When designing characters, remember: every wrinkle tells a story. This post is Part II of a series on wrinkle types. Part I focused on wrinkles caused by repeated facial expressions – dynamic wrinkles. Part II will focus on another class of wrinkles: static wrinkles. While static wrinkles might not seem as exciting as dynamic expression wrinkles, they are just as important to consider when designing your character.

modified image of Thanos fan art used with permission from Rodion Vlasov

Static “Wrinkles”

Static wrinkles are set in place on the skin; they are visible with or without facial movement. Static wrinkles  can be caused by repeated expressions, gravitational forces, and loss of skin elasticity.

NOTE: In Part I, we already covered how dynamic expression lines can turn into static lines as well. We will therefore only cover the non-expression-based lines in this article.

There are various types of static skin creases. Because the technical definition of “wrinkle” is still debated, it is important to know that the following list is a mix of wrinkles and skin characteristics. Technicalities aside, each of the following categories is useful to study if you want to apply natural-looking skin texture and shape changes to your character designs:

• microrelief
• atrophic crinkling rhytids
• permanent elastoic creases
• sleep creases
• gravitational folds

Microrelief

Microrelief is the fine, irregular geometric patterns that cover the skin surface. Microrelief characteristics come together to create skin texture. 

Microrelief quality is affected by aging and multiple environmental factors.