Expressions - Capturing the Emotions Inside

Hi everyone!:)

Although I have made all of the drawings for the next part of Glazed (turns out we have to wait two more parts for the "scary thing" to happen. Oops!;D), I thought it would be best to break up the constant flow of Glazed with some tips for artists!:) I believe that this "tutorial" might help writers, too, for writing expressions. I hope.;D

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to make a post about drawing expressions for your characters that look real and capture the emotions that they are feeling. So, let's get on with it!

 

Happy!

To make your character look truly happy, the secret is to push their cheeks up, making their eyes somewhat squinty from the bottom. It immediately adds a genuine touch to it, but in case you want their smile to be tight and fake, don't add the "squintiness". To finish, add a big smile with little lines at the corners of the smile. Eyebrows differ all depending on what kind of happy grin you want, but a generic smile usually has high eyebrows to add a gleeful appearance. 

Sadness, with a bit of fear or disbelief.

I originally meant for this one to be only sad, but it turned out being a little fearful, too, which is fine!:)

Upturned eyebrows, wide eyes, and a bit of the mouth open, makes this look look a little shocked and very sad, with just a dash of disappointment.;) 

Sad and Hurt.

 This expression was created with low upturned eyebrows, squinted eyes with tears.

ANGRY!XD

Making your characters angry is so much fun!XD A lot of things are incorporated to make your character look genuinely angry, such as arched eyebrows that deeply slope downwards, making the skin above the eyes go over the eye, squinted eyes, and occasionally bared teeth for that extra something. LOL! I also add wrinkles to the bridge of the nose, corners of the mouth and nose, and above the nose.:)

Boooored...

 Making your character look bored is pretty easy, I add no curve to the top of their eyes (just two straight lines) then the curve below that for the bottom of their eyes. I didn't do anything special for their eyebrows, but you could make one higher than the other to add a bit more "flavor" to the character.XD

Confused, Skeptical, Doubtful.

To make your character look more confused, I would have made the eyebrows dip farther down into the line of vision, but I didn't, so he looks more skeptical than confused. Usually for skepticism, I only do one high arched eyebrow and slightly squinted eyes.:) 

Bonus- Cocky!

To make a character look cocky or arrogant, there are many different ways to do so, but this is just one- I made them have a smirk, which, to me, means that only one side of the mouth is actually smiling, so only one cheek is pushed up into the eye. You can bring one eyebrow up farther than the other, but I decided on making both of them upturned. Mildly "smiley" eyes finish the expression.:) 

(Also, I would raise the actual head, so that they are looking down at whoever they are looking at for that sense of superiority that comes with pride and arrogance.)

I hope you liked seeing all of the different expressions, although I didn't cover all of them.:) I hope this helped!:D

-Emma-