Aging

[Gear]

For those of you who don't know, I create sprites based upon photos I take of people. Well, I've hit a bit of a snag with that. The big problem is that you can't draw what isn't there with this technique. I've done some Internet searches, but I'm not wording it right or something. Does anyone have any advice or know of tutorials that can teach you how to age a drawing of someone? I have characters in their late teens to early twenties, and I'm trying to take my initial line drawings and age them by about 10-20 years, but I'm having difficulty with how the physiology changes. Any insight?

[MonoPiero]

http://deejuusan.deviantart.com/art/Cha ... -309418851 ?

[Gear]

Yes! Thank you!

[Steamgirl]

You can also google image search "elderly woman" and "elderly man". (Though some images that come up are a bit disturbing.)
Image searching "middle aged" also has some good results, probably closer to what you're thinking.

If your art style is more manga/anime-esque, then drawing smaller eyes often reduces the youthfullness of someone's appearance.
For male faces, bushier eyebrows and facial hair often make the face look older.
For female faces, reducing the fullness of the lips can help.

[Sharm]

The older you get the bigger your nose and ears get.

[Gear]

The assets/tips are helping, I just need the practice at this point. Trying to age a 20 year-old to a 30 year-old, and it's coming along...alright, I think...but could use work. Thanks for everyone's help.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Trying to age a 20 year-old to a 30 year-old, and it's coming along...alright, I think...but could use work.

That age difference is almost too subtle to illustrate. A lot of people will look identical at 20 and 30. Others will just have different hair, or (like me) some gray appearing, but their facial features will remain unchanged. Really, unless someone has been living VERY hard, a few tiny wrinkles are all you'll get different facial wise. Growth and body structure have finalized by that age, and then subtle changes build over decades.

Take a look at this story where a group of friends took the same picture every 5 years for 30 years. Ignore the hair style changes and the clothes, and look at how remarkably long it takes for any significant changes to occur to their facial features, and how subtly those changes occur. The end result of 30 years is drastic for some of them, but not others, and a ten year jump to an adult certainly doesn't change much.

Then you have the blessed of youth, who don't seem to age at all. Look at George Clooney, Leonardo Dicaprio, Keanu Reeves, Johnny Depp, etc.

The older a character gets, the fewer transitions in appearance are going to occur, and the longer they will take between occurring. If I were to illustrate a character across all life stages, I would stick to just seven phases, or ages to represent. See here (caution, penciled penises) and here (caution, penciled breasts). See also here.

A person's appearance is considered stable at 20, and remains so for 20-30 years, then begins gradually degrading into old age, becoming more and more rapid as age advances. It is always helpful to think of old age as reverse childhood, with adulthood a long stretch of peak condition in the middle.

So, in other words (a lot of them), I think you may be having trouble getting it just right because you are being too granular in your approach to depicting age.

[Gear]

Hm, I see your point. I did manage to get a few facial structure changes in by lengthening the face, the ears are a little bigger, etc., but a 20 year old and a 30 year old are typically easily identifiable in person from each other. There are outliers, of course, but you can definitely say about most people "Oh, he looks like he's in his late 20's, early thirties" and not typically be wrong because the person's actually a decade younger. There's something...missing there. Not sure if I can capture it, but something's missing.

[Steamgirl]

I think it would help if you posted some of your artwork - it's usually easier to explain things visually than through words.

[erinism]

I learnt a technique in a make-up course to make an actor look older- I had them scrunch up their face and draw the lines so when they relaxed their face they had these scribbles on their face, it worked kinda well...

Maybe you could use your face as a reference or if you know the people in the photos (friends, family) etc. you could have them scrunch up their faces...?

I guess that sounds kind of stupid...

[MomoiroGirl]

Hmm, I think that the difference that you may see in real life, is just the aura the person has. You know, like some people just have a mature vibe over the way they carry themselves or do things, which can be a bit harder to put into drawings. But something that I have noticed (the way I usually set apart people my age, and people well into their 20's), is that people who are into their 20's start getting more texture (NOTE! Not wrinkles, but texture) on their skin, but that may be hard to draw, depending on your drawing style

Anyhow, the things that differentiate tiny age gaps, are usually tiny details as well :/

[Steamgirl]

Certain hairstyles can make people look more youthful or more mature as well.
For example, pig-tails on girls, or spiky hair on boys make them look younger.
Pinned up/complex hair on women, and receding hairline on men makes them look older.

[Gear]

The simple changes like textures are very difficult to do because I use a more cartoon-like style, so there's not that much detail. I will try the hair trick, though. Giving them differing haircuts and clothing styles seems like a good way to go, as well as changing the length/shape of the face.

Probably won't be posting my results here. They're not going so well...