In my quest to develop a style that would allow me to draw a daily webcomic, I experimented with a more anime-inspired face. A lot of cartoonists create these kind of guidelines, so they can see how the characters typically looks in various positions, with various emotions on their faces.

This would be me as an anime girl, I guess.

My problem, as it’s always seemed to me, is that it doesn’t feel as if it’s possible to draw the same character over and over. Does she even look like the same girl? Her face is shaped differently in different pictures. Some cartoonists deal with this issue by drawing every character sort of the same, and just differentiating them through clothing and hairstyles.

Darling Husband, in the same style. But what if I want another character with a full beard in a button-down shirt?

Ultimately, when I start the graphic novel, the kids will probably have to stand in as models. A certain degree of cartoonishness is acceptable to me, but only up to a point. The proportions of the bodies and the faces needs to be somewhat realistic.