#tw anatomy

[willowgarden15]

Coelacanth! Again!

Inspired by @maggotmuncher0 's art style!

[lenessence]

𖦹 eren yeager studying your face for an anatomy exam. ( inspo. )

"i just can't focus," eren groans.

you peer over as he plants his face into his hands, the glow of his computer cascading over his face depressingly.

"on what?" you ask.

he gestures to the screen filled with anatomical drawings and labels with words you don't even think you could pronounce. he had been struggling lately with his studies, having to memorize all sorts of different bones and muscles for his final exam.

you chuckle, "what even is that stuff?" you push yourself closer to him on your rolling chair, softly bumping into him. he flashes his canines in a shy smile as you rest your cheek on his arm.

"this is just the face," he complains, "this one is the muscles, then this is the bones, then this is everything else."

he doesn't scroll down any further, he knows how squeamish you get around blood and things of the sort. you analyze the photos, the model, if that's what you should call it, kinda looks like you. an idea pops into your mind.

"can't you use my face?" you think out loud.

"huh?"

"just touch my face, you can locate the whatevers," you gesture widely to the screen, "it'll help you understand things realistically."

he slowly inches closer, almost hesitating. he lands on the side of your face, pressing gently onto a bone slightly higher than your cheek. his head swivels from the images back to your face, studying you intently. his eyes stare at you vividly.

he mumbles incoherently as he moves across you. he probably knows your face better than you do at this point. eventually, he's down at your collarbone, the hem of your shirt laying low. everytime you swallow hard, hitch your breath, or your heart skips a beat, he feels it. a smirk slides onto his face and you begin to wonder if it was ever about studying in the first place.

holy smokes thank you for all the love on this post!!

nav.

[cholerascum]

"what's there to respect? nobody in their right mind would want a body like mine"

[marutteii]

🫀

[yuna-is-tired-sm]

𝘈𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘓𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘰 𝘋𝘢 𝘝𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪.

[queeniehostapasta]

WHOA?? Been a good while since I’ve done some pickle art….enjoy….

[hqbits]

i don’t know what i’d be without that noise

/

i don’t know what i’d be without you

based on this

[akanemnon]

Hi

How do you typically draw expressions? All of the ones in the comic are drawn really well, so I was kinda wondering how you go about drawing them? Do you have like a guideline in your head of how to draw certain types of expressions or anything?

Expressions are something I struggle with a lot that for some reason just don’t click with my brain, so I was wondering if you’d be willing to share your method/thought process when drawing them, if that isn’t too much to ask.

Sorry if this is kinda hard to understand, I don’t really know how to word this properly…

So this might be one of those more longer reads. I'll be going into anatomy and general tutorials and my influences and thought process behind drawing convincing emotions. In case anyone is interested, feel free to proceed under the cut.

To successfully draw convincing expressions it's important to understand the fundementals of how faces actually work.

(WARNING anatomical chart in 3,2,1...)

(Why hello there.)

As you can see the human face is being lined by a very intricate and complicated spiderweb of muscles and sinews.

Spiderweb is actually a pretty good keyword. What happens when you pull on one strand of a spiderweb? The other threads close to it are being pulled as well and those farther away are less affected. If you translate that over to the facial muscles you can see why when we smile our cheeks pull up and push into the eye region. Which then can cause us to squint a little.

(Like this!)

Expressions are ALL about push and pull. When we are shocked, Our face pulls outward, opening it up. And when we are angry it pushes inward and gets all scrunchy.

A great tutorial for how to translate that into art comes from The Etherington Brothers! (They are much better than me at explaining things in general, so I HIGHLY suggest following their works!)

Pretty much the biggest factor about understanding something and translating it into your art is observation! Now, I'm not asking you to go out there and gawk at strangers. But paying attention to people's faces when you talk to them can help you understand the nuances. Especially when it comes to microexpressions. Now what are microexpressions? Ever witnessed someone tripping and falling down? How did you react? Did you maybe raise your eyebrows? Did you wince a little? Or did a small smile tug at your lips? Microexpressions are just that. They are small, oftentimes involuntary reactions to something. We all do them in all kinds of situations. And most of the time we don't even notice it. They are extremely subtle. But they follow the same principles as shown above. Though much more understated but still as impactful.

(The problem about microexpressions is, that not only are they very nuanced they are also expremely hard to read.)

But so far we've only been working with REAL faces. How does this work in art?

We actually have a very big advantage here! Why? Simple! Look at this gigantic library of things we can reference!

(And many MANY more!)

Which brings us back to: observation! There is always something to gain from the things we consume. And that is KNOWLEDGE! Don't be afraid to study the masters. The way I draw expressions is nothing more than a blend of western animation mixed with a little bit of Dragonball and Studio Ghibli in there.

Speaking of Studio Ghibli... They are the masters of not only subtle, but also REAL expressions. What do I mean by real expressions? Something that is a little wonky and ugly at times!

(You can gather a lot about a character's personality just by the way they express themselves)

This is a trap I see a lot of inexperienced artists fall into sometimes. They want their art to look cool and aesthetically pleasing. But a lot of times expressions are anything but that. Ever looked into a mirror and did funny faces? Did they look pretty? Probably not!

This is a key philosophy I personally follow:

"Don't be afraid to make your characters look silly/ugly."

Kris is probably the best example for this exact philosophy. This is how canon Kris looks like:

(Not exactly emotive, right?)

And THIS is how Twin Runes Kris looks like throughout the entire comic so far.

(Quite the emotive string bean)

What makes working with Kris difficult, is that half of their face is obscurred. It's their mask. What works in my advantage however is that the style used in Twin Runes is on the more cartoony side. That means I can use a much more squishy and mallable approach in portraying these emotions with them. Kris' face squashes and stretches all the time. They mouth opens ridicioulsly wide, or only opens on the side of their face. Their eyes peek through the shade whenever they're shocked, or I show their eyebrows raise and furrow.

(The many faces of TR!Kris [really])

Now, this is not only done because Twin Runes Kris is a seperate entity from canon Kris. In the game we are quite detached from Kris despite being in control of them. We don't see them physically react a lot. Especially in terms of facial expressions. But the characters in the game itself comment on Kris' reactions.

As established, in this comic YOU, the reader, take on the role of the Player. You are not in control of Kris anymore. But you gained something even stronger. You get to see them feel. And THAT is an extremely powerful tool in storytelling. Showing all sides of a characters emotions, the good and the bad, help you as the reader grow more attached to a character. And as an artist/writer it is important to portray both those good and bad kinds of emotions.

Take note that expressions are not only shown in the face, but also through your body language!

(She either saw Noelle or a jar of salsa.)

They are an additional tool in your artistic arsenal to not only underline an expression you want to portray. They also help making them a lot more nuanced. But keep in mind the way a person or a character reacts varies on an individual level. What helps your characters feel different from another is making them emote differently, or on a different spectrum to certain things. A character who is more shy won't express themselves like a character who's outgoing.

Emotions are raw. Emotions are subtle. Emotions are appealing. Emotions are ugly. Emotions are a huge oxymoron and it IS hard to portray that. But I DO hope this little overview does help you grasp the concept behind them a little better and how you can translate that into your own art.