Drawing style vs Same face syndrome
7d

@toph
I know when starting out drawing you shouldn’t really focus on developing a drawing style, rather one sort of starts to develop on its own. However, I am trying to actively think about what I do and don’t like regarding characterized drawings. Through this I notice that people who have a style it seems the only things that differentiates the characters they draw are accessories or hair/eye color. Does that mean having a drawing style is really just kind of having Sam’s face syndrome?
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2d
Not really. Style is just what an artist can accomplish with particular medium in a given amount of time, based on that artist's cumulative journey of training, and artistic taste. Ultimately, "style" is what you can do, and what you can't.
The artist that suffers from same face syndrome and calls it “their style” hasn’t varied their references enough, or improved upon their ability to draw distinctly different facial features. Usually it’s characteristic of an artist who chased a “style” before developing fundamentals and learning how to draw. They’ve only learned how to draw “a style” of face rather than how to draw the face.
Sometimes, same face syndrome can be seen if an artist primarily works from imagination. They’ll usually have a simplified figure/portrait/mannequin they regularly use to start drawings that won’t draw focus away from the storytelling details within the costume, or whatever else they’re exploring with that drawing. If they’re drawing a mech, the portrait of the person inside the mech is subordinate to the overall mech design. Etc.
Sometimes an artist will use themselves as quick reference for expressions, or how to draw particular features at an angle they can’t find reference for. If you’re familiar with what that artist looks like, you’ll start to see that artist’s features appear in the characters they draw. It’s as much of an unconscious thing, as it is a conscious decision. For example, I see a lot of Alex Ross in his characters because he often uses himself as reference.
The more you vary your references, study different types of faces, and study different methods for drawing faces (Reilly, Loomis, Asaro,) the better you’ll become at developing distinct portraits for your characters.