Finally got my ass in gear and did a collection of the features of stiles' that I include in my art, and will try to include even if it's not visible in the reference I'm using :) Contrary to Derek who I find I can often capture well just with lines, I find drawing Stiles is much more about the proportions of his face/skull and capturing the planes with shading.
As with the Derek post, here are some of my Stiles references and a selection of my art that I'll be using to illustrate what I mean:
Lots of images so putting the rest under a cut so it doesn't clog up people's dash:
1) This might not be what most people would start with, but it was one of the first things I found really helped with recognizability: the shape of his hairline! His hairline is very square and frames his face tightly, to the point where the top vertical lines will often be visible even on a 3/4 angled view, and the slanted lines below that run almost parallel to his eyebrows:
2) His upturned nose with sort of square nostrils, idk how to describe it lol - in profile I like doing a very slight curve on his nasal bridge and have most of the effect of the upturned nose be in the angle of the one line of the tip of his nose and a straight line for the septum:
3) The McDonalds' Arch Eyebrows: easily the most definable feature in his face for me and one I struggled with for ages. Strap in lads because we're going in detail here - a) they are in a single very gentle curve rather than the typical 2-curve with a sharp arch, b) the peak of the arch is more lateral than what is considered the 'beauty standard' or whatever, where it's in a straight line from the nostril through the pupil, and c) they're also a little wider than most:
I like to do a gentle arch for them, keeping the inner corners parallel to the bridge of his nose (and keeping them there when he lifts his brows if that makes sense - where derek lifts the inner parts of his brows a lot, stiles' are almost always still very far down towards his nose), and when in profile they tend to do a sharp curve down towards his nose - @asyndetonic is the master of this particular little detail and I first really noticed it when I saw it in their art! Also i regularly whisper 'french fry eyebrows' aloud to myself when i have trouble drawing them, a term they also coined lol
4) Mouf(tm) - I don't do much by way of rendering lips, so I only have a tip on the shape of the outline: when relaxed, the corners of his mouth are upturned, there's usually this slight downwards curve right before them, and the median tubercle of his upper lip is very defined.
5) Here's the tricky part: shading. Whereas with Derek, once I have the lines down I'm pretty much always happy with it - with stiles it's always only once I get some shading done that I feel like I'm really capturing him lol. In particular his deep eyesockets (letting the brow bone peek through below the lateral aspects of his eyebrows and especially focusing on the edge of his lid and inner corner) and shading in a sort of triangular shape below his cheekbones (which also helps define the area around his mouth, idk what to call it - I hope it makes sense in the drawings lol) :
(stiles is cosplaying kiba from naruto, clearly)
Maybe it makes a little more sense with some rough shade slapped on instead:
Now he just looks like he's halfway into drag lmao
Last tip is if you're rendering a flush of the skin, put it in the hollows of his cheeks rather than on top of his cheekbones:
Also an example i sent to squish wrt the flush placement and eyesocket shadow:
Anyway!! Thank you for reading this far, I hope any of this helped ♡
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“Sorry,” Stiles said, unsure of why he was apologizing. “I’ve never heard that song before. Did you write it?”
Derek looked uncomfortable, maybe a touch embarrassed, which was answer enough.
“It’s good. I like it. It’s calming.”
The small smile he got in response melted his heart a little bit.
Fucking hell, he was so gone for this asshole. Stiles didn’t know what he was going to do. He wished he’d never realized how much he loved him. Wished he’d just continued to think they were best friends and nothing more.
It was slowly going to kill him being so close, and yet so fucking far.
Clearing his throat, he brought the book back up to continue reading, muttering that Derek should keep playing. He did, his fingers plucking gently at the strings, filling the loft with soft music. It really was calming, and soothing. Stiles really liked it. He liked it even more when he realized Derek could honestly express himself with the guitar. It still wasn’t a voice, but it was something, at least.
Actions Speak Louder than Words (ch18) by @isthatbloodonhisshirt
This fic is what spurred me to start doing sterek fanart back in the beginning of december - magic!stiles, cursed!derek, stiles/jackson terrifying everyone else as friends - an incredible 430K story with a completely endearing slow-burn and slowly unfolding exploration of the characters and their relationship, made complete with the perfect bow of cursed-mute-Derek because 'Derek's eyebrows have a language of their own but only Stiles is fluent' is my favorite and this author does it SO well. And gives Derek a guitar. Derek plays a guitar!!
Ella, consider this my loveletter to your works - they all, this one in particular, buoyed me through a tough time in my life and brought me back to a love of drawing that I haven't had in years and a fandom that has been so generous in their support of my silly art. Thank you for sharing your works!
And a huge thank you to everyone's support so far - the sweet comments in replies, the unhinged all-caps tags, yes-and'ing my silly ideas and headcanons, i'm just over here kicking my feet and giggling and definitely not getting teary-eyed over it no siree no lacrimal action happening here
how i feel trying to explain to other artists how I draw stiles
originally made for a convo w @squishyowlbear about his cheekbones lol. I'm thankful for only getting the True Brainrot so long after the series' conclusion where I don't have to worry about any of these people find my strange musings on how their facial structures work. I know I would be weirded out 😂 Currently finally putting together a tips post similar to the one i did for derek so be on the lookout for that later tonight!
It's time for even more shower thoughts on werewolf physiology
if they heal at a super fast rate, does that include the tastebuds? Developing a tolerance to capsaicin isn't about damage to the tastebuds but more a decreased sensitivity of the nerves - but if diminished tissue adaptation falls under the 'increased healing'/'reversal to a certain state' function, would it mean they can never develop a tolerance to spicy foods? So all the weres have to order the mildest things possible or have separate portions made for them if someone's cooking something traditionally spicy?
There's nothing more to this one, I just found the idea hilarious ♡
(also i like the idea of them having sensitive tastebuds in general so they make really bland meals but that's more me wanting to project my favored bland 'but it has a really good nutritional profile' food tendency on Derek, prompted by my over-salting mother's disappointment in my chicken-breast-and-veggies meal for tonight LOL)
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