facial expression practice

[Kiera]

hi, I want to train my ability to draw facial expressions, what is a good way to do this?

At the moment I use photos of my own face, a mirror and screenshots of movies (if you can recommend a movie with good acting, please tell me :D).

[HunterKiller_]

At the moment I use photos of my own face, a mirror and screenshots of movies (if you can recommend a movie with good acting, please tell me :D).

This is good enough.
Keep doing doing it.

P.S. Keanu Reeves movies may not be a good choice.

[Farvus]

Yes. Mirror is good

If you want some basic face expressions from other people then you can look here.

http://www.3d.sk/index.php?id=10&search_query=&gender=&age=&body=&body_type=&race=&special=&poses=&emotions=Emotions&weapons=&animals=&videos=&premade=&clothes=&clothes_type=&thumbnail=lg&sf=p&mi=1&mv=1&bs=1&bp=1

You need paid membership to get big non-watermarked photos but you can increase size of thumbnail page to 200% (in browser) and I think it will be enough.

[MiniGoth]

Something else that might help is having a general idea of how face muscles interact.

For example, when you smile, the top lip very rarely curves upward. It usually ends up as a straighter path. The 'apple' of the cheek will tense, creating a ball which 'crinkles' the eyes and adds a divot on the outer edge of the mouth headed toward the nose.

Whatever method works for you is great - knowing the muscle bits was the most helpful for me.

[rattsang]

This is good enough.
Keep doing doing it.


no its not!

not all facial expressions can be produced spontaneously by will. certain facial muscles only move when the actually emotion is envoked, we have no conscious control over these muscles. this is why we can recognize a "fake" smile. your best bet is to learn about facial anatomy and find good photos of people showing actual emotion. a good place to start is to read The Artist's Complete Guide To Facial Expression by Gary Faigin

some movies may prove helpful, but the problem lies in picking the right ones. the only way to show a "real emotion" on your face that hasn't been spontaneously cause by actual events is to be able to stir up memories that make the actor feel that way (so technically they to are "feeling" the emotion) at will, not all actors can do this, certainly keanu reeves cant.

[nonie]

There's a great exercise for this, which is only allowing yourself 1-3 minutes to try to capture the face and feeling with as few marks as possible - this helps you learn to get the most important indicators and not over-render. Best source is from life but I know it's pretty difficult to go out on trains and cafes find people emoting unless you really want to get good at people reading, texting, sleeping or eating :P So photos and movies will probably give better results specifically for facial expression, but it's easy to spend too much time on a sketch that way.

Anyway doing a ton (I mean like 100 a week) of these little fast sketches will produce big results in a really short period - in 1 or 2 months you'll see your old sketches and laugh.

[Kiera]

Thanks for the site Farvus, that's a fantastic resource :yayca:

Nonie, that exercise sounds good, I'll try to do that and some facial studies for a month :D
I als found out that Chris Crocker is the perfect source for dramatic expressions

[HunterKiller_]

not all facial expressions can be produced spontaneously by will. certain facial muscles only move when the actually emotion is envoked, we have no conscious control over these muscles. this is why we can recognize a "fake" smile.


*ahem* Well, if you would like to get technical about it.
Any actor worth his salt could fake a good smile. The only visible difference between a good fake smile and a real smile is that in a fake smile, the muscles at the outside corners of the eyes ('crows feet') will not contract.
This is not really going to make a dramatic impact in a drawing, unless you were making a photographic rendering.

Once you're are aware of this, it's easy to make adjustments.

[rattsang]

*ahem* Well, if you would like to get technical about it.
Any actor worth his salt could fake a good smile. The only visible difference between a good fake smile and a real smile is that in a fake smile, the muscles at the outside corners of the eyes ('crows feet') will not contract.
This is not really going to make a dramatic impact in a drawing, unless you were making a photographic rendering.

Once you're are aware of this, it's easy to make adjustments.


actually very few actors can fake a smile, a small percentage of ppl have a degree of control over the orbit muscles of the eyes but most actors stir up memories that make they actually feel emotion (like thinking of a dead friend) in this case the emotion is real so the expression on there face is real.


well there are other subtle but noticeable changes to the face in a real smile, but the fact that you point out that we can tell the difference between a fake and real smile on such "small" differences should have alarm bells ringing in your head. these seemingly small differences carry the conviction of emotion and all ppl are instantly aware of the smallest changes in the face even if they dont know it

extract from emotions revealed by paul ekman
"At first glance it might seem that the only difference between
these photos is that the eyes are narrower in photo B, but if you
compare A with B carefully you will see a number of differences. In
B, which shows real enjoyment with a Duchenne smile, the cheeks
are higher, the contour of the cheeks has changed, and the eyebrows
have moved down slightly. These are all due to the action of the
outer part of the muscle that orbits the eye."

e.g a person can tell if another person is sad but may not necessarily be able to tell what position the muscles in their face are in, because this information isn´t processed consciously.