Tomodachi Life Face Tutorial: Cute & Expressive Miis

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Create your friends, family, and idols as Miis in Tomodachi Life

Written by Hannah Dillon

Last Updated: June 3, 2026 Fact Checked

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Using the Face Paint Tool

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Drawing Tips

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Make Custom Miis

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Other Tutorials

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In Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, the character creator is incredibly robust—but the face paint tool can be a little daunting if you don't know how to use it. In this article, we'll teach you how to use the face paint tool, plus we'll go over some drawing tips and some other ways you can make your Miis look more customized. Keep reading to learn more!

Making Custom Miis in Tomodachi Life

To make custom Miis in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, you'll need to use the face paint tool. However, there are ways to make customized features (like eyes and mouths) without using face paint at all, so you can still see your Miis emote and talk.

Section 1 of 4:

Using the Face Paint Tool

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If you're in easy mode, you won't have as many options for drawing with face paint. You'll know you're in easy mode if you see a Pro Mode button at the top of the screen. If you see this button, tap it to switch to pro mode.
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Get a stylus (optional). While you can definitely draw awesome things in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream with your finger, you'll have an easier time if you have a stylus.
- Any stylus that works with a capacitive screen will work, including the soft, rubbery styluses (sometimes found on the ends of pens). These styluses are cheap, and you might already have one. However, they offer less control than other stylus styles.
- Some users prefer styluses with a disc at the tip. These styluses can offer more control, though the disc may drag on your screen, depending on your screen protector.
- The third type of stylus you can use is an active stylus that works with capacitive screens. These styluses look similar to an Apple Pencil, but they work with capacitive screens rather than iPad screens. They require charging and have an on/off button, but they are the most precise option.
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Learn the tools. There are a lot of tools available in face paint mode, and it's best to understand what each tool does before you dive into drawing. From left to right, at the top of the screen:
- Move tool: Tapping this tool, then dragging on the drawing area, moves all the face paint you've drawn. Great for moving your face paint if it's in the wrong spot, and you want to move everything you've drawn.
- Select tool: Use this to select parts of your drawing. You can then move it, clone it, flip it, and more.
- Text tool: Use this tool to add text to your drawing. You can choose from three fonts, as well as two font styles.
- Stamp tool: Stamp options include shapes, treasures from the game, items you've created, and pictures of your Miis.
- Shape tool: Draw a circle/oval, square/rectangle, triangle, hexagon, star, or heart shape. The shape can be filled or just be an outline (with 3 outline thickness options).
- Paint bucket tool: Fill large areas with a color. If you tap the tool again, you can choose a pattern to fill an area with.
- Brush tool: This is the tool you'll be using the most, so we'll go over the options available for this tool in depth:
  - Brush type: You can choose a hard-edged brush, an airbrush, or a pixel brush.
  - Brush size: There are 12 sizes available for each brush, 6 that are round and 6 that are square (with the exception of the pixel brush, which has 8 sizes).
  - Line options: Choose Straight for a straight line. Choose Smooth to draw a smooth line, though it will smooth out any curves you draw to be less curvy.
  - Paint options: Choose Bright to overlay a brighter color when drawing. Choose Dark to overlay a darker color when drawing. Choose Layered to overlay a slightly translucent version of a color.
    - These are similar to blending modes in painting programs like Photoshop.
  - Handy options: Choose Outline to only draw around the perimeter of what you've already drawn. Choose Lock transparency to only draw within the confines of what you've already drawn.
- Eraser tool: If you tap this twice, you'll be able to change your eraser brush, size, and style, similar to the brush tool options.
- Dropper tool: Pick up a color you've already drawn with in your palette.
- Effects tool: Add effects to your drawing, including blur, hue shift, and saturation. Note that these effects will apply to the entire drawing.
- Settings: You can adjust your face paint settings in this menu.
- Palette: Tap on a color to change it. You can either choose from a bunch of preset colors or use the color picker to choose a custom color.
  - You can pick your Mii's skin or hair color in the bottom-left corner of the palette window.
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Choose whether you want the face paint on top or below your Mii's features. If you tap the smiley face icon on the left side of the screen, you'll be able to choose Paint behind or Paint on top. This refers to whether the face paint will be above or below your Mii's facial features. Here are some things to consider:
- If you're drawing custom hair, choose Paint on top so the bangs will cover your Mii's eyes and eyebrows. However, leaving the eyes/eyebrows on top of the hair (by selecting Paint behind) can give your Mii a retro anime look!
- If you're drawing on your Mii's eyes or mouth, choose Paint behind. If you choose Paint on top, the face paint will look strange when your Mii emotes or talks.
In the smiley face menu, you'll also see an option that says Illuminate. If you toggle this on, your Mii's face paint will glow. You can change the intensity of this glow by dragging the slider (the left is less glowy, the right is more glowy).
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Choose the brush tool to begin drawing. Where you start is up to you. It's best to draw in layers so you can "save" your progress as you go. For example, if you want to draw on a nose, some facial markings, and some bangs, it's best to draw the nose and facial markings first. Then, press the + button to finish. You can then return to face paint to draw the bangs. If things don't work out, you can exit face paint without losing the nose and facial markings you already drew.
- To see what you can do to make your Miis look more custom with face paint, check out our section below for some ideas.
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Copy face paint from another Mii. If you drew some facial features you really liked that you want to use again, you can copy the face paint from that Mii to a different one. Simply click Copy another Mii's paint before entering the face paint tool, then choose the Mii you want to copy from.
- If the copied face paint colors don't match your current Mii's skin tone, use the paint bucket tool to change them.
- If the Mii you copied from has extra parts on the face paint you don't want on your current Mii, use the eraser tool to remove them.

Section 2 of 4:

Drawing Tips

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To achieve the smoothest possible lines, toggle on the Smooth setting in the brush tool. Then use a thin brush to draw the simple shapes of your Mii's hair with a bright color (to make it easier to see). Fill in the entire thing with the same color you drew with, then change one of your palette colors to your Mii's hair color. Use the paint bucket tool to fill in the bangs with your Mii's hair color. You can then draw on the details (making sure Lock transparency is selected in the brush tool menu).^{[1]
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To do this, first draw the base layer of whatever you want to add a gradient to, such as hair. Then, tap the brush tool and choose Lock transparency. Draw on the color(s) you want to add to the gradient in your shape, then open the effects tool and choose the blur effect. Drag the slider until the gradient is blurred to your liking, then return to drawing as normal.^{[2]
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This is especially helpful when drawing hair. Using the Outline option in the brush tool will save you a lot of time and headache when adding a border to your Mii's hair. You can then toggle off the outline option and use a small brush to add more details.
This is why many players tend to draw custom noses for their Miis, to offer more flexibility when drawing their face paint.

Section 3 of 4:

Ways to Make Custom Miis

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Make custom eyes. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream has a very advanced character creator, and you can select each part of your Mii's eyes—including shape, eyelashes, and more. But instead of using the eyes as-is, a way to make your Miis look more customized is to make custom eyes without using face paint. While you can, of course, opt to just draw everything on with face paint, using the options in the eye menu will allow your Miis to blink and emote.
- Pick an eye shape you like, then use the tools on the right side of the screen to adjust its size, position, and rotation. If you want to make a Mii that looks more like a chibi, make the eyes big and push them down on the face a little bit.
- If you pick an eye shape that doesn't have eye whites, use the top- and bottom-eyelid fold to make the borders of the eye. You can then add eye whites (if you want) in the makeup menu (the second-to-last option on the left-hand side). You could either use white eyeshadow or blush, then move and resize it to fit inside the eye shape you created.
  - If you go this route, just know that when your Miis blink or close their eyes, you will still see the white blush or eyeshadow underneath.
- Resize and rotate the triangle-shaped eyelashes to create an outer corner for your Mii's eyes.
- Use the upper- or lower-eyelid fold to make your Mii's eyelashes look thicker.
- You can also resize and move the eye shine you pick to give your Mii's eyes a different look.
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Draw a nose with face paint. Most players who make really awesome customized Miis don't use the noses in the character creator. When you use a nose in the character creator, you can't draw anything on top of it, which can cause problems if you want to draw custom freckles, scars, or other facial details.
- There are plenty of ways to draw a custom nose. Take inspiration from anime and manga—use a color slightly darker than your Mii's skin tone to draw a triangle facing to the right, then use a color slightly lighter than your Mii's skin tone to draw a triangle facing to the left to give the illusion of an anime-style nose.
- When your Miis turn to the side, they won't have a nose protruding from their face. All face paint is flat against Miis' faces.
Whenever you select a mouth in the mouths menu, you'll see a button in the bottom-right corner that will toggle the lips on and off. If you select a mouth without lips, clicking this button will add them. However, if the mouth you picked does have lips, clicking this button will remove them. This gives you many options for making your Miis look more customized.
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Resize and rotate your Mii's mouth. Don't be afraid to adjust the size, shape, and rotation of your Mii's mouth, too! Of course, you can remove the mouth entirely and draw it on with face paint if you like, but without a mouth, your Mii won't show emotes or move their mouth when talking.
- If you're making a chibi face, make the mouth very thin and small, and move it down slightly.
- Try rotating a mouth 180 degrees to give it a new look. For example, if you rotate the smirking mouth to its upside-down position, it gives your Mii a permanently disgruntled look.
- Use face paint to draw on lips. Use the airbrush tool to draw the lips for a diffused, blotted look, or use the hard-edged brush for a more defined look. If you do this, however, make sure your face paint is set to be underneath your Mii's features, or else your Mii's mouth will look weird when they talk.
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Draw on custom hair. While you can't draw a fully custom hairdo for your Miis, you can customize it by drawing on the front part of their hair. When choosing their hairstyle, set the bangs to be one of the short options (the first or second option works well), then pick a hair length/style for the back that works. You can then draw the front of the hair on in the face paint tool.
- When drawing, you can easily choose your Mii's hair color from the color palette menu. However, this color won't match exactly in-game. If you want to make the colors match exactly, you'll need to use a color that is just slightly darker in the face paint tool. Before drawing too many details, make sure the color looks right by saving your face paint and viewing the Mii in-game.
- If you draw hair all the way up to the top of the Mii's head, it will clip through hats and other headwear that cover the top of the head. You'll need to decide what works best for you, balancing how your Mii looks normally versus how they'll look wearing a hat.
If you want to make a complicated Mii, you might have to draw its entire face in the face paint tool. If you end up going this route, you can still use the built-in eyes and mouth so your Mii can still emote. Just make sure you're drawing the face paint under your Mii's facial features so they don't get covered up.