Abstract: 88 children (43 girls and 45 boys) and 90 college students (42 boys and 48 girls) participated in this study. By method of psychological scale evaluation, effects of spatial relationship of facial features, facial skin color and lightness on child cartoon facial attractiveness were investigated. Children's evaluation of cartoon facial attractiveness was different from that of adults' in spatial relationship of facial features. Children's evaluation results showed the individual attractiveness of female child cartoon faces was optimized when the face's vertical distance between the eyes and the mouth was approximately 24% of its length. Female child cartoon faces' horizontal ratio showed that the individual attractiveness was optimized when the face's interocular distances was approximately 41% of its width; however, the result did not reach statistical significance. Adults' evaluation of female child cartoon facial attractiveness was also exhibiting vertical "golden ratio (19%)". There was no golden ratio for male cartoon faces. Children had preference for child cartoon faces with whitish skin color, while most adults preferred "milk and roses" skin color. Both genders of cartoon faces and subjects had influences on skin color preference. High lightness cartoon faces were more attractive than the low lightness ones. Conclusions: Spatial relationship of facial features, facial skin color and lightness have significant influence on cartoon aesthetic assessment. Therefore, factors such as spatial relationship of facial features and facial skin color should be taken into account in designing cartoon images for audiences of different ages and sexes.

Key words: cartoon face, preschool children, facial attractiveness, golden ratio, facial skin color and lightness