/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>3982847
>>3982835
>>3982820
Okay >>3982852 here I am back here is what I can notice

The ref you posted has different spacing for the parts of the face. Notably the eyes are smaller than your s and they keep the "enough space for a 3rd eye between the eyes" rule. It has more space between the nose and the eyes and the same amount of space for the mouth.

About yours, the first thing I immediately noticed is that your faces a bit rigid and samey for both the annoyed and the happy one. Keep in mind that the face has 43 (!) different muscles and it is capable of an astonishing amount of subtle and radical changes to its shape. The key for making it stylized is to know how and what part of the face changes with emotion. Luckly our brain has evolved to be able to easily notice and even the subtlest of changes which makes us capable to decode it even on simple drawings

You do not seem use the eyebrows enough, the eyebrows have key role in showing expression and since we are stylizing them we are free to exaggerate and move the eyebrows in radical ways that help exaggerate the expression. We can move them up and down pull them in and even move them independently. The ref has them raised up high to show interest and curiosity. But if you are annoyed the brows come don and pull together. Do not be afraid to move them around.

Then edge of the lips, while very subtle on kawaiiuguu faces are also a crucial part of conveying emotion. The lips are ultra flexible and capable of a great deal of shape changing, stretching and pushing towards every direction. Use it to curve it up and down, make it thicker, make it asymmetric.

Eyes too even without the brows can convey emotions, just by being pulled together and thin to bulging out, or just lazily hanging half open.

Cheek muscles pay a vital role at this, they pull up at the edges when we smile, they pull up in the center when we sneer, all these subtle changes can be used to gently deform the big animu eyes.

Questions?