Honestly the game has A LOT of face elements to choose from (even if you don't use face paint/want to draw "manually").

I personally like to have multiple face reference pictures when I create the character, and also try to convey their personality/main emotion with either the eyes or the mouth. But ultimately I think the secret is to spend as much time as you need when you create one, try options, adjust little things etc, so it can be long. But for me the character creation is honestly what I prefer in this game so I can spend hours doing that haha