Hey, I love your art and your expression sheets and I was wondering if you have any advice for beginners to work towards drawing different expressions. Would you say it makes more sense to just jump right in and get better with practice or to first develop the skills to draw faces with more neutral expressions, head planes and all that; maybe even style?
Hi and thank you! For me, basically I’m trying to learn how to do all of it at once lol. I don’t think one needs to draw heads perfectly before jumping into expressions, but I do think it’s helpful to pay attention to your process so that your expressions have a foundation and are based in fundamentals. I’ve actually been doing expressions sheets as a way to force me to get better at heads.
So for example, my general process goes something like this:
Pre-expression study--this is mostly if you have a specific character in mind, but I do like to do a neutral expression study first just so I can reference later. If I jump straight into expressions, it’s helpful to already know what the character should look like so I don’t have to spend energy on design.
First I draw a gesture of what I *think* the expression could be. This could be as simple as eyes/eyebrow movement/mouth on an oval. It’s mostly so that I’m not overthinking or spending too much time developing something that later doesn’t make sense.
Second, this is where the head practice comes in--I’ll set up a base (loomis skull, neck and shoulder muscles... I didn’t really find the loomis skull super intuitive, so for me it’s more helpful thinking about making sure all my planes and perspective makes sense). And I’ll add maybe some key bone markers. I will actually draw on top of my gesture, but I’ll also make a copy of that gesture on the side so that I don’t forget the spontaneity and energy.
And then once I have my basic head, I’ll start adding features and the expression. I’ll have a mirror or camera on hand to sanity check by doing those expressions (but it’s a humbling experience because some of these expressions just aren’t the most attractive on real people lmao -_-).
And that’s basically it! I’ll just add that as far as style goes, it’s not something I’m ever consciously working on--meaning, I’ve never set aside specific time to develop a style. It’s just what comes through given your own tastes, what you like, and your skills/how you problem solve to get what you need. Before I draw, I have a general idea of what I want (realistic but a little anime or whatever), and I have my various influences, but then sometimes the end product surprises me, and I’m totally fine if my style is inconsistent or change, since having a “brand” isn’t necessarily my end goal.
Oh gosh, sorry this was so long! Hopefully some part of this can be helpful. I’ve been kind of long-winded lately and struggling to get to the point XD
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