Likeness Face Sketch

Likeness face sketch (from photo refs)

Draw a face / bare-head likeness so a viewer recognizes a real person -- before any full-scene coloring page.

When

• User asks for a face that looks like someone in photos.
• A coloring page or gift portrait is blocked on recognition.
• Feedback names "not them yet", wrong age, wrong brow, generic anime face.

MUST / MUST NOT

• MUST start with basic forms (head oval/sphere + feature axes) before pretty ink.
• MUST pass a bare head gate -- no hair mass, no glasses -- until proportions and landmarks read as that person.
• MUST use multi-angle refs (front, 3/4, profile, useful extremes).
• MUST isolate a failing landmark with localized-feature-study instead of redrawing the whole character.
• MUST draw hair only after bare head: hairline -> mass -> flow -> clean lines.
• MUST keep a closed mouth when the user says so.
• MUST draw thin, low brows close to the eyes when refs show that -- do not default to thick anime arches.
• MUST NOT skip to a full scene or kids coloring plate before likeness approval.
• MUST NOT invent a generic anime / stock face.
• MUST NOT CV photo-trace or dump filter outlines as the likeness.

Pipeline

1. Ladder + multi-angle photo refs (front, 3/4, profile, useful extremes). Prefer the user's photos (photo-to-sketch-practice).
2. Short character sketch: physical keys (age, jaw, eye spacing, nose length, brow character), expression rules (closed/open mouth, glasses on/off).
3. Basic forms first -- head oval/sphere, center line, eye line, brow line, nose base, mouth line. Check tilt and turn against refs.
4. Bare head gate -- features placed and shaped; no hair, no glasses. Show this still to the user if likeness is in doubt.
5. Localized studies when a landmark fails (brows, eyes, nose, mouth, ear) -- study that part only from refs, then re-apply.
6. Optional light screentone on construction studies (form shadow, not photo grain).
7. Hair as its own steps after bare head: hairline -> mass -> flow -> clean lines. Glasses after the head reads.
8. Deliver face-only (or head-and-shoulders). Iterate on named feedback.
9. Hand off to kids-photo-coloring-page only when the face is approved.

Landmark defaults (override from refs)

• Soft thin brows, low / close to eyes when refs show that.
• Closed mouth if the user says so.
• Adult spacing unless refs say otherwise: eyes about one eye apart; nose base about midway from eyes to mouth; mouth corners about under the pupils.
• Ear height roughly from brow to nose base on a level head.

Construction habits

Use comic-construction-basics: forms before contour, same person from more than one angle, clean ink over the underdrawing.

Do not

Skip to full scene; invent generic anime face; CV photo-trace dumps; grow hair before the skull reads.

Pair with

localized-feature-study, photo-to-sketch-practice, kids-photo-coloring-page, comic-construction-basics.