I was looking at pictures of artist Michael Sieben and it reminded me of a theory I have which is that people see their own faces more than any other and that it's a subconscious reference source when drawing characters and faces and the like. I've never researched it or anything so someone else may have hit on this already but it was a revelation for me. A useless sort of "well how'bout that?" revelation but a revelation none the less.
I should say that not all artists look like the characters they draw but some characters look like the artists that drew them. Sometimes I'm sure it's not intentional and is subconscious.
To me, Sieben's characters share similarities with him in the roundess of their faces/heads, the shape of his brow and set of his cheekbones along with the shape of his eyes. Just like Chuck Jones and his characters.
It was the shape of my own face that I recognized in a sketch of mine the first time this occurred to me. And then I started noticing it everywhere especially in Chuck Jones cartoons. You can always spot a Chuck Jones cartoon because they all have his eyes and their heads are shaped like his.
It's usually certain facial features of the artist that pop up in their work. Granted cartoon animators use their own faces in mirrors as reference for expression all the time, and it's obvious when a celebrity voice talent has been used as reference for the characters they play in a cartoon. But for the most part it's a subtle reference that I think is unintentional and unnoticed by the artist. Take a look at 'ol Chuck up there. It's always in their eyes and the shape of their head.
