we're going to talk about expressions we're going to be talking about how to make expressions
how to make them fun how to make them fluid so expressions are delicate every aspect of the face
and body contribute to an overall emotion when we are drawing our expressions we want to make
sure that every single aspect of the body and the face are taken into account the number one thing
that i always say when it comes to expressions is don't sacrifice a good expression for aesthetic
when we work with expressions we want to make sure that we are keeping our faces nice and fluid a lot
of the times a lot of newer artists or artists who are a bit more hesitant to work with you
know quote unquote uglier uglier expressions you know sadness anger two of the big ones oftentimes
they reel them back to make the character still keep their aesthetic of looking good this makes
the expression extremely stiff you see this a lot with newer anime artists but yes it tends to make
the expression stiff like really really stiff and what i mean by that is like they don't want
to furrow the eyebrows as much they don't want to add wrinkle lines in the face they don't want
to add so on so forth not adding those in kills an expression it really does so don't sacrifice
a good expression for aesthetics so we're going to be talking about how you move around the different
portions of the face because as long as you know how to move around the face you're golden this
is like the really really basic stuff if you're working with expressions this is like the baseline
what you should be worrying about so in my opinion this portion of the face is 100 the most important
part it's your eyebrows eyebrows are one of the most expressive parts of the face and it's also
one of the most delicate i keep throwing that word around delicate when i say something that is
delicate it means that one little shift and it's gonna be wrong if you have an expression every
little angle of that expression matters every little bit that you add into that expression
matters if you shift your eyebrows just slightly off it's going to be a completely different
expression i promise you eyebrows are probably one of the most difficult parts of the expression
because you can angle them you can change them you can do whatever but if it's angled slightly wrong
that expression is going to change instantly but eyebrows you can like furrow you can raise them
you can like have them at odds with each other you can have one raise so and so forth eyebrows
are very very expressive there's another reason why they're really expressive is because eyebrows
kind of tend to move on their arms i think that um a lot of the times like people's eyebrows will
raise slightly it's a very instinctual thing that our bodies do and that's why eyebrows are one of
the most expressive portions of the body you can have your eyes you can keep your eyes kind
of stiff but you'll notice that people's eyebrows will twitch your eyes so your eyes are also really
delicate when you're drawing your eyes one thing that i actually see a lot of people mess up which
is something that you wouldn't think people must have on but it's very very common is line of sight
sometimes your eyes just are not looking in the correct direction so please double check that
when you are drawing your eyes in you want to double check your line of sight make sure
that they are looking in the same direction or in the proper direction at the very least people say
sometimes just adding in a pupil or taking them away does a lot irish size so your pupil is the
black dot your iris is the colored portion right sometimes your iris is also just as small as the
pupils sometimes the iris gets really big so on so forth um again mostly a cartoonish thing eyelids
you know are they half-lifted are you squinting are your eyes wide open
eyelids do a lot eyes themselves tough to get right and they are obviously best in combination
with eyebrows so usually if your eyebrows are doing an expression your eyes should be matching
it the nose nose is a weird one nose is not as delicate but helps enhance expressions greatly
your nose will control facial wrinkles so the bridge of nose laugh lines that was also just as
general expression with the nostrils so noses are not as delicate compared to the eyebrows and eyes
you don't have muscles where you can like really move the nose back and forth it's like whatever
it's kind of stuck there but your nose is what helps or the area around your nose and like if
you kind of scrunch your nose up your nose will control different areas on your face that will
assist in enhancing the face the nose is something that a lot of people who don't really work with
expressions a lot ignore because artists don't like drawing in laugh lines your laugh lines are
these those are really important for expressions obviously don't draw them as long as this if your
character is not that old but you're gonna have a little bit of them for disgust for maybe extreme
happiness for some sadness you're gonna have a little bit of that in there you're also gonna
have some stuff on the bridge of the nose up here between the eyebrows where it's furrowed
your nose will control those areas because if you don't have those laugh lines it smooths out
the face and what that does is it stiffens up your expression your face is liquidy touch your cheeks
they are very squishy so we want to make sure that we keep in that squish of the face so the nose is
not as delicate but it is really good for helping push your expressions then you have the mouth so
your mouth is considered your quote quote basic source of expression your mouth you know when they
say you're happy the corners pop up when you're sad the corners of your mouth pop down right
that kind of jazz the mouth is like the easiest thing to read that's why it's considered like the
quote-unquote most basic source of expression it's somewhat delicate it's not as delicate as eyebrows
or eyes i think it is delicate still especially if you're more delicate with your expressions
like you want a really certain amount of pushing with your expression if the corners of your mouth
are drawn just slightly off it's going to change that expression so and so forth the mouth has a
wide range right you can do a lot with the mouth you can make the mouth get really small you can
make the mouth get really big you can change up how the mouth is placed on the face a little
bit depending on how much of a cartoonist you are don't be afraid to stretch and wrinkle the
exact same thing with the nose but the mouth is a bit more crucial so with the mouth again a lot of
times you'll see people like oh i'm gonna draw the mouth really wide open and then they like you know
they have the mouth really wide open but there's no wrinkles on the side of the mouth there's no
effect to the nose they didn't drop the jaw that's another one if your mouth is super open the shape
of your head is going to change if we are making the mouth really really wide we want to make sure
that we are dropping that jaw down making the shape of the head different because remember
that our jaw is like on a hinge it's at the back near our ears you'll see this a lot with more
restrained emotions if you have like a character who's meant to be a bit cuter you have their mouth
opened and it's like the little nose there and you keep the mouth just kind of like that that's cool
that's great right they're not really changing the shape of the head not really doing much it works
like this is good like if they're just generally kind of yelling if you want to push that
first of all drop the jaw and make it nice and wide really put it at the edges of the mouth
you can even kind of extend how the jaw's drawn show the teeth teeth are really really important
back of the throat add some laugh lines there you have the nose wrinkle a little bit here if you'd
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you're gonna have a little bit under the eyes really push those eyebrows have a little bit of
wrinkle between them push it make it extreme add in lines add in wrinkles i didn't you know there's
gonna be a lot that you need in an expression you know that this is good this is better right
i don't say that because technically sometimes you want that restrained expression but if you're
going for extreme anger this is okay this is better it depends on what you're going for but
do not be afraid to stretch and wrinkle them out don't be afraid to push it and pull it whatever
the face is really really important every single aspect of the face works together this is like
more restrained push so don't be afraid to stretch and wrinkle i know we want to keep
our characters beautiful but if we have somebody who's going crazy going unhinged we don't want
them to be beautiful when you go kind of insane you're not going to be pretty if you're like
sobbing you're not going to be pretty man like that's just not how it's going to work
so you want to kind of uglify that face a bit i know it's tough it's rough right i know we
love our attractive characters and so do i but i love making attractive characters cry so don't
be afraid to stretch and wrinkle what we want to keep in mind as a whole all aspects of the face
work together one area will affect the others so let's demonstrate that we're going to do a
pushed expression because pushed expressions are the ones that people tend to have the most
issues with and work with this really basic face shape because there's a lot that i could do with
different facial expressions but it depends on how i'm working with them don't forget their
wrinkles around the eyes thorough those eyebrows really point them by the way when you're drawing
anger if you have an eye this is how nice and delicate the eyebrows are this is anger right
kind of turned down if you just kind of carefully lift the corner of this eyebrow up a little bit
this is a little bit more pained so the more you turn up this corner the more pain the expression
looks right so if you have it turned up a little bit that's pain if you have it turn mostly down
that's just pure anger that's how delicate they are confusion is also a very delicate expression
again everything when it comes to expressions is delicate you gotta be really careful
because right now we're going for something a bit angrier don't forget your teeth lots
of people are afraid of teeth don't be afraid of teeth teeth are what really help expressions
anger is considered an umbrella term every like expression underneath it depends on how you want
to express it and like how you want to show it and you're gonna have to use a lot of references
yeah the more specific you get with expressions the harder it is it's gonna be
defining a reference so really what you're gonna have to do is you're gonna have to memorize how
to move around each aspect of the face and then you're gonna have to figure that out for yourself
it's a lot of that it's annoying and it's rough but that's literally how it goes you can even do
this i'm kind of breaking it down really stress out the neck a bit so let's say we've got this
expression right we've got something a little bit angry we're going to play so just expression
you know eyebrows downturn right this person's shouting they're doing a lot right now they're
kind of well hold it angry so you can change just one little thing let's change the eyebrows that's
always the thing that i'd like to change first i just kind of upturned them a little bit again the
anguish now this one kind of feels a little bit more like they're crying out for help all right
this one feels like they're cussing somebody out this one looks like they're like oh no
kind of deal just with a slight shift in the angle of the eyebrows that tiny shift did so much if you
wanted them to look a little bit less intense you could change the size of the pupils or the
the irises you can make them a little bit bigger so you can even change the size the pupils that
changes the expression a lot too if you kept them at that tiny shape then it's a lot more intense
right but just that tiny shift in the eyebrows changes a lot let's say if we did again let's
change another aspect of the face let's change the mouth so if we kept everything else the same
shrunk down the jaw we need that squash and stretch if you really shrunk down the mouth
if we kept in look at that difference we take away that little line add it back in those little
lines do so much this feels more like initial shock or just the kind of like if i did this
right just kind of feels like the initial thing let's change the eyebrows again let's do something
a little bit more drastic with the eyebrows here now this expression is more lighthearted now it's
like a wait don't bro that's a bad decision this one's like bro you murdered my entire family this
one's like bro you just did an oopsie it's a little bit more lighthearted this expression is
now more goofy because the eyebrows have shifted a little bit let's change the expression here
a little bit more drastically let's turn these eyebrows even further up have it so now there's
a gap open the peoples up a little bit more if you don't add in those little lines look at this hang
on let's just do that real quick let's just remove all of the extra little wrinkles look at how that
stiffens the expression it really kind of removes a lot of the intensity right it's why those
lines are so important because the face will not shift like this without these little lines it
changes a lot like if i got rid of the lines there it would look really really different which is why
those little wrinkles on the face are so important because it can really change a lot
so this is a little bit more drastic again though you want to drop the jaw don't keep it the same
size add a pupil back in that tends to change enough and then we can jogging tears no more
relief if i kept the i could keep the eye people's really really tiny here too that would help as
well a little more intense still a bit more of an intense expression but again changing the curve of
the eyebrows a little bit more you could put a smiling mouth on this expression let's just do
that i'm just having fun at this point but it's it's really just a demonstration of how to change
the expression in like singular ways does enough this expression is going to go from like angry
to like crazy like snarling and then you show a bit of the gums it shows that the mouth is opening
really crazy wide if you kind of show bits of the teeth there what's really cool is if you just have
one side of the eye left up there and don't forget laugh lines so really what this shows is just like
you know changing just like single sections of the face even really subtle ways like these two
are very very subtle but they're too like pretty well completely different expressions they show
off two different emotions completely these two only have the mouth changed between them these
three are only the eyebrows change that's why it's like i focus on the eyebrows for these three
this one is mouth and the eyebrows change from the initial there's a lot of like very subtle things
you can do to expressions to make them completely different and that's why you need to be able to
push them to change where the face wrinkles change where things will shift and move and like the best
way to do that was observation what you can do you can have a little mirror on the side really
look at yourself and that tends to help yeah very very tiny bits of the face will change how it acts
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