Letâs talk about expressions part 1
Something a little different from the usual draw-over. Letâs talk about making expressions work better.
This is an illustration from Andrew Loomisâ Drawing the Head and Hands book. Specifically I want to talk about the side view drawing.
On average, the corner of your mouth at rest is going to land halfway through your eye when viewed from the side. Often from the front too, but this is a trickier thing to show on a muzzle, where you have to wrap the mouth around it.
Now, what happens when you smile? Or open your mouth to talk? Most of the time, your mouth widens a bit. Itâll widen a lot if youâre smiling, laughing, yelling, grimacing, etc.
The same is true in dogs.
âsmilingâ dogs, or panting dogs, are going to have wide mouths that extend past the half point of the eye.
Nice smiles, but the mouths donât extend far enough, resulting in an awkward, small smile. If youâre aiming for an awkward smile, this is fine. But I donât think thatâs what was intended here.
Quick photoshop liquify. Looks a little rough, but the emotions feel more genuine.
Wider, open mouth has a clearer silhouette so it easily shows which character is talking, and it also shows a bit of this characterâs eagerness in her invitation.
This is a normal, subdued smile. Thereâs a time and place for a smile like this, but seeing a friend come back from the dead is not the time for any sort of subdued emotion.
Raised and angled brow, wider smile, slight open mouth in breathless amazement, wide smile, he canât believe his eyes! Heâs feeling so much right now!
Small mouths, static ears, arenât selling what should be a tense moment between two characters. Lykenia is outright threatening Ranach here, and Ranach is in a situation heâs probably never been in before, a position of powerlessness and submission at the hands of a female.
Show some teeth! Flatten those ears! Add some whale eye for fear!
This is a teasing interaction, push it, show us how Iberon is snarking at Ranach, and that Ranach is embarrassed after face-planting in front of his crush.
Crank the ears back, curl the lips in half-snarls. What does your face do when you snort a sarcastic comment like Iberon is doing here? What does your face do when you defensively answer back like Ranach?
There has been some improvement in the last chapter.
Sheepish grin! Good! Could stand to be a little wider, but good!
Aaron Blaise video on drawing clear expressions
Huge bank of reference images, including expressions
