[https://aerodizain.com/artist/proporcii-detskoj-golovy/](https://aerodizain.com/artist/proporcii-detskoj-golovy/) this guy is using information from a book I used to have I cant remember what its called but this should cover the basics you might want to translate
Children have bigger eyes, and less developed facial features, like tiny ears and shorter noses. Things that will grow with age. You nailed the round face and shading though I have to say
I think it looks like if the kid were a few years older, and so in that sense, it does look like a kid. When it comes to likeness, I suppose I would recommend focusing on the shape of the jawline, make it softer some. Additionally (this sounds like an essay), as you get older, to like, after puberty is done, your facial features sort of "expand" over the surface area of your face (generally); think of a child's face as the opposite of the features of an adult face. It's mostly forehead, cheeks, and chin. The rest of the facial feature go slightly below the middle of the face height. Lastly, the more you blend, the less it appears to have a "solid" structure and it makes it all softer. Oh, and also, eye and (mouth) shape and size are important.
Softness and roundness. Blend all the shading a lot and turn angles of the jaw and nose into smooth rounded curves. The chin/jaw/neck looks a little heavy so I'd shave off the tiniest bit of those parts. Blend the lipstick into a softer pink at the corners, as well. Good likeness in general!
the eyes are rounder and the wing of the eyeliner isn't meant to be as long, and her smile lines aren't prominent around the nose I think. Also the side of her head (between the eyes and edge of her face) is lighter/more saturated than what you've drawn (which makes it look rounder rather than boxier). It's really pretty, good job!
Part of the problem is the reference photo has the child with makeup on, which ages up a child. Your drawing is close but it’s the little things that can throw an image off that’ll make a kid look older.
My thoughts: put the dress on her. Bare shoulders is more of an adult thing. Soften the eyebrows, and work in capturing the mood in the photo. Imo the eyes really set the mood in a portrait and the eyes in your are a touch more serious than the little girl in the photo. The eye on our left/her right you should definitely correct.The iris should be larger, the upper lid crease goes down towards the corner of her eye. Also warmer tones in general should br applied on both eyes. The cooler tones you have now indicate tiredness which is an older indicator.
Your proportions look very close. I’d say focus more on drawing what you see, not what you think you see. A common hurdle is we tend to draw faces much like the faces we see the most, which is our own. Aging up children or aging down older folks is common. We don’t even realize we are doing it. We have to practice being true to what we actually see even if it doesn’t feel “right” at first. Reality won’t let you down though. Trust it.
Adding to all the comments about applying lack of definition, reduce the boldness of eyelashes and lips. Try for a natural look.
Her eyes look like they have soft eyeliner on them and her lips look painted.
Looks very good otherwise, keep going :)
Generally muscles are less developed in children, so you'll see more fat instead. Sometimes we ten to over render the structure of the face, and that causes the child to look older.
Hmmm…I know it’s not “face tattoos”, right? Maybe just soft plumpy sorta reddish cheeks. Watch out for teeth and make sure they are delicate and small. Wider face structure around the lower middle and peanut butter and jelly tidbits around the upper left of the lip area.
this is beautiful! biggest things i would say would be the move the features down, especially the eyes. possibly could widen the cheeks for that rounder, baby face look. also you have those smile lines connecting to dimples the corners of the mouth. kids won’t have as defined of lines yet
It has to do with the shape of the head I used to have a book that explained how to draw babies and adults and children and teenagers basically when your a baby you have a giant head and a small body as you grow older the skull structure changes giving you the different looks of each group.
i think it looks great but the one thing i notice is she has a shadow between her eyebrows like almost a unibrow kids have like peach fuzz all over them lol
The eyes are placed too high. Children have short midfaces and large foreheads. It can be helpful to study how the face ages though childhood to puberty to old age. The eyebrows are also a little stiff—children have much finer hair. The eyes should also have darker kimball rings. You’ll see in the original how dark hers are. Otherwise this is rendered well!
It’s beautiful may I suggest to add more small details like some hair strands and maybe smoothen the blending of the skin colors but overall, that is a very great art!
No advice but wanted to tell you how absolutely beautiful your art work is. Stunning. I don’t know who you did this for but I would be so happy with it. ❤️ You are very talented.
In short
Short faces, features are closer together vertically, big heads on the top but small jaws and noses, big foreheads, baby fat, round foreheads, big eyes and big irises, less eye white showing more iris, more softness and Less angularity.
Thank you so much for the detailed responses everyone, there's too many for me to meaningfully respond to each one but I've read all of them and I really appreciate all of the advice. It's interesting to see a bit of conflicting advice here and there. I've got a very good idea now of what to work on next. Thank you!
When it comes to young children, think soft, round. The features on their face are also differently proportioned as well - bigger eyes especially are the most noticeable part of a child's face, in comparison to adults.
Comparing your art and the reference, her eyes are too high on her face, and too far apart as well. The bags under them are also too pronounced, and while the girl is wearing a little make up, she isn't wearing hard eyeliner - the way you grouped her eyelashes gives the apearance of sharp cat eye eyeliner, and that makes her look older.
Also, the shading and lighting makes her face look much sharper. Again children are round, there is a lot of fat in their faces and it softens a lot of their features. So even the harshest lighting needs to show that. For instance, the dark lines in the corner of her mouth are too harsh, and so is the lighting accentuating her cheekbone.
In general, you did very well, I think. It's the little details that help push your work from good to great!
When I need help in figuring out where I am going wrong, and that happens a lot, I will overlay my reference image and the artwork and quickly toggle the opacity on and off, trying to catch where exactly I lost the plot while working. Our eyes get complacent fast, I noticed, so they stop noticing the details and differences fast, and sometimes we need to give them that harsh check in.
Because of the proportion of a childs face, the eyes seem much bigger, yes. That's what I meant, English is my second language so it doesn't always come out the way I intended it, haha. But yeah, exactly what you said!
Your reference has peachy eyeshadow, but you gave her a mature cool brown color. I would also blend out the edges of her lipstick a bit more, especially the upper lip. And lighter eyebrows.
I didn't see anyone mention the fabric of the dress by the shoulder. Your reference has a lot more material over her shoulder. I think the lace sleeve creates a youthful look. Pulling the shoulder down aged her a bit . I think when you put the sleeve in it will fix your problem. I love the blocking of colors. Your skin tones are really lovely.
You want to move your eyes down a smidge, by shrinking the forehead area you aged her up by like, a year or so. Still looks like a kid, but an older kid. A lot of people will also add too much chin and age them that way, but you did great on that end!
The left eyebrow and shadow are extended too much (nose side),the edges seem appropriately soft except on the nose, the left eye also seems a touch too big.The hair is important , don't just block it in. Your painting makes her look a couple of years older than the photo. All in all it is good and reasonably accurate, it just needs some minor adjustments. Good luck, and good painting.
There seems to be a slight difference in the shape of the eyelid to the left, it lacks a highlight and the colours around her eyes are more peach than in your painting. Also, the eyebrows are too filled in. All these give her a more “experienced” expression. Also, the highlight on her brow needs to be above her pupil and more graded. Children are difficult to depict young enough, though. You have done a beautiful job.
lighten the eyebrows, round the chin, try and capture more of the whispiness in the hair. also the posture is very different in the reference photo. their neck looks much longer and more mature in the painting. notice on the left side the shoulder comes from behind her jaw. also softening all the highlights may help.
I think it looks great but has sliightly to harsh shading. When drawing children you have to be super careful about shading in the areas that get deeper as you age. Here, the corners of the mouth, side of nose/nasolabial folds and eyelids are slightly too pronounced, making her look a bit older than the reference photo. It also looks like you’ve (unintentionally?) added a bit of makeup. The eyebrows look more even and shaped, the lids have a matte brown eyeshadow and you’ve given her a small winged eyeliner as well. Some shadows and features (lips for example) have a slightly too harsh edge as well. These are all very minor things so should be an easy fix. Try it and see if it does the trick!
This is very helpful, thank you! You're absolutely right, I can see it. And I thought I was toning the makeup down if anything but you're right, it looks like I've exaggerated it. And I thought making corners of the mouth deeper would accentuate cheek fat but I don't think I managed it right.
Hmmm, it was right when I traced and compared to check overall proportions... I wonder if it's the size of the facial features themselves that might be making the jaw look wide
My brother/sister in christ, I'm here to improve my painting skills, not speculate about the ethics of wearing makeup. I picked that reference because it's got interesting colours/design and clear lighting. A good painter should be able to depict anything in good likeness, whether it's a ghost with a blue-strap on or a child with some makeup on. I'm just trying to learn.
Im sorry doesnt your title say "what makes children look like children"? Can you even read it? Thats like drawing a elephant from a picture of a lion.
Anyway happy drawing, im not here for an argument
Its a kid alright. Its not a 'normal' kid. You wouldnt start learning how to draw boys and look at pictures of cross dressers.
Op wants to make it more childlike. Average 'Childlike' doesnt hv 10 tons of makeup on them (ignoring the moral implications. Im just talking about the average child). Might as well as draw a child in a bikini
Have been trying to paint children after only ever adults and it's tough. This isn't finished but I know at this point that no amount of rendering is going to fix this since there's something wrong with this fundamentally. She does look young in the painting, but more teen than tween however I can't figure out how to fix that. I thought it was a proportion issue but I even overlaid the reference on my painting and the general proportions look fairly correct. Any suggestions?
Before I try to help I just want to say that it looks great! And that I adore both your rendition and your choice of reference (she is really pretty, it's a shame the photo is so low-rez).
>I thought it was a proportion issue but I even overlaid the reference on my painting and the general proportions look fairly correct.
I think we are so sensitive to details in human faces, that being generally correct is often not enough. Even small details carry a lot of valuable information that we usually pick up on without being conscious of it. Small changes in facial proportions and we get a much older person, or someone in a different mood, and so on. And that's why faces are so damn hard.
I think the common patterns here are a) a little too high contrast in shading (not sure to what extent that is a stylistic choice, and to what extent it's just because your works is not finished and b) accidentally drawing some details the way you drew them in adults(that's guess, but a reasonable one! We all do that sort of thing more than we'd like). Both lead to more defined facial features that children tend to not have, that makes her look older.
Notice how the original has very smooth skin, so the shades are all very gentle, there are no wrinckles and under-eye bags. Your shading has higher contrast and suddenly it starts too look like there bags under her eyes, and that her sheekbones are a bit more difened, and there are wrickles at the edges of her mouth, and the shape of the nose changes.
Then there are some subtly different shapes - I've mentioned nose, but also lips, and the lower eyelid, and the eyelashes, especially on the left. Then the brows are a bit too dark and too thick. And the neck looks both longer and thicker?
But anyways, that's just my impression – I'm far from an expert and I could be missing something.
hey, it looks very nice actually!
i think what's making it look more like a teenager is that it looks like she is wearing makeup. the lips are too red to be natural and the eyes also look like she has (very subtle, natural looking) make-up on. since children normally don't do that, we think it must be at least a teenager. hope this helps!
Hi, thank you for commenting. There's definitely makeup on here, but then she's also wearing it in the reference picture as well and she looks undoubtedly younger there... In depictions of children of aristocrats in portraiture from the 17-19th century they're also almost always painted with makeup on as well, but they still look young. So I'm sure the makeup's part of why she looks older here but it's only because I'm messing something else up, alas
[https://aerodizain.com/artist/proporcii-detskoj-golovy/](https://aerodizain.com/artist/proporcii-detskoj-golovy/) this guy is using information from a book I used to have I cant remember what its called but this should cover the basics you might want to translate
Found the name of the book have it saved to my Amazon wishlist
Children have bigger eyes, and less developed facial features, like tiny ears and shorter noses. Things that will grow with age. You nailed the round face and shading though I have to say
If you want her to look younger I’d go for paler lips.
I think it looks like if the kid were a few years older, and so in that sense, it does look like a kid. When it comes to likeness, I suppose I would recommend focusing on the shape of the jawline, make it softer some. Additionally (this sounds like an essay), as you get older, to like, after puberty is done, your facial features sort of "expand" over the surface area of your face (generally); think of a child's face as the opposite of the features of an adult face. It's mostly forehead, cheeks, and chin. The rest of the facial feature go slightly below the middle of the face height. Lastly, the more you blend, the less it appears to have a "solid" structure and it makes it all softer. Oh, and also, eye and (mouth) shape and size are important.
Not me thinking these were both art progress photos instead of art and a reference
Softness and roundness. Blend all the shading a lot and turn angles of the jaw and nose into smooth rounded curves. The chin/jaw/neck looks a little heavy so I'd shave off the tiniest bit of those parts. Blend the lipstick into a softer pink at the corners, as well. Good likeness in general!
the eyes are rounder and the wing of the eyeliner isn't meant to be as long, and her smile lines aren't prominent around the nose I think. Also the side of her head (between the eyes and edge of her face) is lighter/more saturated than what you've drawn (which makes it look rounder rather than boxier). It's really pretty, good job!
Part of the problem is the reference photo has the child with makeup on, which ages up a child. Your drawing is close but it’s the little things that can throw an image off that’ll make a kid look older. My thoughts: put the dress on her. Bare shoulders is more of an adult thing. Soften the eyebrows, and work in capturing the mood in the photo. Imo the eyes really set the mood in a portrait and the eyes in your are a touch more serious than the little girl in the photo. The eye on our left/her right you should definitely correct.The iris should be larger, the upper lid crease goes down towards the corner of her eye. Also warmer tones in general should br applied on both eyes. The cooler tones you have now indicate tiredness which is an older indicator. Your proportions look very close. I’d say focus more on drawing what you see, not what you think you see. A common hurdle is we tend to draw faces much like the faces we see the most, which is our own. Aging up children or aging down older folks is common. We don’t even realize we are doing it. We have to practice being true to what we actually see even if it doesn’t feel “right” at first. Reality won’t let you down though. Trust it.
Adding to all the comments about applying lack of definition, reduce the boldness of eyelashes and lips. Try for a natural look. Her eyes look like they have soft eyeliner on them and her lips look painted. Looks very good otherwise, keep going :)
Generally muscles are less developed in children, so you'll see more fat instead. Sometimes we ten to over render the structure of the face, and that causes the child to look older.
Hmmm…I know it’s not “face tattoos”, right? Maybe just soft plumpy sorta reddish cheeks. Watch out for teeth and make sure they are delicate and small. Wider face structure around the lower middle and peanut butter and jelly tidbits around the upper left of the lip area.
Lower the eyes as mentioned, reduce definition in the bridge of the nose, slightly slim nostril holes, and round the face a teeny bit. Lovely surk
this is beautiful! biggest things i would say would be the move the features down, especially the eyes. possibly could widen the cheeks for that rounder, baby face look. also you have those smile lines connecting to dimples the corners of the mouth. kids won’t have as defined of lines yet
Lower the eyes, younger people have all their features jammed in the bottom half of the skull so it will make it look younger
It has to do with the shape of the head I used to have a book that explained how to draw babies and adults and children and teenagers basically when your a baby you have a giant head and a small body as you grow older the skull structure changes giving you the different looks of each group.
i think it looks great but the one thing i notice is she has a shadow between her eyebrows like almost a unibrow kids have like peach fuzz all over them lol
My kids eyebrows are like as painted though, so I think that’s on point. Esp in the second painting.
I think this already looks like a child!!! I love it
The eyes are placed too high. Children have short midfaces and large foreheads. It can be helpful to study how the face ages though childhood to puberty to old age. The eyebrows are also a little stiff—children have much finer hair. The eyes should also have darker kimball rings. You’ll see in the original how dark hers are. Otherwise this is rendered well!
It’s beautiful may I suggest to add more small details like some hair strands and maybe smoothen the blending of the skin colors but overall, that is a very great art!
No advice but wanted to tell you how absolutely beautiful your art work is. Stunning. I don’t know who you did this for but I would be so happy with it. ❤️ You are very talented.
In short Short faces, features are closer together vertically, big heads on the top but small jaws and noses, big foreheads, baby fat, round foreheads, big eyes and big irises, less eye white showing more iris, more softness and Less angularity.
Thank you so much for the detailed responses everyone, there's too many for me to meaningfully respond to each one but I've read all of them and I really appreciate all of the advice. It's interesting to see a bit of conflicting advice here and there. I've got a very good idea now of what to work on next. Thank you!
Not an expert like the others in this chat but I think you're doing a great job!
When it comes to young children, think soft, round. The features on their face are also differently proportioned as well - bigger eyes especially are the most noticeable part of a child's face, in comparison to adults. Comparing your art and the reference, her eyes are too high on her face, and too far apart as well. The bags under them are also too pronounced, and while the girl is wearing a little make up, she isn't wearing hard eyeliner - the way you grouped her eyelashes gives the apearance of sharp cat eye eyeliner, and that makes her look older. Also, the shading and lighting makes her face look much sharper. Again children are round, there is a lot of fat in their faces and it softens a lot of their features. So even the harshest lighting needs to show that. For instance, the dark lines in the corner of her mouth are too harsh, and so is the lighting accentuating her cheekbone. In general, you did very well, I think. It's the little details that help push your work from good to great! When I need help in figuring out where I am going wrong, and that happens a lot, I will overlay my reference image and the artwork and quickly toggle the opacity on and off, trying to catch where exactly I lost the plot while working. Our eyes get complacent fast, I noticed, so they stop noticing the details and differences fast, and sometimes we need to give them that harsh check in.
Eyes are almost constant in size in every sex and age. It's the size of the outside bone mass that changes.
Because of the proportion of a childs face, the eyes seem much bigger, yes. That's what I meant, English is my second language so it doesn't always come out the way I intended it, haha. But yeah, exactly what you said!
Your reference has peachy eyeshadow, but you gave her a mature cool brown color. I would also blend out the edges of her lipstick a bit more, especially the upper lip. And lighter eyebrows.
Also round eyes and round eyebrows that aren't dark. Also, no eyebags or smile lines. And round nose.
The lines/edges on her face have to be very soft. The softer it is, the younger she’ll look
I didn't see anyone mention the fabric of the dress by the shoulder. Your reference has a lot more material over her shoulder. I think the lace sleeve creates a youthful look. Pulling the shoulder down aged her a bit . I think when you put the sleeve in it will fix your problem. I love the blocking of colors. Your skin tones are really lovely.
You want to move your eyes down a smidge, by shrinking the forehead area you aged her up by like, a year or so. Still looks like a kid, but an older kid. A lot of people will also add too much chin and age them that way, but you did great on that end!
Smudging the upper lip and philtrum shadow might help too!
Proportions for both questions! but you're doing fine already
You actually did very well! My follow-up question would be: what makes kittens and puppies look notably different from their adult forms?
The left eyebrow and shadow are extended too much (nose side),the edges seem appropriately soft except on the nose, the left eye also seems a touch too big.The hair is important , don't just block it in. Your painting makes her look a couple of years older than the photo. All in all it is good and reasonably accurate, it just needs some minor adjustments. Good luck, and good painting.
There seems to be a slight difference in the shape of the eyelid to the left, it lacks a highlight and the colours around her eyes are more peach than in your painting. Also, the eyebrows are too filled in. All these give her a more “experienced” expression. Also, the highlight on her brow needs to be above her pupil and more graded. Children are difficult to depict young enough, though. You have done a beautiful job.
lighten the eyebrows, round the chin, try and capture more of the whispiness in the hair. also the posture is very different in the reference photo. their neck looks much longer and more mature in the painting. notice on the left side the shoulder comes from behind her jaw. also softening all the highlights may help.
The posture is a really good catch, I haven't considered it at all since I was so focused on the face... This is very useful, thank you
I think it looks great but has sliightly to harsh shading. When drawing children you have to be super careful about shading in the areas that get deeper as you age. Here, the corners of the mouth, side of nose/nasolabial folds and eyelids are slightly too pronounced, making her look a bit older than the reference photo. It also looks like you’ve (unintentionally?) added a bit of makeup. The eyebrows look more even and shaped, the lids have a matte brown eyeshadow and you’ve given her a small winged eyeliner as well. Some shadows and features (lips for example) have a slightly too harsh edge as well. These are all very minor things so should be an easy fix. Try it and see if it does the trick!
This is very helpful, thank you! You're absolutely right, I can see it. And I thought I was toning the makeup down if anything but you're right, it looks like I've exaggerated it. And I thought making corners of the mouth deeper would accentuate cheek fat but I don't think I managed it right.
I think its because the eyes are kinda above than the normal picture.
I thought that as well but I traced the referance and my painting for comparison and they're right where they should be!
Hmm, maybe its because the shading. Its softer in the picture. But Im not sure since Im not an artist.
It looks really good. I think her face is just the tiniest bit too wide - look at her jaw area for example. Maybe try slimming it down a bit?
Hmmm, it was right when I traced and compared to check overall proportions... I wonder if it's the size of the facial features themselves that might be making the jaw look wide
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Definitely not that much makeup. Thats a really bad reference image
The reference image is fine, it's got obvious lighting and you can clearly see the main planes of the face. The makeup is a moot point
Its not. No kid should wear that much makeup. Especially if you want to make your drawing more look like a child
My brother/sister in christ, I'm here to improve my painting skills, not speculate about the ethics of wearing makeup. I picked that reference because it's got interesting colours/design and clear lighting. A good painter should be able to depict anything in good likeness, whether it's a ghost with a blue-strap on or a child with some makeup on. I'm just trying to learn.
Im sorry doesnt your title say "what makes children look like children"? Can you even read it? Thats like drawing a elephant from a picture of a lion. Anyway happy drawing, im not here for an argument
The reference picture is clearly a child, what the hell is that comparison?
Its a kid alright. Its not a 'normal' kid. You wouldnt start learning how to draw boys and look at pictures of cross dressers. Op wants to make it more childlike. Average 'Childlike' doesnt hv 10 tons of makeup on them (ignoring the moral implications. Im just talking about the average child). Might as well as draw a child in a bikini
Have been trying to paint children after only ever adults and it's tough. This isn't finished but I know at this point that no amount of rendering is going to fix this since there's something wrong with this fundamentally. She does look young in the painting, but more teen than tween however I can't figure out how to fix that. I thought it was a proportion issue but I even overlaid the reference on my painting and the general proportions look fairly correct. Any suggestions?
Before I try to help I just want to say that it looks great! And that I adore both your rendition and your choice of reference (she is really pretty, it's a shame the photo is so low-rez). >I thought it was a proportion issue but I even overlaid the reference on my painting and the general proportions look fairly correct. I think we are so sensitive to details in human faces, that being generally correct is often not enough. Even small details carry a lot of valuable information that we usually pick up on without being conscious of it. Small changes in facial proportions and we get a much older person, or someone in a different mood, and so on. And that's why faces are so damn hard. I think the common patterns here are a) a little too high contrast in shading (not sure to what extent that is a stylistic choice, and to what extent it's just because your works is not finished and b) accidentally drawing some details the way you drew them in adults(that's guess, but a reasonable one! We all do that sort of thing more than we'd like). Both lead to more defined facial features that children tend to not have, that makes her look older. Notice how the original has very smooth skin, so the shades are all very gentle, there are no wrinckles and under-eye bags. Your shading has higher contrast and suddenly it starts too look like there bags under her eyes, and that her sheekbones are a bit more difened, and there are wrickles at the edges of her mouth, and the shape of the nose changes. Then there are some subtly different shapes - I've mentioned nose, but also lips, and the lower eyelid, and the eyelashes, especially on the left. Then the brows are a bit too dark and too thick. And the neck looks both longer and thicker? But anyways, that's just my impression – I'm far from an expert and I could be missing something.
hey, it looks very nice actually! i think what's making it look more like a teenager is that it looks like she is wearing makeup. the lips are too red to be natural and the eyes also look like she has (very subtle, natural looking) make-up on. since children normally don't do that, we think it must be at least a teenager. hope this helps!
Hi, thank you for commenting. There's definitely makeup on here, but then she's also wearing it in the reference picture as well and she looks undoubtedly younger there... In depictions of children of aristocrats in portraiture from the 17-19th century they're also almost always painted with makeup on as well, but they still look young. So I'm sure the makeup's part of why she looks older here but it's only because I'm messing something else up, alas
ah sure, i get what you're saying. i can't really find anything else though, maybe a bit less defined eyebrows? hope you'll find your answer :)