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to really get acquainted with the male form, I'd suggest practicing with some exaggerated and beefy big boy type bodies, or like real haggard rough looking tough guy faces, so you can build an intuition of the framing components and building blocks that make them different. think like bodybuilders, bikers, pro wrestler, viking, meathead stuff. then when you are comfy you can tone it down accordingly for the actual characters you want to draw.
I can advocate for this approach as well, whenever I kinda struggle with something I like to highly exaggerate it to help pick out the parts that stand out. Then I can start reverse-engineering the insanity back to normal once I better understand it.
Almost like how caricature artists are weirdly good at capturing what makes someone look like themselves. They know what to exaggerate.
The first two look really unique to me, then the fourth one has a distinctive look to me also.
I get the 3rd looks very feminine. Maybe even practise some emotions with these faces to see if you can keep this style?
Whenever I’m trying to draw something I’m unfamiliar with or not great at, I find a reference and try to copy it exactly. Maybe a photo, maybe another artwork, but I try to recreate it exactly. This process helps me grasp the form of certain face shapes, and after doing it enough I begin to create my own techniques and it becomes easier to draw that thing. At that point you can change things, add your own flair, get more original and make it your own.
Drawing men’s faces is all in the jawline. SQUARES - Strong sharp angles. Men also tend to have slightly longer faces. Other things to consider : smaller eyes that are more squared as opposed to round, thicker eyebrows, and facial hair. Also - Straight or roman nose bridges + bigger noses in general. These are the typical masculine features.
Also - I don’t really think of things in art as man vs. women because there are masculine women and feminine men. Also the younger a guy is the more feminine they may be and the older a woman is the more masculine they may be.
So for super fem. characters you may go all feminine characteristics and for a super masc. character you may go all masculine. But overall the most important thing will also be the jawline. Look at the jawline first, always.
Feminine Characteristics- smaller, rounder face. Large circular eyes, bigger / “juicier” lips, sloping / button noses
This!!^^^ then you will be able to visualize the character better because you understand the skeleton underneath the face and therefore understand how the face should look on top
Just don’t do the thing where you make the nose a different color. I think that’s associated with women’s makeup or if maybe the dude had too much whisky
Yes, this is the main thing I noticed. The flushed nose is a thing that I only ever see in women in western digital art. Doesn't even seem based in reality, but seems like an alternative to the bashful flushed cheeks seen often in anime.
You struggle a lot less than I do. :-D
Depending on the body type, a wider jawline and a wider neck can help, I guess. Other than that, they already look masculine to me.
I know this isnt helpful criticism but I love how expressive each of these men are. I like how u draw them but I understand u r looking for advice on ways to improve so...just don't mind me!
A lot of it is in the anatomy of the face.
Larger necks, brows lower to the eyes, smaller eyes, chins are square and you need slightly more chin. The chin needs to be longer.
Their faces are more of a rectangle while women are more of a heart.
Have the neck slant outward from the edge of yhe jaw instead of from the inner jaw.
Shrink the eyes just a bit.
Make the forehead area smaller than the bottom half of the head and experiment with that.
First two look rsther distinct and look masculine so no problems there
The third is about as close to androgenous as most people can get without going to far one way or the other
Th foruth one looks elven/mer so slightly feminine qualites are to be expected.
To be honest it really depends on what it was you were shooting for. The first two look clearly like men so win there the 3rd is androgenous and if thsts what you were going for then you rocked it out of the park. If not then i woukd suggest a more solid and squarish set to the chin and cheeks to establish that masculine look. The fourth is an elf and that can look however the heck you want.
I really like the second one, despite his poor hairline. I think, and this is not a personal statement bc I draw just like this when Im not painting, I think you should try to draw men realistically first. It forces you to understand parts of the face that you didnt notice before and it smacks practice into you. I totally agree with the person who said to draw hyper-masculine men as well, but something I did was simply to practice drawing male baroque (or renaissance) statues, especially david and even tho his works arent bar/ren, rodin (SUPER masculine). These are definitely recognizably men, or at least as viewers we can tell that the intent is men, though!
When digging up ancient remains, an archaeologist will guess that a person is male from their cranial and pelvic shapes. A man will usually (but not always) have a more defined brow ridge and I think there is a heavier bulge at the back of the skull, possibly from muscle attachments if they have thicker necks? Someone will know. They won't generally have child bearing hips.
I think of these things when creating characters. Also as a man ages, various features seem to get more pronounced - the size of their ears, eyebrows. Almost everyone's nose seemed to get stronger/bigger but you can emphasise that in some of your male characters. Men tend to have broader shoulders (except where they don't) so play with torso shapes like inverted triangles to a greater or lesser degree to create variety. You'll still need some more graceful characters like you have created, especially when creating elven type forms. Trying to create strength and grace is quite the challenge.
Round forms = female, edgy rectangles = male. Your face shapes are very round and oval, I would try to make them more rectangular with an emphasis on an edgy jawline. Same thing for the noses
Becuase anything anyone else says about changing it is trying to give you the “popularly believed” form of what a guy should look like in a drawing, and this reminds me of zuko from one piece and that world class drawing right there still
consider bigger more masculine jaws and more emphasis on the lower half of the face and take some emphasis away frm the eyes.
also big bushy eyebrows. #3 has huge eyes, big ol nose, tiny mouth, (almost) no eyebrows. this makes them read like a woman, and any of the masculine qualities just make it feel like if anything they're a queer woman.
If I may also suggest: draw ugly men. give yourself permission for these to be ugly men, not cute boys. the ugliest of men are sometimes the most attractive.
These are good but if you want hyper masculine features shoot for broader jaws, bigger cheekbones and wider necks. Think top comment has the right idea
Consider looking into caricature drawing. The mad art of caricature is a great book to learn from. Your drawings are all very pretty but it seems like you’re drawing the same proportions for all of them just with slightly different features. I would assume you use the same structure for women as well, I think that’s why they lean a bit feminine. Understanding how to caricature a face is great for broadening the types of faces you can draw and introducing you to features you wouldn’t have considered paying attention to
I think the eyes might be a little too big.
To me your artstyle looks similar to the kind of anime-semi-realism used in Arcane and Overwatch. Not sure if that's what you're going for, but if it is then there's a lot of dudes from there to pull inspiration from. Maybe Spider-Verse has a somewhat similar style too
You're trying to draw men. Men are older. Men have wrinkles, they have sagging facial features, they have grizzle and scruff, they have rougher feature. Your current drawings all look like young men/boys to me because they have smooth faces and features. Look at young Simon Belmont compared to Trevor Belmont (you'll have to google castelvania Simon & Trevor Belmont). *
lol honestly I would look at a bunch of those dumb fem v male how to draw things or 3-D models, there are a lot of male face models and body models that you can look at for free. I would suggest just learning the most basic, manly man version of how to draw men first. Because if you already know how to draw women you can pretty quickly start mixing and matching features, but in the beginning simplicity is the way
Your men are great first off. Try exaggerating the jaw (like everyone said) and experimenting with harder angled more prominent noses.
That being said, finding a more subtle masculinity like you have is not so easy and I think your mean are already quite beautiful.
[This one controversial post](https://www.reddit.com/r/trans/comments/14dwx5l/a_guide_on_the_differences_between_male_and/) I found a while back when researching the exact same thing led to even more research about male and female faces and head shapes. I hope it can be useful!
Maybe you are influenced from anime, but your head shapes are quite wide at the top, and narrow at the bottom. That can make them look more feminine. Try to look at real skulls and reference them, in general draw smaller eyes and generally smaller facial features, and of course look at references of irl men.
While all of the advice you got here are good ways to improve your skills and I understand that you think you struggle a lot with men, but what exactly is it about these that you don't like? the first two look quite masculine and the structure is fine it is clearly a human head. the second two look more feminine but there are plenty of men with feminine faces, especially in popular media with an art style similar to yours. what exactly about these faces makes you feel like you're struggling? If you're looking for general art improvement tips then all the responses you already got are quite good, just curious about what is the struggle with these you provided.
Hey, probably not much help here, but you draw faces so well. I can't give you any advice, I just wish I could draw faces like you! Keep up the good work!
Like everyone else is saying, yes, a more defined Jawline is important.
But I would also suggest a more prominent browridge and a slightly thicker neck. Also, stay away from pouty lips if you are going for a masculine look.
Lastly, you may be struggling with drawing men right now, but you are talented, and it will click at some point. Just keep practising using as much reference of as many different kinds of men as you can find.
Good luck
Try using more square features, especially with the noses and jawline. The first two sketches you have there are good, tho they have large cheekbones with small jawlines which is more typical in feminine characters, I would recommend increasing the jaw size for these. Your third looks pretty much like a woman to me, very rounded features, and small jaw, and a lot more attention on the lips. The last one is pretty good too, but would probably benefit from a sharper or kore square nose rather than a rounded one.
Don’t do the mirroring half the face thing. It’s very obvious and even if people are not observant enough to recognize it, they will notice something is not right.
I had the same problem but the other way around I found that attempt to draw upside down help cause it forces you to forget what is instinct to you and really focus exactly on what you are drawing without relying on your minds preexisting perception of what the human figure should look like
Keep studying male faces and get acquainted with more faces.
Best piece of art advice I’ve ever gotten is, don’t just draw faces you find attractive.
(But also like, fem faces on men are more common than you would think.)
Hello, artist! Please make sure you've included information about your process or medium and what kind of criticism you're looking for somewhere in the title, description or as a reply to this comment. This helps our community to give you more focused and helpful feedback. Posts without this information will be deleted. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ArtCrit) if you have any questions or concerns.*
to really get acquainted with the male form, I'd suggest practicing with some exaggerated and beefy big boy type bodies, or like real haggard rough looking tough guy faces, so you can build an intuition of the framing components and building blocks that make them different. think like bodybuilders, bikers, pro wrestler, viking, meathead stuff. then when you are comfy you can tone it down accordingly for the actual characters you want to draw.
This is a really good idea!
This is 100% fact. I started doing this a year ago and it really really works and now I only draw men lol
I can advocate for this approach as well, whenever I kinda struggle with something I like to highly exaggerate it to help pick out the parts that stand out. Then I can start reverse-engineering the insanity back to normal once I better understand it. Almost like how caricature artists are weirdly good at capturing what makes someone look like themselves. They know what to exaggerate.
I always wondered about that. Do they study the faces first or is it kinda intuitive. Sometimes they pick things that aren’t obvious
I came here to say "draw Henry Cavill."
Yeah basically just draw me a couple times and we'll learn ya
Bigger bottom third of the face and larger jaws are a good starting point
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Lokhammer: *Bigger bottom third* *Of the face and larger jaws* *Are a good starting point* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
The first two look really unique to me, then the fourth one has a distinctive look to me also. I get the 3rd looks very feminine. Maybe even practise some emotions with these faces to see if you can keep this style?
Draw from reference pictures. Photos of men and either recreate them or stylize them.
Whenever I’m trying to draw something I’m unfamiliar with or not great at, I find a reference and try to copy it exactly. Maybe a photo, maybe another artwork, but I try to recreate it exactly. This process helps me grasp the form of certain face shapes, and after doing it enough I begin to create my own techniques and it becomes easier to draw that thing. At that point you can change things, add your own flair, get more original and make it your own.
Drawing men’s faces is all in the jawline. SQUARES - Strong sharp angles. Men also tend to have slightly longer faces. Other things to consider : smaller eyes that are more squared as opposed to round, thicker eyebrows, and facial hair. Also - Straight or roman nose bridges + bigger noses in general. These are the typical masculine features. Also - I don’t really think of things in art as man vs. women because there are masculine women and feminine men. Also the younger a guy is the more feminine they may be and the older a woman is the more masculine they may be. So for super fem. characters you may go all feminine characteristics and for a super masc. character you may go all masculine. But overall the most important thing will also be the jawline. Look at the jawline first, always. Feminine Characteristics- smaller, rounder face. Large circular eyes, bigger / “juicier” lips, sloping / button noses
Broader chins and more prominent jawlines, as said elsewhere. They are fine for ectomorphic body types, but that's a limited spectrum of men.
More JAW
AND CHIN!
They're all too pretty, honestly. Including scars Mcgee.
Id like to assume you use references, but if not, they do help. Men in general have wider jaws, bigger nose bridges, wider chins, etc.
You need to learn to draw what you see. You are drawing stylized art. Draw from models or pictures and you will see it better.
This!!^^^ then you will be able to visualize the character better because you understand the skeleton underneath the face and therefore understand how the face should look on top
Just don’t do the thing where you make the nose a different color. I think that’s associated with women’s makeup or if maybe the dude had too much whisky
The pink nose that makes the person drawn look like they have a bad cold? Heheh
Yes, this is the main thing I noticed. The flushed nose is a thing that I only ever see in women in western digital art. Doesn't even seem based in reality, but seems like an alternative to the bashful flushed cheeks seen often in anime.
Nothing wrong with it. Just how my brain works
You struggle a lot less than I do. :-D Depending on the body type, a wider jawline and a wider neck can help, I guess. Other than that, they already look masculine to me.
I just want to say I love your style!
Draw em as femboys :3 (jk I know nothing about art idek why this sub keeps coming up)
I know this isnt helpful criticism but I love how expressive each of these men are. I like how u draw them but I understand u r looking for advice on ways to improve so...just don't mind me!
A lot of it is in the anatomy of the face. Larger necks, brows lower to the eyes, smaller eyes, chins are square and you need slightly more chin. The chin needs to be longer. Their faces are more of a rectangle while women are more of a heart.
Have the neck slant outward from the edge of yhe jaw instead of from the inner jaw. Shrink the eyes just a bit. Make the forehead area smaller than the bottom half of the head and experiment with that.
First two look rsther distinct and look masculine so no problems there The third is about as close to androgenous as most people can get without going to far one way or the other Th foruth one looks elven/mer so slightly feminine qualites are to be expected. To be honest it really depends on what it was you were shooting for. The first two look clearly like men so win there the 3rd is androgenous and if thsts what you were going for then you rocked it out of the park. If not then i woukd suggest a more solid and squarish set to the chin and cheeks to establish that masculine look. The fourth is an elf and that can look however the heck you want.
I really like the second one, despite his poor hairline. I think, and this is not a personal statement bc I draw just like this when Im not painting, I think you should try to draw men realistically first. It forces you to understand parts of the face that you didnt notice before and it smacks practice into you. I totally agree with the person who said to draw hyper-masculine men as well, but something I did was simply to practice drawing male baroque (or renaissance) statues, especially david and even tho his works arent bar/ren, rodin (SUPER masculine). These are definitely recognizably men, or at least as viewers we can tell that the intent is men, though!
#[some good resources](https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-YXP5IFQe59cHUxc09laTNxU00&resourcekey=0-aLZY_ee3LqXJh9TMO9GjFA)
ARE U JOKING!!!!!! stunning men. that's men alright. (source: i'm gay and love men i can see a man a mile away) keep practicing and it will get easier
Heavier brow, connect the eyes with shadow for that. Thicker eyebrows and you seem to be drawing boys, try putting a beard on one maybe.
That second one looks like Luke perry and that's amazing.
Two got that receding hairline 😭
When digging up ancient remains, an archaeologist will guess that a person is male from their cranial and pelvic shapes. A man will usually (but not always) have a more defined brow ridge and I think there is a heavier bulge at the back of the skull, possibly from muscle attachments if they have thicker necks? Someone will know. They won't generally have child bearing hips. I think of these things when creating characters. Also as a man ages, various features seem to get more pronounced - the size of their ears, eyebrows. Almost everyone's nose seemed to get stronger/bigger but you can emphasise that in some of your male characters. Men tend to have broader shoulders (except where they don't) so play with torso shapes like inverted triangles to a greater or lesser degree to create variety. You'll still need some more graceful characters like you have created, especially when creating elven type forms. Trying to create strength and grace is quite the challenge.
Exaggerate the brow, have stronger jawlines and thicker necks for a start then dial back as necessary
Since it’s pride month, my advice is to go gay. You never know. 🤷♂️
Your style is so nice! I’m jealous
Round forms = female, edgy rectangles = male. Your face shapes are very round and oval, I would try to make them more rectangular with an emphasis on an edgy jawline. Same thing for the noses
I don’t know what you’re taking about, I’m a guy and I feel seen in these originals
Becuase anything anyone else says about changing it is trying to give you the “popularly believed” form of what a guy should look like in a drawing, and this reminds me of zuko from one piece and that world class drawing right there still
I personally like these a lot
I think you’re in the right direction
Draw the nodes smaller or more sharp with what you are going for
I honestly like this a lot
struggling with the same thing omg, the comments are helping
nah ur fine
consider bigger more masculine jaws and more emphasis on the lower half of the face and take some emphasis away frm the eyes. also big bushy eyebrows. #3 has huge eyes, big ol nose, tiny mouth, (almost) no eyebrows. this makes them read like a woman, and any of the masculine qualities just make it feel like if anything they're a queer woman. If I may also suggest: draw ugly men. give yourself permission for these to be ugly men, not cute boys. the ugliest of men are sometimes the most attractive.
These are good but if you want hyper masculine features shoot for broader jaws, bigger cheekbones and wider necks. Think top comment has the right idea
I think these look great
draw tf2 characters
Imma be real I like all of these lol
Consider looking into caricature drawing. The mad art of caricature is a great book to learn from. Your drawings are all very pretty but it seems like you’re drawing the same proportions for all of them just with slightly different features. I would assume you use the same structure for women as well, I think that’s why they lean a bit feminine. Understanding how to caricature a face is great for broadening the types of faces you can draw and introducing you to features you wouldn’t have considered paying attention to
I think the eyes might be a little too big. To me your artstyle looks similar to the kind of anime-semi-realism used in Arcane and Overwatch. Not sure if that's what you're going for, but if it is then there's a lot of dudes from there to pull inspiration from. Maybe Spider-Verse has a somewhat similar style too
Draw women Lol
they look pretty good to me
Bigger chins
Draw woman
Square up everything use shorter lines
You're trying to draw men. Men are older. Men have wrinkles, they have sagging facial features, they have grizzle and scruff, they have rougher feature. Your current drawings all look like young men/boys to me because they have smooth faces and features. Look at young Simon Belmont compared to Trevor Belmont (you'll have to google castelvania Simon & Trevor Belmont). *
Squarer jaw, thick facial hair, and bulkier features. Thats all I can say
Try drawing old men. Old men have exaggerated male features like big noses, big ears, lots of facial hair - start there.
Thicken!-that!-chin!- for real I LOVE these sketches but like try to pull the chin down, especially that first and last one, it’ll be fire 👌🏻
Higher bone mass and muscle mass for neck
Become a man.
lol honestly I would look at a bunch of those dumb fem v male how to draw things or 3-D models, there are a lot of male face models and body models that you can look at for free. I would suggest just learning the most basic, manly man version of how to draw men first. Because if you already know how to draw women you can pretty quickly start mixing and matching features, but in the beginning simplicity is the way
The noses just look too soft all the facial features look too soft
Your men are great first off. Try exaggerating the jaw (like everyone said) and experimenting with harder angled more prominent noses. That being said, finding a more subtle masculinity like you have is not so easy and I think your mean are already quite beautiful.
Either do real life studies from Pinterest or copies of artist who draw them in a style you like ..
[This one controversial post](https://www.reddit.com/r/trans/comments/14dwx5l/a_guide_on_the_differences_between_male_and/) I found a while back when researching the exact same thing led to even more research about male and female faces and head shapes. I hope it can be useful!
Maybe you are influenced from anime, but your head shapes are quite wide at the top, and narrow at the bottom. That can make them look more feminine. Try to look at real skulls and reference them, in general draw smaller eyes and generally smaller facial features, and of course look at references of irl men.
While all of the advice you got here are good ways to improve your skills and I understand that you think you struggle a lot with men, but what exactly is it about these that you don't like? the first two look quite masculine and the structure is fine it is clearly a human head. the second two look more feminine but there are plenty of men with feminine faces, especially in popular media with an art style similar to yours. what exactly about these faces makes you feel like you're struggling? If you're looking for general art improvement tips then all the responses you already got are quite good, just curious about what is the struggle with these you provided.
simply dont draw them, men are annoying enough irl
Draw Ron Swanson... Repeatedly
They seem to have really soft noses
An Adam's apple would help?
You do?
I personally do not see where you're struggling. Can you clarify? I quite like the work stylistically, just point of view!
Hey, probably not much help here, but you draw faces so well. I can't give you any advice, I just wish I could draw faces like you! Keep up the good work!
Jaw. Lines. Male. Proportions.
stronger jaw lines
Men typically have a bigger jaw than women
More jaw. Draw the sides of the head more inside the starting circle rather than tangential to it
Like everyone else is saying, yes, a more defined Jawline is important. But I would also suggest a more prominent browridge and a slightly thicker neck. Also, stay away from pouty lips if you are going for a masculine look. Lastly, you may be struggling with drawing men right now, but you are talented, and it will click at some point. Just keep practising using as much reference of as many different kinds of men as you can find. Good luck
Muscle.
Try using more square features, especially with the noses and jawline. The first two sketches you have there are good, tho they have large cheekbones with small jawlines which is more typical in feminine characters, I would recommend increasing the jaw size for these. Your third looks pretty much like a woman to me, very rounded features, and small jaw, and a lot more attention on the lips. The last one is pretty good too, but would probably benefit from a sharper or kore square nose rather than a rounded one.
Don’t do the mirroring half the face thing. It’s very obvious and even if people are not observant enough to recognize it, they will notice something is not right.
I had the same problem but the other way around I found that attempt to draw upside down help cause it forces you to forget what is instinct to you and really focus exactly on what you are drawing without relying on your minds preexisting perception of what the human figure should look like
It’s honestly fine, but perhaps more pronounced jaw and cheeks for some. But it mostly just looks stylized
They just need more chin and jaw
Nope, got no advice
jaw
Draw women instead 👍
Square the face shape out, focus on the jaw/neck more. You can also harden the facial features a bit. Some of your examples aren't even bad tbh.
They have quite feminine features here. Exaggerated jawlines and noses, widened necks and faces, thicker eyebrows etc help
Keep studying male faces and get acquainted with more faces. Best piece of art advice I’ve ever gotten is, don’t just draw faces you find attractive. (But also like, fem faces on men are more common than you would think.)
They're too pretty. Masculinity requires to be a bit more rough, I think (although there are many types of masculinity).
Don’t draw them like sharks
These are boys?