Noticing different aspects

Hi guys! Boy, has it been raining here today. How about you? What's going on with your weather?
Alright, well, rainy days are always great for drawing...So let's talk about noticing different aspects of a character. This works best with making convincing fanart, but it's useful for many others types of drawings.

Alright, so when you look at a character (We'll use Kobato by CLAMP for examples) you have to see what elements make it special.You see, in this picture, Kobato bangs are very generous. She has alot of hair, and her bangs are no exception.

And her eyes are very shoujou-y. (obviously. XD) In the anime, they're golden. But the color manga shows them to be pink. Notice the thick lines, and see how they're not actually black lines? This makes the over all effect softer.


Kobato always wears something on her head. (Yes, there's a special reason for this in the manga.) It's either a hat, headress, bow, beret..something is always there. So don't forget it.


Her mouth is always small and dainty. Can you imagine how strange it would look if she had a big mouth? XD Totally ruins Kobato's image!


As seen in this image, and all the ones before; Kobato has a gentle, caring spirit. And you can see it in her expressions. Eyesbrows are high on the face, mouth smiles happily...Her hands help with the gentle look too. They're never doing anything action-y or dramatic. When you place the hands by the face, it shows sweet and humble gestures.

Now for another CLAMP character with a completely different personality...
Kurogane from Tsubasa!

Kurogane's eyes are cut straight across the top. There's no sloping (sloping eyes means gentleness or weakness) and the eyebrows are always pointed downward. Don't be afraid to go a little bushy. XD

His expressions are almost always the same. Eyesbrows pointed downwards when he's happy, sad, angry, excited...yeah. XD And see his smile? It's not straight across or small. It's crooked and kind of evil looking....

And another thing about hands. His hands are always doing something. They're never at his side, or empty for that matter. The hands help with the expression...There's a word for that...Hm...
Oh, yeah! Body language.


Notice his hair style. There's not much hair there, but it blows in the wind all the same. Don't forget the four little hangy-downy strands in front.

That's all for today. But I hope I got my point across. Pay attention to the little details when drawing some one else's character. I've seen these two characters in several different artsyles...and you can still tell who they are. Even when they're wearing different clothes. Happy fanarting!

Draw Forever,
Artsy Foxy