TODO: mAKE LAYOUT LESS OF A DISASTER
yes, anything, like your bedside lamp or that guitar you never use. Turns out it's easier than you think
make a circle somewhere on the Object That Must Become Cute (or on a separate blank image like I ended up doing for this guide... OTL), and divide it into thirds with a grid
put the mouth in the middle of the lower-middle square of the grid. make sure to erase a little bit of the middle of the mouth if it's a closed smile, because every modern anime draws mouths like that. while youre at it, put the nose near the bottom of the middle square of the grid, and make it a barely noticable speck lol
now, eyes are super varying in size and style but let's go for something nice, basic, and lorge. start with two lines roughly as shown, bc I'm too lazy to write it out in detail rn--
add as many or as few eyelash lines as you want!! for tall eyes, make sure the iris is taller than wide to match or it might look weird, but other than that its ALL UP TO YOU
oh, don't forget the eyebrows! again, they can be drawn basically however you want them!!
THIS IS OPTIONAL BASED ON WHAT YOU'RE TRYING TO MAKE CUTE, but you can also make the shape of the head! it's a bit outside the scope of what's being covered but think of it as a rectangle on top of a triangle or something?? idk- (TODO: ILLUSTRATE) fix up and position the cute face as needed, and revel in the fact that everything around you will become cute someday