What's the best way to develop drawing style?

[dmvs62442]

I love to draw people but I have a slight problem; since I've liked anime since I was a kid (Sailor Moon to be exact) and it's what I used to teach myself to draw, I have too much of an anime influence on my drawings.

Whenever I draw a face, unless I'm drawing a portrait of a real person, it usually comes out looking a bit like manga or something. What's the best way to change this?

I like Disney style drawings and a few other cartoon styles too. My own happens to be a less exaggerated style that's sort of realistic, but still too much anime. I mean, it's all right, but I need a change!

I've heard of copying other artists but I need other specific methods to help develop my style further and make it more unique (besides practice, because I know that's a must).

Please give me any suggestions you guys might have.

[IxDreamedxIxMetxYou]

Well, I learned backwards, and I have the opposite problem. But I'll show how I learned to draw a human face, even though you probably already know all this maybe if you start from scratch it'll help. I think it's your mindset that's screwing you up.

1.) Draw a cross, you know, just a normal cross, like a lower case T. Then, connect the four points of said cross with round curves to form and oval. Don't erase the cross. You have a basic face shape; in real faces the eyes & ears are in the very middle of the face, believe it or not, I swear when you add hair (last step) it'll look like a face.
2.) Beneath the cross section draw FOOTBALLS. Don't think of them as eyes, if you do you'll end up with anime eyes. They are footballs.

I know, I know it sounds really corny and dumb but this is how I learned.

3.)On the vertical of the cross, which should be centered between your footballs, draw a little w shape, but round it, make it look like the nose it shall be. I'd show you but there's no 'nose' figure on the keyboard, lol.
4.)Beneath that, not too far down in the chin, draw a bowl for the lower lip (or half a football, if a bowl is too vague). Draw two SMALL mountains for the upper lip, and a line in between.
5.)Now for the eyebrows, above your FOOTBALLS. Draw a line slightly above each football that follows exactly the same curve. Then, continue that line down past the corner of your football to connect with the nose shape. Repeat for both footballs.
6.)If you want to be Egyptian, keep the line between the eyebrow and the nose, if not, erase that vertical line in some parts, not entirely. I'd say to start with the corners of the eyes, and erase until it looks right but you can still tell that there is a bridge of said nose.

7.)Add hair. Simple, right? If you want to veer away from anime hair entirely, here's a trick: draw each strand. Lots and lots of little lines. TONS. it might take a while if you're ultra picky, but it works, I swear. Add some strands to frame the face and hide part of that massive forehead, and bangs if you like.

8.)See? a basic human face. Add circles inside your footballs (is it safe to call them eyes?), and dots inside those, and then eyelashes, which should cover the top part of the circles within the footballs (the top part of the iris). This way your person doesn't appear to be staring out at you bug-eyed.

And voila! You're done. Human Face 101.