How To Draw Facial Expressions (Smartphone Simple Mode)
Hi everyone, my name is Reichel. Welcome to my new tutorial. In this Tip I’m going to explain How to draw facial expressions.
For this tutorial I use my smartphone to draw in Clip Studip Paint Simple Mode!
#Video Tutorial
1. EMOTIONS
We use three facial elements to draw a wide variety of emotions: eyebrows, mouth, and eyes.
In this basic face, I used only the eyebrows and mouth to draw these six basics emotions: joy, sadness, fear, anger, disgust and surprise.
I'll introduce the eyes soon.
> Intensity
In addition to knowing what the emotion is, see what the intensity of the emotion is.
Joy, for example, can generate just a smile or an intense laugh.
Important note: Do not use the same facial expression design for all your characters.
We need to know each character's personality to think of the best expression for each of them.
2. CHARACTERS
To achieve this, I created four characters with different personalities:
Lucy Rabbit: She is cute and innocent
Lawrence Wolfman: Confident and collected
Rita Turtle: Pessimistic and rational
Lary Wolfman: Playful and emotional
Remember your character's personality, this is essential when thinking about what facial expression they will make.
>Extroverted X Introverted
Another important point is to know which characters are extroverted and which are introverted.
In my case, Lucy and Lary are extroverted, so they are very expressive while Lawrence and Rita are introverted, so they have more contained emotions.
This characteristic is quite complex, but let's organize it in a simple way:
Extrovert:
Their internal and external emotions are equal in intensity.
Very expressive on the face: large eyes, large mouth.
People easily know what they feel.
Introverted:
Their internal and external emotions can be different.
Not very expressive on the face: small eyes, small mouth.
People find it difficult to know what they feel or think.
This doesn't mean that every introverted or extroverted character follows a rule, but having it simplified will make it easier.
> Emotion + Personality
Drawing facial expressions is much more than knowing about emotions, you need to combine an emotion with the character's personality.
Note the difference between the same emotion of sadness in Lucy and Rita.
To make it easier, use the following formula: Emotion more Personality = Facial Expression
That's what I think about when I'm drawing each character's facial expression, what their personality is like and how I can convey it in the best way possible.
3. FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
> Joy
The facial features look like this for the joy emotion:
Eyebrows: Draw them high and arched.
Eyes: Draw them closed and arched, or rounded at the bottom. As the mouth rises, the cheeks push the eyes upward.
Mouth: Draw the mouth with the sides facing up.
As I said before, I draw emotions differently in each character.
Notice the difference in intensity between Lucy's and Rita's joy. Also, notice how Lucy and Lary, despite both being extroverted, convey the emotion of joy in different ways.
Lucy smiles like a ray of sunshine, while Lary smiles playfully.
> Sadness
The emotion of sadness changes the face in the following ways:
Eyebrows: They point upward, forming a "U” shape.
Eyes: When closed, they can be drawn in the same shape as the eyebrows.
Mouth: The corners of the mouth turn down.
Now let's look at different ways of drawing sadness.
In Lawrence's case, his eyebrows are down, indicating a certain "anger." This is a more complex emotion: a feeling of guilt or incapacity.
In Rita, the sadness is hidden; her hidden eyes and eyebrows convey this feeling of "I'm sad, but I don't want to be."
And finally, in Lucy and Lary, we see sadness with its basic characteristics.
>Surprise
The facial features for the emotion of surprise are quite simple:
Eyebrows: Draw them high and arched.
Eyes: Draw them big and open, wide-eyed.
Mouth: Draw the mouth wide open and large.
For the surprise emotion there wasn't much variation in facial expressions, just how open the mouth would be.
Lawrence and Rita are less emotional, while Lucy and Lary seem quite surprised.
>Fear
The facial features of the emotion fear are a mix of sadness and surprise:
Eyebrows: Point upward, as in sadness.
Eyes: Draw them wide or neutral.
Mouth: Draw it open with the corners turned down.
In this emotion, I varied the facial expressions of each character much more.
Lucy has the most basic emotion of fear. Lawrence is afraid and angry at the same time; he seems suspicious, a mild fear. Rita seems to have a feeling of "I'm scared, but I'll face it." And Lary is nervous.
Don't be afraid to mix emotions to create complex feelings in your characters.
> Anger
The main changes in the emotion of anger are:
Eyebrows: Points pointing down toward the center of the face.
Eyes: No change or wide open.
Mouth: Open, screaming, teeth clenched; when closed, it can be neutral or downward.
Anger is an emotion with many levels of intensity.
I drew Lawrence and Lary very angry, beside themselves, so I left their eyes completely white and their teeth clenched.
Lucy is screaming, and Rita is a little irritated.
Note the difference in the intensity of the anger in each of them.
> DIsgust
This is the emotion I find most difficult to draw:
Eyebrows: Same shape as anger, but they can be at different heights.
Eyes: Unchanged or tightly closed.
Mouth: With the corners turned down or tongue out.
As I said before, for me it's a very difficult emotion to draw, it's complex because there are many different feelings.
It's a mix of anger and surprise.
Lucy feels uncomfortable, while Lary feels repulsed by something.
Rita despises someone, and Lawrence doesn't like it.
BONUS
Below, I'll leave the image of my characters without the face drawing, so you can practice just the facial expressions without worrying about everything else.
Click on the image below and save it as a PNG, then open it in Clip Studio Paint. Create a new layer and draw the expressions on the top layer; this way, the art will be preserved.
Thanks
Thanks for following the tutorial to the end. I hope it helps you think about the essential points when drawing your characters' facial expressions.
Remember the emotion MORE personality formula to create the coolest expression for each one.
Thanks and Bye!
Users who liked this post
Comment