that, either - they're far from the "stereotypical anime" look.

The chin thing in particular is jarring - if EVERYONE has a pointed chin, you get a cast full of characters who look extremely similar facially but for their hair and eyes. It also makes it extremely hard to rotate their heads and making it look correct. And, yes, I was completely guilty of this.

It wasn't until my mom commented that she wasn't impressed with something I'd done, that the character's faces "all looked like upside-down hearts," that I snapped out of that. Something about not having my mom's support or praise pissed me off so much that I went on a drawing-binge and made sure I'd never draw a pointed chin again.

In hindsight, I'm glad I stopped that - you get SO much more facial variance when you don't point a character's chin, along with allowing you to rotate the heads much more naturally.

Ye, I say unto you, my bretherin! Seek not to conform to the mediocre standards of bad anime character designs! Cast out the demons of Sailor Moon and K-On, and accept the glory of Fullmetal Alchemist and 20th Century Boys, and your art shall be saved!