Vi

That's a fun question! I'm happy to give a few tips, sure!

Though I usually start designing with things like ethnicity, age, weight etc in mind, I always design a character's face first - completely bald and without colour. Only once I've landed on a set of features I like do I move on to hair and such. If their face alone does not communicate something about who they are as a person, that's usually a sign they need more time in the oven.

What has helped me greatly is developing a mental database of features I like - and especially patterns of features, which can communicate who a character is very quickly For Peter, for example, it's the round eyes and low set brows, for Reece it's the lidded eyes and the pouty mouth, for Killian it's the downturned eyes and eyebrow shape.

This goes beyond just things like eye-, nose- or face shape as well, of course - from 'obvious' features like wrinkles and eye bags, a cleft chin, sunken cheeks, dimples or a tooth gap to more subtle things you might not think about much. The thickness and arch of the eyebrow, for instance, or the length and prominence of the lashes, the width of the nose bridge, the angle and shape of the mouth, whether the upper or lower lip is more prominent...

I think a useful exercise to build up your repertoire of "puzzle pieces" is to look at real people with interesting faces and try to translate them in your own style. I've gathered loads of these over the years. For BSC, it wasn't unusual for me to keep actors with features I really liked in my moodboards, too. I'm sure you can guess whose boards these were on, for instance: