In today's post, I will give you some tips to help you portray emotions on your face.
Observation
Let's make the most important thing clear. Best advice on this issue - or on any issue related to drawing - there is one small but powerful word: observation. Yes! It always comes down to observation.
Forget about what you think you see and focus on what is actually in front of you. And don't just observe while you draw and then throw the drawing out the window at the end of the day. Even when you're not drawing, get into the habit of paying close attention to the details, as if you were drawing what's in front of you. Think about the lines and shadows you would use to draw what you are looking at.
Start looking at people's faces and notice how their features distort depending on how they feel. I like to look at people's faces and expressions when I'm standing in line at a store or anywhere else. Make notes in your head about how someone's eyes look when they're tired, or how they squint a little when they smile genuinely. Muscles clench, stretch, and twist in the face every time we show emotion, so pay attention to these movements and learn how they interact as a whole to express something.
Sketches from life
Sit in a crowded place, with a sketchbook and pencil in your hands, and sketch, drawing people and their expressions. Try to figure out what they are feeling through the way their faces contort and draw it.
This method is better than drawing from someone specific because it allows you to see genuine and revealing facial expressions. But despite this, it is very useful to have someone pose for you and express different emotions on demand. If there is no model nearby, the mirror will be your best friend!
Sketches from photographs
There are great websites that offer photographs of gestures and poses for artists to conduct their own lessons drawing and practice without leaving home. A great resource is the website Figure and Gesture Drawing’s expression practice (lessons for drawing gestures and emotions). You can select the type of expression, gender and duration of the lesson.
Practice
No matter which drawing method you prefer, the key is practice. Keep a sketchbook nearby, take it out and practice drawing the facial expressions of the faces around you whenever you have at least five minutes.
Alexander Lyubimov
Facial expressions, first of all, convey emotions. All these are annoyed, offended, excited, happy, joyful and surprised.
Emotions appeared a long time ago, all higher mammals have them: dolphins, cats, dogs, monkeys... We have a lot of common emotions with them: joy, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, grief, shame, interest, guilt, embarrassment. People have an order of magnitude more emotions, I won’t list them all - just a lot.
And facial expressions in monkeys (and in humans) developed precisely to demonstrate emotions - as a means of communication. So the story about facial expressions will be strongly connected to the story about emotions.
Illustration and reaction
Emotions can be divided into those that occur as reaction: They told him - he was upset. These messages are more “sincere”, but often less expressed. And there is emotions-illustrations: visual demonstrations of the condition. They are more deliberate and grotesque, but more understandable. “Incorrect” demonstration of them is like saying in a very slurred and unintelligible way: “I want to tell you something important.” It is very difficult to communicate with such a person: the “speech” is unintelligible, and it is not clear what he wants to say.
It’s clear: emotion-illustrations are more for communication
And if emotions-reactions it’s just more convenient to calibrate - they report a “sincere” assessment of the situation - then emotions-illustrations It’s worth learning to show it “correctly” (that is, the way it is customary to show it in a given culture) and decipher it correctly.
But, most importantly, practice distinguishing the first from the second. Emotional illustrations are of little use for obtaining information about a “sincere” reaction.
At the same time, emotional illustrations are by no means something “bad” - we use them all the time. That’s why they are “illustrations” - they help to better understand words, maintain attention, convey “intonation,” etc. “Correct” emotion-illustrations are one of the main tools of a speaker, politician, and actor. Yes and in everyday life When we tell something, we must correctly convey this non-verbal information. And when we listen, we show that we hear and sympathize.
And one more important thing:
Most people show the same emotions in more or less the same way.
At least emotions-reactions. There are problems with illustration emotions, since not everyone understands how to demonstrate them correctly.
Microexpressions
The same Paul Ekman, who is engaged in calibrating lies, talks about microexpressions - very quick facial demonstrations of emotions. People regularly try to control their own emotions. Or rather, their demonstration. But the unconscious is much faster than consciousness, and an emotion-reaction usually always manages to appear before a person decides to demonstrate something else instead.
Naturally, it is not at all necessary that a person will hide his emotions. But this happens quite often. Well, another emotion is expected or demanded from him, it is indecent in this society, its demonstration leads to unpleasant consequences, and the demonstration of a more appropriate one leads to correct ones.
True, these same microexpressions only work for strong “basic” emotions. And their Ekman stands out for only seven: contempt, disgust, anger, surprise, happiness, fear and sadness. And these emotions must really be strong.
In general, as many experts on emotions as there are, there are as many opinions as to what the basic emotions are.
What to look for
I’ll give you a picture again with demonstrations of “basic” emotions.
And, you can see that first of all you need to pay attention to just a few things:
lips, eyebrows, eyes.
That's what a woman gets painted - that's what we look at;).
Actually, emoticons, which are used specifically to indicate emotions, have only eyebrows, eyes and lips. And that's enough.
We are training
In everyday life, we don’t often come across creepy specialists in hiding emotions - most people demonstrate them quite clearly. You just need to learn how to calibrate them (and demonstrate them “correctly”). So let's train. Basic emotions: joy, happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, contempt, disgust, anger, indignation, dissatisfaction.
It is clear that there are many more emotions and they are often “mixed”. But we’ll talk about this in more detail when we look at meta messages.
Look at the picture and identify the “main” emotion. Let me remind you that we look first of all at: lips, eyebrows and eyes. Below the picture are conditionally correct answers.
Pictures from Canadian channel videos Just For Laughs Gags: they create various situations and film the reactions of random passers-by. So the emotions here are quite sincere, and not played by actors.
1. The upper lip is tense and raised, the eyebrows are lowered, the fold between the eyebrows, the cheeks are raised: disgust.
2. Facial muscles are relaxed, lips are relaxed, mouth is slightly open, eyes are wide open: surprise.
3. Symmetrical relaxed smile, eyebrows relaxed, muscles in the corners of the eyes tense: joy.
4. Facial muscles are tense, eyes are wide open, eyebrows are raised: fear.
5. The lower eyelids are relaxed, the upper eyelids are slightly lowered, the lips are relaxed, the corners of the lips are down, the eyebrows are raised: sadness.
6. Symmetrical smile, wrinkles in the corners of the eyes, relaxed eyebrows: joy.
7. Lips are tense, the upper lip presses the lower lip, the corners of the lips are down, the eyebrows are tense: dissatisfaction.
8. Eyebrows are lowered and tense (fold between the eyebrows), lips are tense, the corners of the lips are down, cheeks are tense, eyes are open: anger, indignation.
9. Eyebrows drawn together and lowered, lips tense, corners of lips downward: dissatisfaction.
10. Eyebrows drawn together, nose wrinkled, upper lip raised, corners of lips downward: disgust.
11. Face relaxed, lips relaxed, eyebrows raised: surprise.
12. Symmetrical smiles, lips relaxed, eyebrows relaxed: joy.
The meaning of emotions
One of the functions of emotions is informational: they tell us about the assessment of the situation. And to others, about our attitude (toward ourselves, information or the listener).
Emotions are so-called meta-states: they are evaluative states “about”. That is, emotions don’t happen “just like that” - there is always an event about which this assessment is made.
The situation itself can be in the past, in the future, and occur in the present - emotions are always now. So they convey to us our unconscious assessment of the situations to which they relate. And how do illustrations communicate our attitude?
Joy: some value is satisfied.
Fear: there will be a very unpleasant event. (Fear always refers to events in the future.)
Astonishment: an event occurred that greatly violated expectations.
Discontent: some values are violated.
Happiness: Core values are satisfied. (Happiness, in fact, is not a very long-term experience - it arises only when we begin to evaluate the situation).
Sadness: there were pleasant events in the past that will not happen again, missed opportunities.
Grief: loss of something important.
Irritation: serious violation of expectations.
Excitement: there is a possibility of satisfying important values (gain).
Disgust: The person's behavior or event is unacceptable.
Contempt: feeling of superiority.
Delight: expectations were more than met.
We see millions of eyes, mouths, noses, ears and chins in this world, and each one is special. At the same time, to draw cartoon faces, enough knowledge of the basics. Once you've mastered these, add an understanding of depth, then make sure your head drawing looks three-dimensional (3D), and master the technique of drawing from any angle. If you can do all this, great! However, if you really want to get attention for your art, you'll have to master a technique that allows you to bring characters to life through facial expressions!
Anyone can draw a face. Draw a circle, add a few dots and lines - and anyone who looks at your drawing will say that this is a face. On the one hand, it seems so easy to do, but on the other, it can be very difficult when feelings and emotions appear...
Human facial expressions
A person's facial expression, as well as their tone of voice, can be easily changed. Expressions appear on the face not only as a result of the contraction of certain muscles; in fact, some muscles contract at the same time, while those opposite them relax. For example, the same muscle groups are used in both laughter and smiling, but with different intensity.
If I asked you to name exactly all the feelings you see in the picture below, what would you say?
I know what you will answer. You will probably say that you see an image of calm and reflection. Perhaps he was thinking about something. In reality, everything is not like that! In this picture we see a complete absence of emotion, since not a single muscle is involved. Since there are no emotions, probably the most best description the words “calm” and “relaxed” will become.
It's completely natural to use this expression in your drawings. Why not? - 80% of people have this exact facial expression most of the day! However, people only have this expression when they are alone. After all, when a person looks at another person, or when he finds himself in a certain situation, a reaction inevitably occurs. And it will have its own reaction! In animation, we inflate this effect to the maximum so that our audience can clearly see what emotions are expressed on the face.
Primitive emotions
Primitive emotions are those emotions the occurrence of which we, human beings, do not particularly control. This means that such an emotion is not easy to stage. Let's say it arises suddenly, in response to a primitive stimulus.
Primitive emotions are expressed regardless of our culture, nationality or age. Below I will give you examples of the most basic ones:
- Joy (1): the corners of the mouth are raised up, the eyebrows are raised, the eyes are wide open.
- Anger (2): the corners of the mouth are drawn down, the eyebrows are raised at an angle, and the inner edges are drawn down, the eyes are wide open.
- Fear (3): the mouth is slightly skewed, the corners go down, the eyebrows are raised up, while the eyebrow line is uneven, the eyes are wide open.
- Sadness (4): the corners of the mouth are rounded downwards, the inner corners of the eyebrows are slightly raised, the upper eyelids “hang” over the eyes.
These are primitive facial expressions that appear on our faces quite often throughout our lives. For drawing cartoon characters you need to master these four expressions. From them we can create all other emotions.
There are a couple more expressions, they are less often classified as primitive, but they are also included in the group of basic expressions.
- Surprise (5): the mouth is small, half open, the eyebrows are raised, the eyebrow line is slightly uneven, the eyes are wide open.
- Annoyance (6): the mouth is twisted, skewed, the eyebrows are lowered, the inner tips of the eyebrows are directed downwards, the eyes are closed.
"Why on earth are you separating these two from the first group?"- The answer is simple: If you pay attention, each of these expressions is a combination of expressions from the first group.
Now that you're familiar with the basic expressions, you're probably wondering why there are so few of them. It's simple: we have primary colors, and there are enough of them to mix any colors you want. In the same way, other facial expressions can be made from primitive emotions! Take a look:
To create a sleepy facial expression, we took the eyebrows from the expression joy and added to them half-closed eyes from sadness. Great, isn't it?
Related Emotions
That's not all! You can create related emotions, just take the most similar emotion and change only one element in the face, and a one more emotion!
Note that in these two drawings, only the mouth has been changed. We can express two types of disgust by changing one single part of our face! (captions on the picture: “Damn!” and “Stink!”) Below is another example:
Let me remind you that all we had to do was change the mouth to create the necessary emotion. (Captions in the picture: “amazed”, “afraid”.) This time we slightly redraw the mouth and eyes to complement the variation of the main emotion. (Captions on the picture: “amazed” “confused”).
Emotions can be drawn not only on the basis of basic ones. You can draw a third level of emotions based on the secondary ones. Look:
As before, it was only necessary to redraw the mouth. (Signatures: “sleepy”, “in love”). Amazing, right? With this technique, your designs can be brought to life with dozens, maybe hundreds of emotional faces!
Emotions expressing physical state
Physically based emotions rely on the same concept of basic emotions, but they differ in that they can take different unpredictable forms.
Note that physical state emotions are also drawn based on primitive emotions. Fatigue taken from sadness. An emotion can be expressed using an additional element, such as drops of sweat (Caption: “heat”):
Let's look at another example of a spontaneous reaction that we don't really know how to control. This time our character was electrocuted! In short, he has no control over his reaction!
When we experience shock, it is difficult to control, which gives us an advantage in drawing cartoon characters - we can exaggerate this expression as much as possible and achieve the desired effect. In this case, we have significantly enlarged the mouth.
Please note that primitive emotions always dominate. Shock, even in its uncontrollable form, is nothing more than fear. Regarding the emotions of the physical state, it is interesting that in real life we express them without really thinking about how they arise, since we are susceptible external factors and other conditions.
The power of emotions and additional elements
Cartoon facial expressions can also change depending on the strength of the expression. By changing the intensity, we achieve very interesting results:
Vegeta? (If you don't know, he's a Dragon Ball character). (Captions under the pictures: “shock”, “huge shock!”) In addition to intensity, additional elements can be added to enhance the effect. In the first image we added a few beads of sweat flying off the face to emphasize the expression of fear. In the second, the tongue will stick out to enhance the desired effect.
Returning to fear, let's look at how to draw a stronger feeling - panic!
We increased the size of the eyes and “forced” the character to cover his face - the result was an amazing effect! Congratulations! (Caption under the picture: “scared to death”). Changing perspective
You can change the angle to make your facial expression more impactful and to achieve a more dramatic effect. That is, change from which point you look at the scene: you can create unusual situations. If you place the point of view from an unfamiliar angle, you will put your character in an "uncomfortable" position. This will give the scene more dynamics.
Here's an example of how changing perspective affects the power of expression. Please note that with a top-down perspective, the effect of the character’s humiliation is automatically created, we seem to “force” him to shrink, he looks more fragile compared to the threat. In contrast, from a bottom-up perspective the character appears more menacing. A jutting chin, a grin and a wild look create the perfect atmosphere for intimidation!
In cartoons, bad characters often have large lower jaws and small eyes. In this case, a weaker character will have large eyes and a more expressive, but small lower jaw, and the mouth is usually located lower at the chin. Try this technique in your designs to see for yourself!
Playing with conventional stereotypes and context
To create a stereotypical character, you can add minor elements that complement the context of the scene. Some of these methods can create an immediate effect, since we are accustomed to holding stereotypical information within ourselves throughout our lives. This is influenced by many factors, in particular: cinema, television and certain people in everyday life.
Let's take a drunkard for example. Tangled hair, unshavenness, heavy eyelids, lack of teeth - and we have before us a classic drunken slob. We grow up and get used to the fact that such traits distinguish a person who has been abusing alcohol for a long time. The sick person is depicted as older and has a swollen nose. Closed eyes and drops of saliva indicate that something is wrong with his health.
Here's another example. The picture below fits in different contexts. On the one hand, the person above may be in serious pain, while the person below is torn by rage.
Let's add a few details to make a real difference. See what happened? It was enough to add tears and a handkerchief, and it becomes obvious that both are crying.
Additional elements change the context of the scene. Signal exchange
If we add to all of the above the numerous ways in which we exchange specific signals with other people, our face has many surprises in store for us. This is because, like physical states, we do not have much power over such “signs.” Because of this, we sometimes react completely unexpectedly for ourselves, often succumbing to the will of feelings.
Below is an example of "signal exchange". Lovelace fixed a fatal gaze on the girl in order to woo her with his magic of seduction. She responds with a look filled with passion. Do you think she fell in love with him?
Let's look at another example. The picture below is a fairly typical cartoon: a pretty girl "making eyes" so that she always gets what she wants and looks very cute at the same time.
Well, who can resist such a pretty face? Let's change the context. We change the direction of her gaze, and now she is already looking away from the character in front of her. Now she looks more timid. Great, right?
In addition to the new direction of the look, we added a little blush to the cheeks, and now we have a completely shy girl. Conclusion
If you find it difficult to draw feelings and emotions in your characters, one of the the best ways learn to do it - try it yourself imitate these emotions. This way you will train your personal perception and add new techniques to your arsenal.
The expression of emotions and feelings in animation is a vast topic to study and goes far beyond facial expressions. As stated above, we are completely in control of our emotions until we lose control of them; for example, until a dog bites us.
Want to do an experiment? Invite your family to take a photo together and notice how they all smile the same - this controlled emotion, we know how to express feigned joy if necessary. Now give them a good scare, and you will see how differently fear is reflected on their face!
I hope you're now inspired and ready to try out what you've learned here - drawing different emotions on your characters' faces. Don't forget that in animation we exaggerate most of these expressions; It is also important for you to understand at least the basics of how emotions are expressed on the face - this way you will help your viewer see what you want to convey.
Well, who hasn’t at least once used the power of temptation in an attempt to win someone’s heart with the help of a glance? Today we move on to lessons drawing anime emotions. We have already gone through lessons with you, lessons on drawing an anime head, we also looked at drawing lessons and, therefore, we will quickly figure it out with this lesson. Now I will try to tell you how to correctly and beautifully draw emotions. On at the moment We'll look at a couple of emotions and how to draw them.
Emotions of delight or joy are one of the most popular and common emotions in anime. Most easy way portray delight through large eyes, raised eyebrows and a wide open mouth. Also, let's not forget about the glare in the eyes. Here they will not be superfluous.
This character's emotion shows that he is happy. But not like in the previous picture. Here happiness is less emphasized, but from the eyebrows and the smooth curve of the mouth it will be immediately clear that he is certainly not sad.
Here we can notice that the eyebrows are slowly creeping up. The small, downturned mouth went a little to the side. From this facial expression, we can safely say that this character is irritated and dissatisfied.
This character clearly shows that he is not in a very good spirit. The eyebrows are arched downward, the mouth is wide open, which makes us understand that the character is screaming. At the same time, the eyes remain wide open. All this makes it clear to us that the character is embittered.
Sadness is also one of the common emotions. The most important detail here is the eyebrows. Notice how the inner edges of the eyebrows curve upward. Also, her lower eyelids arch only slightly, while her upper eyelids form large, rounded curves. The mouth in this case looks slightly curved downwards. Such a face makes it clear that the hero is sad.
Then I think you will figure it out for yourself. After all, it’s still the same thing emotion can be depicted in different ways, it all depends on your overall composition. But all this comes with experience. So draw more and you will succeed.
I would also like to give you some advice on drawing the entire drawing in one emotions. Even if the background matches emotions your main character. Such a pattern will be ironed much more effectively.
How to draw emotions. Emotions in a pencil portrait
In this lesson we will look at how a person's face will change, expressing different emotions. When expressing early emotions, the gaze changes, the pupils (narrow or dilate), the ears rise, the lips stretch into a smile or, on the contrary, narrow, and so on :) Below are the stages of painting a portrait of a person filled with emotions such as happiness, fear, contempt or hatred, anger or anger
How to draw fear, how to draw fear with a pencil. |
| We start the drawing with an axial thin line and immediately determine the dimensions of the head. |
| Divide the center line into three equal parts |
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| Using light lines we determine the tip of the nose, the direction of the eyebrows, and the curvature of the eyes. |
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| Using shading we draw eyebrows and pupils. My eyes will be slightly widened (from fear:) |
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| Using shading we sculpt the shape of the nose |
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| We draw hair and ears for our character, apply shading on them |
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| We draw a mouth that will be distorted, thereby conveying the emotion of fear. When a person is afraid of something, a fold forms between the eyebrows. We apply shading to the entire surface of our drawing. That's it, a frightened man is looking at you from the image |
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how to draw happiness on a person's face |
| We start the drawing by drawing a thin axial line with a pencil, determining the dimensions of the head |
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| We divide the center line into three equal parts as in the previous stage. |
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| Define the shape of the head with a light line |
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| Without pressing too hard on the pencil, draw the eyebrows, nose, determine the shape of the eyes |
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| Using shading we draw eyebrows and pupils. The eyes will be narrowed as much as possible. When a person smiles, folds form around |
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| We draw the mouth, slightly noticeable dimples will appear on the cheeks, pronounced cheeks will appear. We draw ears. Using shading we sculpt our entire head. |
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| We add a hairstyle to our character and dress him up. Our drawing is ready. |
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How to draw contempt, arrogance |
| As always, we start from the center line. We immediately determine the dimensions of the model’s head. |
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| We divide the center line into three equal parts. This will be the level of the eyebrows and nose. |
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| Draw the outline of the head with a pencil |
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| We draw the nose and eyebrows, outline the neck with a collar |
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| Let's draw the eyes. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the eye shape will be slightly narrowed. We immediately apply shading on the gas, our drawing will begin to come to life. |
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| We outline the folds around the eyes. Because when a person squints, a lot of folds form. Draw a mouth with slightly visible teeth. We outline the chin. |
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| We draw hair and ears for our character |
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| The final stage is to apply shading to the entire surface of our drawing; in places where the shadow passes, we apply shading more intensively. Our drawing is ready. |
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How to draw anger in a portrait |
| Draw a center line where our head will be located |
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| Divide the axis into three parts with a pencil. The parts must be equal |
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| Using light lines we define the tip of the nose. Using shading we draw eyebrows. The most important part of the face in this emotion is the eyebrows. They will have sharp outlines. |
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| Let's draw the eyes. The eyebrows will hang over the eyes. Using shading we show the shape of the nose |
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| We draw hair and ears. |
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| Draw the mouth. The upper lip will practically not be visible. The mouth will be compressed as much as possible. We apply shading. Our drawing is ready. |
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| The drawing is ready! In front of you is a man drawn in pencil in anger |