#feuxx

once again going to try not to sound weirdly obsessive abt this stuff because it sounds more insane when i put all the details into words when they just like. exist as nebulous thoughts in my brain. idk anyways

more tracing because tracing is good for figuring things out.. also fun. when you trace things a bunch for practice you pick up on the repetition like. how someone's face looks with different movement and the overlap between them. like how similar a happy expression can be to an aggressive expression and how similar an aggressive expression can be to a terrified one. if that makes sense

it is interesting too with merlin because he varies a lot over the seasons? not just with being yknow. older. like hes thinner in s2-4 than s1+5, and we all know how much his haircut varies. i dunno i just think facially he varies a lot more than arthur

sorry again for crunchy images heres a few specifics i tend to notice

when hes fighting or putting in a lot of physical strength/effort his mouth pulls up high and his nose scrunches which causes a crease from the corners of his nose. same crease as you would see when he smiles, but since the nose is scrunched the part of the crease next to the nose is more prominent. usually when i see people scrunch their nose like that it wrinkles on top of the bridge but his seems to wrinkle more at the sides. also eyebrow furrow very important

hes got a very strong chin its rather large and squared off. his eyes and the folds beneath his eyes crinkle a lot when he smiles. the smile lines appear with a point to them. also hes got a very prominent adams apple

low eyebrows, widest at their arch which is more lateral. ill talk more abt his teeth in a minute but hes got the american girl doll teeth when his lips are parted lmao

his eyes are pretty deep set, so when you see him in profile theres a good bit of distance between the bridge of his nose and his eye. when his hair is longer the hair around his ears tends to curl towards his face. same w the hair on his neck. his nose has a pretty subtle bump to the bridge and then the tip turns up a bit, but overall Not an upturned nose

his ears stick out we know this..... you can see the contrast of the hollow of his cheeks vs his mouth muscle sometimes (usually more in s2+3). his nose is in a pretty neutral position here

as opposed to this one where his nose broadens a little with his smile. smile lines again pretty triangular.

faces are soft and when one feature moves usually the others slightly move/change with it. some other things are teeth which i meant to talk abt in the arthur post too, but yeah. merlin's got pretty prominent front teeth, and arthur's got his one crooked canine. hair also is (at least to me) pretty important... his hair is always cropped above the eyebrows and imo he's less recognizable as merlin if its not. its not especially fluffy or curly either. not to say he cant be drawn with different haircuts haha, sometimes it just makes him a little harder to recognize

again body shape + language is just as important is not more so, bc we're drawing a character not an actor!! theres a few things i think about w merlin

- hes pretty thin with the exception of s5, but always pretty lanky lookin - just generally pretty angular? idk - he is somewhat broad but the slouching and not being shredded (usually) tend to negate that a little - he crouches a lot or pulls his legs up when he sits (hes so real for that) - when hes not using his hands they tend to just be at his sides, when he's standing he'll put them behind his back sometimes, when talking he'll gesture with them usually around his head or hip/waist level - he slouches more than arthur, his shoulders are usually somewhat forward - when he's confused or teasing often he'll push his head forward - tilts his head a lot when hes teasing or happy or confused - draws his shoulders up to his ears when he's uncomfortable, confused, or frightened - whereas arthur moves very purposefully, merlin moves in a way that just looks like he has a lot less spatial awareness idk a better way to describe it lmao. like u know hes clumsy even when he's not actively being clumsy

honestly i dont tend to put too much detail in faces because i dont draw in a very realistic style so i tend to lean more into shapes and body language to make characters recognizable, but knowing how the face works still plays into it a lot?