Enji Todoroki Facial Studies

**I want to preface that this is a study, all artists work used was for studying and understanding purposes only
Those artists were; Frosted-Knight, liltkeva, Stuckinapit, evinka_art & FriedchickenNat**
Also attached now is an updated timelapse video from 2024 showing how the style study was done, the artist study featured in the video is Stuckinapit on twitter.

This is an essay so if you wanna skip that's perfectly fine!
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So, if you guys didn't know, Mr thicc Enji Todoroki is the bane of my artist existence.
Recently I had an absolute meltdown after looking at the art of an artist I very much admire and look up to. I broke down in tears saying "I'll never draw like that, I could never draw Enji or Endhawks good, why am I in this fandom, I should quit doing art".

To many, this probably seems like the stupidest thing to get upset about, but for me, seeing that amazing artist just pull off such an amazing comic just broke me as an artist, it was no longer 'artist envy' or 'motivation to do better', it became 'you will never in your life draw like this artist".

So, in my frustration I went to twitter, hoping artists from the community could give me anything, any sort of advice, some was helpful new advice, and some was advice I had already tried in regards to drawing Enji.

In the end I decided to do some studies on Enji. Maybe there was a pattern from Horikoshi's way of drawing Enji that I could pick up and remember, I also took the suggestion about studying from other artists, what is it from other artist's Enji that I like and how can I adapt that into making an Enji that I'm proud and happy I drew.

My first attempts were based solely on the manga as reference, I broke the face down into simple lines and then colour shapes, to see if I could find patterns (along the way I learnt that Horikoshi barely ever draws Enji in 3/4 view except when he has his flame mask on, thanks Hori, you made that part of my studies harder xD).
I found with Enji's profile view he has a very slim profile, and that his eyebrows are always directly in-line with his chin.
Facing forward, chin to hairline of the face was very square like, that then dipped into a trapezoid shapes.

Ironically, front on and side profile I was decently happy with. It was the 3/4 view that I discovered where my frustration was coming from.

After my first attempt for 3/4 I quickly move onto gathering Enji images from artists I like and how they draw Enji to study what I like about it (this was hard to find 3/4 view that weren't nsfw faces and that all were looking straight forward in 3/4).
I did the best I could with the refs, and then broke down the faces into simple lines and shapes again, and then worked on as closely as possible studying and recreating the face and style of the artist using the simple lines I had made and the artist's image as my guides (the final results were not traced as I felt this would not encourage my brain to understand and analyse the style I was trying to recreate and why I liked these artists).
After I was done I wrote down what I liked from each style.

I then in my final attempt went back to try 3/4 again, with trying in implement what I liked/learnt from the artist's style of Enji. Was much more happier with this second attempt, in making slight adjustments to face shape, hair and eyes it gives a much more 'Enji' vibe to me and feels closer to how I would like to continue to draw him. Some modifications need to be made with eye shape, but that's something that I can work on.