How to Draw Expressions

Artist: PuzzlePieces / December 12, 2010
How to Draw Expressions

Step 1.


Drawing expressions can be a whole lot easier than you think, if you know where to start and you understand just how it is you're able to make expressions. The simplest way of drawing an expression is with an emote, but I'll show you how to go from    

Step 2.


First you have to understand how the muscles in your face work. You have a higher concentration of muscle tissue around your mouth and eyes. These are the main muscles you use when you make an expression. The muscles in your forehead, cheeks and chin   

Step 3.


See how the muscles work differently depending on the expressions. When you smile the sides of your face are pulled up. However when you frown, they are pulled down.

Step 4.


Now that you understand how the muscles are concentrated, we'll start in on the examples then we'll get on to the steps for going from emote to expression. This set consists of expressions from flat to very happy.

Step 5.


Next we have some sad expressions. As you can see the different ranges of expressions go in a progression depending on the severity of the mood.

Step 6.


Next we have angry expressions. As you can see they are kind of similar to sad expressions except for that the eyebrows are being pulled down in the middle instead of the side. I've also included and evil-ish face in this one.

Step 7.


These next four steps consist of other faces that you might make. Feel free to use these when you're working on drawing different expressions as reference material. From top to bottom we have: smirk, distant, ooo face, and surprise.

Step 8.


And here we have ill, tired, playful, and a great big grin.

Step 9.


Next we have shock, awesome face, cat face and kissy face.

Step 10.


And lastly, in this set we have fear, incredulous, confused and a silly/teasing sort of face.

Step 11.


Now I'll show you the steps to go from emote to an actual facial expression. First we're going to start off with with a circle that will act as the base for our head. We'll put on the cross lines so that we know which direction the face is going.

Step 12.


Now we'll map out the face by putting on the emote expression, very plain and simple, that will act for the base of the features of the face.

Step 13.


Next we'll add the cheeks, chin, nose and ears to our circles, giving them more detail and making them look more like faces.

Step 14.


Then we can add more detail to the expression on the face, drawing out the shape of the eyes and lips and making it look more like a facial expression.

Step 15.


Then all you have to do is finalize the details and you'll be all set. I hope this helped and I hope that you all will let me see how yours come out and let me know if you use it!

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Artist: PuzzlePieces
Date Added: December 12, 2010
Steps: 15
Favorited: 16 (view)
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Description: Hello everyone back again from my warm couch and this time with a tutorial on how to draw expressions. I got all sorts of tips and examples for you again that will help you out when you're drawing expressions. It's a whole lot easier than you think and I hope that this tutorial will give you a great big hand in your artening process. I've also included a whole bunch of different expressions that you can use for your referencing needs. From smiles to frowns and even awesome face, it's all in here. So here it goes, How to Draw Expressions! LET'S GO!

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