Q&A: lantern jaw

Question How can I depict the face of a classic lantern-jawed hero? Danielle Law, England

Answer

John replies

Making a male face appear heroic involves much more than just capturing the steely look of determination in their eye. Facial structures are especially important tools for creating the visual bearing of a character, and thus strengthen their backstory.

The angles in the face should be sharp and clear, with little to no soft edges. The eyes should be narrow, and slightly smaller than normal, The nose should be on the smaller side, but chiselled. The character’s cheek bones should be pronounced, and the cheeks themselves should be tight on the face. The chin should be slightly larger than normal. Finally, and most importantly, the hero’s jawline should be boxy with clearly defined sharp edges.

The colour tones of the face should be slightly warm on the nose, with cool, bluish tones on the chin. Avoid the use of vibrant skin or lip colours to help prevent the character from appearing flushed or flustered. In addition, simple tricks such as drawing the character at an angle from which the viewer is placed slightly below them, adds to the impression that they’re someone of importance, and should be looked up to.

Even though I’ve used every heroic facial feature in the book, in most cases just a few of thm will help achieve the results you want.