Draw emotions correctly. The power of emotions and additional elements
There are millions of eyes, mouths, noses, ears, chins in the whole world and each with its own characteristics. However, to make cartoon faces, you just need to understand the basics. IN this lesson we will learn to create emotions on faces cartoon characters in just a few steps.
Human facial behavior
Just like tone of voice, facial expression can be easily and quickly changed. Different expressions are not only the result of muscle contraction, but also the simultaneous action of some and relaxation of opposing muscles. For example, laughing and smiling use the same muscles, just with different intensities.
If you were asked to describe what feelings are depicted below, what would you say?
Surely you will say that the boy is thinking about something. Not really. This image expresses complete absence expression, since none of the facial muscles are tense.
In fact, this is the facial expression people use 80% of the day. When a person is alone, this is the expression on his face, but when a person is in a company, listening or talking, his face usually expresses various emotions.
Primary Emotions
Primary emotions are those emotions that arise from primary stimuli and people do not have sufficient control over them and their origin.
These basic emotions are expressed on our face regardless of culture, race or age. Below are the main ones:
- Happiness (1): The corners of the lips are raised upward - the eyebrows are raised upward - the eyes are wide open;
- Anger (2): The corners of the lips are lowered down - the tips of the eyebrows near the nose are lowered down - the eyes are wide open;
- Fright (3): The corners of the lips (sometimes the entire lip line) are randomly drawn down - raised eyebrows irregular shape- eyes wide open;
- Sadness (4): The corners of the lips are lowered down - the tips of the eyebrows near the nose are raised up - the eyes are with drooping eyelids.
These are the basic facial expressions and the ones we use most often throughout our lives. For a cartoon, it is mainly necessary to develop other expressions based on the basic ones.
There are two more expressions that complement the group of basic ones:
- Surprise (5): Small and half-open mouth - eyebrows raised above irregular shape - eyes wide open;
- Nonsense! (6): The corners of the lips are randomly lowered down - the tips of the eyebrows near the nose are lowered down - the eyes are closed.
“Why was it necessary to separate these two emotions from the first group?”
Simple: these expressions are variations of the first group of expressions.
Now, you might be wondering, why are there so few basic forms of expressing emotions? It's very simple: there is primary colors, which can be mixed to create others, just as there are primary emotions that can be mixed to create other secondary expressions! Just take a look:
Note that to create the sleepy expression, we took the brows from the expression of happiness and mixed them with the almost closed eyes of sadness. Cool, isn't it?
Family emotions
The fun doesn't end there! The family of emotions consists of those emotions, for the construction of which it is necessary to change only one component in the previous one.
Note that only the mouth has been changed in the drawing. We can express two different feelings, starting from the basic (“nonsense!” - “something smells unpleasant”).
Here is another example (“surprise” - “fear”):
Here, too, only the mouth was changed.
This time we use the mouth and eyes to create another version of the same primary emotion ("surprise" - "confused").
We can extract the third emotion from the secondary one:
Fantastic, isn't it? It's entirely possible that you'll end up with dozens or even hundreds of possible emotional faces for your design by applying these techniques!
The physical side of emotions
Primary emotions and physical states are very close concepts. One form of emotion can mean another.
Please note that the physical emotion follows from the primary one. Fatigue comes from sadness.
We can enhance the emotion by simply adding an additional element - drops of sweat (“hot”):
Let's look at another example of a physical reaction. This time our character is being challenged electric current! In short: control over the reaction is completely lost!
We exaggerated the expression of the mouth to get the desired result.
Please note that primary emotions are dominant. Shock, even if uncontrollable, is a variant of fear.
Intensity and additional elements
Depending on the intensity of the expression of emotion, we can create very interesting results:
In addition to intensity, we can insert additional elements into the image to enhance the emotion. In the first image we will add a few drops of sweat, which emphasizes the fear. In the second case we add a language.
Let's return to fear. Let's adjust the image to explore a more intense feeling of panic!
We enlarge the character's eyes and close his face.
Angle changes
To achieve a stronger impact, you can change the viewing angle of the scene.
Please note that when placing the stage corner from top to bottom, it creates an impression of inferiority to our character. In contrast, when we position the camera from bottom to top, we make our character more threatening! The prominent chin and sneer help create the perfect atmosphere for expressing menace!
In cartoon style, menacing characters tend to have large chins, weak characters big eyes, but smaller jaws, and the mouth is always very close to the chin.
Try these methods in your projects and you will see!
Playing with social stereotypes and context
To make our characters more stereotypical, we can add some elements that reinforce the context of the scene.
Please note that the drunk has dirty hair, an unshaven appearance, heavy eyelids and one tooth sticking out of his mouth. The patient has a large nose and considerable age, his eyes are closed and saliva is visible when coughing.
Here's another example. The picture below can be applied in several contexts. The man on top feigns pain, the man below feigns rage.
Let's change the picture. Let's add tears to two characters and a cloth to the hand of one of them and they cry.
Facial signals
People use facial expressions to convey certain signals to other people.
Below is a clear example of signal exchange. The heartthrob directs his gaze to the girl. Did she fall in love with him?
Let's look at another example. A common cartoon scene: a cute girl who always gets what she wants.
Let's change the context. We only changed the direction of the eyes. This detail made the girl more shy.
Conclusion
If you have difficulty expressing the feelings and emotions of your characters, then the best way to achieve results is to practice perceiving the emotions of other people.
We hope you are motivated to learn how to express different emotions. And remember that for caricatures you need to exaggerate expressions and understand the basics of instantaneous expression.
Translation - Duty room.
A successful portrait can be considered a work that seems to come to life. What makes a person’s portrait come alive are the emotions displayed on it. In fact, it is not as difficult to draw a person’s emotions as it seems at first glance. If you do not draw from life or from a photograph, then before work you can go to the mirror. You need to take the necessary form and study the changes in your face. The emotions you draw on paper will reflect state of mind the person whose portrait you are depicting.
Sketch
You can draw different emotions only if you have the necessary base, so the first stage in your work is a sketch. When creating a portrait, it is important to consider the angle in order to maintain the correct proportions of the face. Draw the basics you need: the oval of the head, the neck and, if desired, the contours of the shoulders. Draw a vertical line - the axis of symmetry of the face. Share it horizontal line, approximately in a ratio of 1:2, counting from the top edge. The eyes will be located at the height of this line. Draw eyebrows in small arcs. In the middle of the lower, longer, vertical part of the face is the nose. The distance between the eyes and the vertical will be equal to the size of the wings of the nose. Show your mouth with a slightly downward horizontal line. Don't forget to outline the ears and chin, and you can start exploring facial expressions. Emotions drawn in pencil are convenient because, unlike working with other materials, it will be more profitable to generalize forms without drawing everything thoroughly.
Happiness
First let's try to draw emotions happy person. In an enthusiastic state, people's eyes usually do not change, but you can show slight wrinkles that appear around them when you smile. For added effect, you can display slightly dilated pupils. The arches of the eyebrows are slightly raised. A smile can be depicted by curving the line of the mouth and lifting the outer corners of the lips. Don't forget about folds or, if the person you're drawing has them, dimples. Also, when a person smiles, their cheeks rise slightly and appear plumper; to do this, make small downward curved lines under the eyes. If the smile is “open”, then show the teeth with several vertical lines.
Anger
An angry expression on the face is mostly given by eyebrows shifted towards the bridge of the nose. The inner corners of the eyebrows drop strongly, almost pressing against the eyes, while the outer corners, on the contrary, fly up. Because of this, a wrinkle forms on the bridge of the nose, which can be shown with small vertical strokes. The eyes narrow greatly in anger, wrinkles appear under them and near the outer corners, show them with horizontal strokes. The mouth is also important: you can depict an evil grin by drawing teeth and showing the nasolabial fold with lines - from the wings of the nose to the corners of the lips. The shape of the mouth resembles a perfect circle: the upper lip seems to curl down at the corners, while the lower lip forms an upward arch. Because the mouth screaming man open, you need to lower the lower jaw and chin, lengthening the oval of the face. The wings of the nose widen greatly. When creating a portrait evil man You can slightly sharpen your facial features, this will give it a little aggressiveness.
Mockery
The shape of the eyebrows and mouth gives a mocking expression to the face. Raise one eyebrow with an arch, draw the other like a wave, lowering the inner corner. From the side of the raised eyebrow, pull up the wing of the nose. Create a grin by lifting one corner of your lips. Due to this, the entire line of the mouth shifts slightly towards the raised corner. Lower your lower lip so your teeth are slightly visible. A fold also forms on the cheek on the side where the smile is extended. Narrow your eyes a little and show small strokes of wrinkles around the outer corners, just like when you smile.
Astonishment
The next emotion we will try to draw is surprise. All elements of the face of a surprised person seem wider and rounder than in a calm state. Let's start with the eyebrows. The arches of the eyebrows are strongly curved, due to this, horizontal folds are formed on the forehead. Or you can raise just one eyebrow, this will give your portrait even more surprise. When the eyebrows rise, the nose rises with them, so extend it upward a little. The eyes are often round and wide. The mouth is slightly open, the shape becomes like an oval, and do not forget to draw the teeth inside it.
Sadness
In sadness, people often lower their heads, and to show this, you need to make the frontal lobe of the oval of the head a little larger, and trim the lower jaw and chin. The eyes do not change shape, but the gaze is usually downward (show this by moving the pupil at the bottom edge of the eye), so upper eyelids They will close their eyes a little more and appear larger. The inner tips of the eyebrows are raised, and the remaining part follows the shape of the eye, going down in an arc - this can be shown with a curve, a wave-like line. The lips will be tightly closed, and their corners will go down. If the person in your portrait is crying, the shape of his eyes will be narrowed. Tears can be shown with a simple line. The trails of tears, leaving the outer corners of the eyes, follow the lines of the oval of the face and go down to the chin, bending around the cheeks.
Disgust
When expressing disgust, the face seems to wrinkle, so horizontal folds will form on the forehead, a vertical wrinkle will appear between the eyebrows, and a slightly noticeable nasolabial fold will appear near the mouth. Draw the eyebrows as straight as possible and lower them lower towards the eyes, but raise the inner corners up. The eyes will not differ much from the neutral expression, except that they will be slightly narrowed. Disdain is also expressed by raising the upper lip on one side and exposing the teeth.
thoughtfulness
Thoughtfulness - last state, which we will try to draw. The emotions of a thoughtful person are poorly expressed. People usually relax their facial muscles when lost in thought, but the eyebrows may be drawn together in this expression, causing a crease to appear between them. Draw them in a straight line, but slightly raise the upper corners. The eyes do not change shape, but if you draw them a little narrower or completely closed, this will give the portrait even more thoughtfulness. You can look away or down, just draw circles of the iris and pupil not directly in the center of the eye. The lips will be slightly parted, so be sure to show your teeth.
Anxiety
In an anxious person, the facial muscles are uncontrollably tense, so you need to show the folds on the forehead and under the eyes. The eyebrows, as in the expression of sadness, form a wave, while the eyes are wide and round. In addition, a person experiencing anxiety may have slightly dilated pupils. The lips are compressed, so draw the lower lip a little narrower than usual; some people bite it, so you can add a strip of teeth.
We hope this article helped you understand how to draw emotions step by step, and your portrait turned out alive.
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, knowing the basics is enough. 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 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, 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 distorted, 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 life. 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 another one 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.
Getting back to fear, let's see how to draw more strong 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
To make a facial expression make a deeper impression and to achieve a more dramatic effect, you can change the angle. 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 animation bad characters often 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 throughout our lives. This is influenced by many factors, in particular: cinema, television and certain people from 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? All you had to do was add tears and a handkerchief, and it became obvious that both were 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 holds many surprises 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 to ourselves, often succumbing to the will of our 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 quite typical in cartoons: a pretty girl "makes 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?