Table of emotions for drawing. Sad facial expressions

We see millions of eyes, mouths, noses, ears and chins in this world, and each one is special. At the same time, to draw cartoon faces, knowing the basics is enough. Once you've mastered these, add an understanding of depth, then make sure your head drawing looks three-dimensional (3D), and master the technique of drawing from any angle. If you can do all this, great! However, if you really want to get attention for your art, you'll have to master a technique that allows you to bring characters to life through facial expressions!

Anyone can draw a face. Draw a circle, add a few dots and lines - and anyone who looks at your drawing will say that this is a face. On the one hand, it seems so easy to do, but on the other, it can be very difficult when feelings and emotions appear...

Human facial expressions

A person's facial expression, as well as their tone of voice, can be easily changed. Expressions appear on the face not only as a result of the contraction of certain muscles; in fact, some muscles contract at the same time, while those opposite them relax. For example, the same muscle groups are used in both laughter and smiling, but with different intensity.

If I asked you to name exactly all the feelings you see in the picture below, what would you say?

I know what you will answer. You will probably say that you see an image of calm and reflection. Perhaps he was thinking about something. In reality, everything is not like that! In this picture we see a complete absence of emotion, since not a single muscle is involved. Since there are no emotions, probably the most best description the words “calm” and “relaxed” will become.

It's completely natural to use this expression in your drawings. Why not? - 80% of people have this exact facial expression most day! However, people only have this expression when they are alone. After all, when a person looks at another person, or when he finds himself in a certain situation, a reaction inevitably occurs. And it will have its own reaction! In animation, we inflate this effect to the maximum so that our audience can clearly see what emotions are expressed on the face.

Primitive emotions

Primitive emotions are those emotions the occurrence of which we, human beings, do not particularly control. This means that such an emotion is not easy to stage. Let's say it arises suddenly, in response to a primitive stimulus.

Primitive emotions are expressed regardless of our culture, nationality or age. Below I will give you examples of the most basic ones:

• Joy (1): the corners of the mouth are raised, the eyebrows are raised, the eyes are wide open.
• Anger (2): the corners of the mouth are drawn down, the eyebrows are raised at an angle, and the inner edges are drawn down, the eyes are wide open.
• Fear (3): the mouth is slightly distorted, the corners go down, the eyebrows are raised up, while the eyebrow line is uneven, the eyes are wide open.
• Sadness (4): the corners of the mouth are rounded downwards, the inner corners of the eyebrows are slightly raised, upper eyelids"hang" over the eyes.

These are primitive facial expressions that appear on our faces quite often throughout life. To draw cartoon characters, you need to master these four expressions. From them we can create all other emotions.

There are a couple more expressions, they are less often classified as primitive, but they are also included in the group of basic expressions.

• Surprise (5): the mouth is small, half open, the eyebrows are raised, the eyebrow line is slightly uneven, the eyes are wide open.
• Annoyance (6): the mouth is twisted, skewed, the eyebrows are lowered, the inner tips of the eyebrows are directed downwards, the eyes are closed.

"Why on earth are you separating these two from the first group?"- The answer is simple: If you pay attention, each of these expressions is a combination of expressions from the first group.

Now that you're familiar with the basic expressions, you're probably wondering why there are so few of them. It's simple: we have primary colors, and there are enough of them to mix any colors you want. In the same way, other facial expressions can be made from primitive emotions! Take a look:

To create a sleepy facial expression, we took the eyebrows from the expression joy and added to them half-closed eyes from sadness. Great, isn't it?

Related Emotions

That's not all! You can create related emotions, just take the most similar emotion and change only one element in the face, and a another one emotion!

Note that in these two drawings, only the mouth has been changed. We can express two types of disgust by changing one single part of our face! (captions on the picture: “Damn!” and “Stink!”) Below is another example:

This time we slightly redraw the mouth and eyes to complement the variation of the main emotion. (Captions on the picture: “amazed” “confused”).

Emotions can be drawn not only on the basis of basic ones. You can draw a third level of emotions based on the secondary ones. Look:

Amazing, right? With this technique, your designs can be brought to life with dozens, maybe hundreds of emotional faces!

Emotions expressing physical state

Physically based emotions rely on the same concept of basic emotions, but they differ in that they can take different unpredictable forms.

An emotion can be expressed using an additional element, such as drops of sweat (Caption: “heat”):

Let's look at another example of a spontaneous reaction that we don't really know how to control. This time our character was electrocuted! In short, he has no control over his reaction!

When we experience shock, it is difficult to control, which gives us an advantage in drawing cartoon characters - we can exaggerate this expression as much as possible and achieve the desired effect. In this case, we have significantly enlarged the mouth.

Please note that primitive emotions always dominate. Shock, even in its uncontrollable form, is nothing more than fear. Regarding the emotions of the physical state, it is interesting that in real life we express them without really thinking about how they arise, since we are subject to external factors and other conditions.

The power of emotions and additional elements

Cartoon facial expressions can also change depending on the strength of the expression. By changing the intensity, we achieve very interesting results:

In addition to intensity, you can add additional elements to enhance the effect. In the first image we added a few beads of sweat flying off the face to emphasize the expression of fear. In the second, they stick out their tongue to enhance desired effect.

Getting back to fear, let's see how to draw more strong feeling- panic!

Changing perspective

To make a facial expression make a deeper impression and to achieve a more dramatic effect, you can change the angle. That is, change from which point you look at the scene: you will be able to create unusual situations. If you place the point of view from an unfamiliar angle, you will put your character in an "uncomfortable" position. This will give the scene more dynamics.

Please note that with a top-down perspective, the effect of the character’s humiliation is automatically created, we seem to “force” him to shrink, he looks more fragile compared to the threat. In contrast, from a bottom-up perspective the character appears more menacing. A jutting chin, a grin and a wild look create the perfect atmosphere for intimidation!

In animation bad characters often large lower jaws and small eyes. In this case, a weaker character will have large eyes and a more expressive, but small lower jaw, and the mouth is usually located lower at the chin. Try this technique in your designs to see for yourself!

Playing with conventional stereotypes and context

To create a stereotypical character, you can add minor elements that complement the context of the scene. Some of these methods can create an immediate effect, since we are accustomed to holding stereotypical information within ourselves throughout our lives. This is influenced by many factors, in particular: cinema, television and certain people from Everyday life.

Let's take a drunkard for example. Tangled hair, unshavenness, heavy eyelids, lack of teeth - and we have before us a classic drunken slob. We grow up and get used to the fact that such traits distinguish a person who has been abusing alcohol for a long time. The sick person is depicted as older and has a swollen nose. Closed eyes and drops of saliva indicate that something is wrong with his health.

Here's another example. The picture below fits in different contexts. On the one hand, the person above may be in serious pain, while the person below is torn by rage.

Let's add a few details to make a real difference. See what happened? All you had to do was add tears and a handkerchief, and it became obvious that both were crying.

Signal exchange

If we add to all of the above the numerous ways in which we exchange specific signals with other people, our face holds many surprises for us. This is because, like physical states, we do not have much power over such “signs.” Because of this, we sometimes react completely unexpectedly to ourselves, often succumbing to the will of our feelings.

Below is an example of "signal exchange". Lovelace fixed a fatal gaze on the girl in order to woo her with his magic of seduction. She responds with a look filled with passion. Do you think she fell in love with him?

Let's look at another example. The picture below is quite typical in cartoons: a pretty girl "makes eyes" so that she always gets what she wants and looks very cute at the same time.

Let's change the context. We change the direction of her gaze, and now she is already looking away from the character in front of her. Now she looks more timid. Great, right?

Conclusion

If you find it difficult to draw feelings and emotions in your characters, one of the best ways to learn how to do it is to try it yourself imitate these emotions. This way you will train your personal perception and add new techniques to your arsenal.

The expression of emotions and feelings in animation is a vast topic to study and goes far beyond facial expressions. As stated above, we are completely in control of our emotions until we lose control of them; for example, until a dog bites us.

Want to do an experiment? Invite your family to take a photo together and notice how they all smile the same - this controlled emotion, we know how to express feigned joy if necessary. Now give them a good scare, and you will see how differently fear is reflected on their face!

I hope you're now inspired and ready to try out what you've learned here - drawing different emotions on your characters' faces. Don't forget that in animation we exaggerate most of these expressions; It is also important for you to understand at least the basics of how emotions are expressed on the face - this way you will help your viewer see what you want to convey.

In today's post, I will give you some tips to help you portray emotions on your face.

Observation

Let's make the most important thing clear. Best advice on this issue - or on any issue related to drawing - this is one small but strong word: observation. Yes! It always comes down to observation.

Forget about what you think you see and focus on what is truly in front of you. And don't just observe while you draw and then throw the drawing out the window at the end of the day. Even when you're not drawing, get into the habit of paying close attention to the details, as if you were drawing what's in front of you. Think about the lines and shadows you would use to draw what you are looking at.

Start looking at people's faces and notice how their features distort depending on how they feel. I like to look at people's faces and expressions when I'm standing in line at a store or anywhere else. Make notes in your head about how someone's eyes look when they're tired, or how they squint a little when they smile genuinely. Muscles clench, stretch, and twist in the face every time we show emotion, so pay attention to these movements and learn how they interact as a whole to express something.

Sketches from life

Sit in a crowded place, with a sketchbook and pencil in your hands, and sketch, drawing people and their expressions. Try to figure out what they are feeling through the way their faces contort and draw it.

This method is better than drawing from someone specific because it allows you to see genuine and revealing facial expressions. But despite this, it is very useful to have someone pose for you and express different emotions on demand. If there is no model nearby, the mirror will be your best friend!

Sketches from photographs

There are great websites that offer photographs of gestures and poses for artists to teach their own drawing lessons and practice in the comfort of their own home. Great resource is the site Figure and Gesture Drawing’s expression practice (lessons for drawing gestures and emotions). You can select the type of expression, gender and duration of the lesson.

Practice

No matter which drawing method you prefer, the key is practice. Keep a sketchbook nearby, take it out and practice drawing the facial expressions of the faces around you whenever you have at least five minutes.

Alexander Lyubimov

Facial expressions, first of all, convey emotions. All these are annoyed, offended, excited, happy, joyful and surprised.

Emotions appeared a long time ago, all higher mammals have them: dolphins, cats, dogs, monkeys... We have a lot of common emotions with them: joy, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, grief, shame, interest, guilt, embarrassment. People have an order of magnitude more emotions, I won’t list them all - just a lot.

And facial expressions in monkeys (and in humans) developed precisely to demonstrate emotions - as a means of communication. So the story about facial expressions will be strongly connected to the story about emotions.

Illustration and reaction

Emotions can be divided into those that occur as reaction: They told him - he was upset. These messages are more “sincere”, but often less expressed. And there is emotions-illustrations: visual demonstrations of the condition. They are more deliberate and grotesque, but more understandable. “Incorrect” demonstration of them is like saying in a very slurred and unintelligible way: “I want to tell you something important.” It is very difficult to communicate with such a person: the “speech” is unintelligible, and it is not clear what he wants to say.

It’s clear: emotion-illustrations are more for communication

And if emotions-reactions it’s just more convenient to calibrate - they report a “sincere” assessment of the situation - then emotions-illustrations It’s worth learning to show it “correctly” (that is, the way it is customary to show it in a given culture) and decipher it correctly.
But, most importantly, practice distinguishing the first from the second. Emotional illustrations are of little use for obtaining information about a “sincere” reaction.

At the same time, emotional illustrations are by no means something “bad” - we use them all the time. That’s why they are “illustrations” - they help to better understand words, maintain attention, convey “intonation,” etc. “Correct” emotion-illustrations are one of the main tools of a speaker, politician, and actor. And in everyday life, when we tell something, we must correctly convey this very non-verbal information. And when we listen, we show that we hear and sympathize.
And one more important thing:

Most people show the same emotions in more or less the same way.

At least emotions-reactions. There are problems with illustration emotions, since not everyone understands how to demonstrate them correctly.

Microexpressions

The same Paul Ekman, who is engaged in calibrating lies, talks about microexpressions - very quick facial demonstrations of emotions. People regularly try to control their own emotions. Or rather, their demonstration. But the unconscious is much faster than consciousness, and an emotion-reaction usually always manages to appear before a person decides to demonstrate something else instead.

Naturally, it is not at all necessary that a person will hide his emotions. But this happens quite often. Well, another emotion is expected or demanded from him, it is indecent in this society, its demonstration leads to unpleasant consequences, and the demonstration of a more appropriate one leads to correct ones.

True, these same microexpressions only work for strong “basic” emotions. And their Ekman stands out for only seven: contempt, disgust, anger, surprise, happiness, fear and sadness. And these emotions must really be strong.

In general, as many experts on emotions as there are, there are as many opinions as to what the basic emotions are.

What to look for

I’ll give you a picture again with demonstrations of “basic” emotions.

And, you can see that first of all you need to pay attention to just a few things:

lips, eyebrows, eyes.

That's what a woman gets painted - that's what we look at;).

Actually, emoticons, which are used specifically to indicate emotions, have only eyebrows, eyes and lips. And that's enough.

We are training

In everyday life, we don’t often come across creepy specialists in hiding emotions - most people demonstrate them quite clearly. You just need to learn how to calibrate them (and demonstrate them “correctly”). So let's train. Basic emotions: joy, happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, contempt, disgust, anger, indignation, dissatisfaction.

It is clear that there are many more emotions and they are often “mixed”. But we’ll talk about this in more detail when we look at meta messages.

Look at the picture and identify the “main” emotion. Let me remind you that we look first of all at: lips, eyebrows and eyes. Below the picture are conditionally correct answers.

Pictures from videos of the Canadian channel Just For Laughs Gags: they create various situations and film the reactions of random passers-by. So the emotions here are quite sincere, and not played by actors.

1. The upper lip is tense and raised, the eyebrows are lowered, the fold between the eyebrows, the cheeks are raised: disgust.

2. Facial muscles are relaxed, lips are relaxed, mouth is slightly open, eyes are wide open: surprise.

3. Symmetrical relaxed smile, eyebrows relaxed, muscles in the corners of the eyes tense: joy.

4. Facial muscles are tense, eyes are wide open, eyebrows are raised: fear.

5. The lower eyelids are relaxed, the upper eyelids are slightly lowered, the lips are relaxed, the corners of the lips are down, the eyebrows are raised: sadness.

6. Symmetrical smile, wrinkles in the corners of the eyes, relaxed eyebrows: joy.

7. Lips are tense, the upper lip presses the lower lip, the corners of the lips are down, the eyebrows are tense: dissatisfaction.

8. Eyebrows are lowered and tense (fold between the eyebrows), lips are tense, the corners of the lips are down, cheeks are tense, eyes are open: anger, indignation.

9. Eyebrows drawn together and lowered, lips tense, corners of lips downward: dissatisfaction.

10. Eyebrows drawn together, nose wrinkled, upper lip raised, corners of lips downward: disgust.

11. Face relaxed, lips relaxed, eyebrows raised: surprise.

12. Symmetrical smiles, lips relaxed, eyebrows relaxed: joy.

The meaning of emotions

One of the functions of emotions is informational: they tell us about the assessment of the situation. And to others, about our attitude (toward ourselves, information or the listener).

Emotions are so-called meta-states: they are evaluative states “about”. That is, emotions don’t happen “just like that” - there is always an event about which this assessment is made.

The situation itself can be in the past, in the future, and occur in the present - emotions are always now. So they convey to us our unconscious assessment of the situations to which they relate. And how do illustrations communicate our attitude?
Joy: some value is satisfied.
Fear: there will be a very unpleasant event. (Fear always refers to events in the future.)
Astonishment: an event occurred that greatly violated expectations.
Discontent: some values ​​are violated.
Happiness: Core values ​​are satisfied. (Happiness, in fact, is not a very long-term experience - it arises only when we begin to evaluate the situation).
Sadness: there were pleasant events in the past that will not happen again, missed opportunities.
Grief: loss of something important.
Irritation: serious violation of expectations.
Excitement: there is a possibility of satisfaction important values(winning).
Disgust: The person's behavior or event is unacceptable.
Contempt: feeling of superiority.
Delight: expectations were more than met.

The human face is a very complex thing. Especially, you understand this when you start to draw it. Often in the head all the emotions and forms look very beautiful, but once it comes to practice, the result is more than depressing. The reason for this is usually a lack of knowledge. Human emotions, facial features and complex angles can be broken down into simple steps and rules that will help even a beginner understand exactly how to achieve a particular effect.

In this article, we will introduce you to the basic knowledge of facial drawing and discuss topics such as depicting facial shapes, basic angles, emotions and ethnic characteristics. If you want to learn how to draw sketches of indignant, cheerful or indifferent people both in transport and on the street - these simple rules will be very useful to you. We will try to acquaint you with how to correctly convey human emotions through facial expressions and remind you what subtleties you should remember when drawing a person’s face.

1. Basics

Face shape

A very individual characteristic, which, if you don’t know how to approach it, can seriously puzzle any artist. In reality, behind this intricate concept there are very simple lines, which just need to be studied more closely. For example, in the image below you can see the basic shapes of a face.

• Rectangular: long face, almost the same in width both below and above.
• Diamond Shape: narrow forehead and chin, the widest part is the middle of the face.
• Square: a face approximately equal in width and length with a square chin.
• In the shape of a heart: faces with a pointed chin and a heart-shaped parting.
• Triangular: sharp chin and even parting.
• Oval: face shape, repeats an inverted egg, with a narrow chin and the most wide part in the middle of the face.
• Round: approximately equal in width and length, with a rounded chin.

Angles

In order to correctly convey the dynamics of a face, and sometimes even some kind of emotion, it is necessary to catch the right angle. This may seem like a lot of work, but if you remember... basic principles, then with a little practice you will no longer be intimidated by the prospect of drawing a person watching birds.

Profile

The face can be inscribed in a square and divided into two equal parts, where the middle is the person’s ear. Visible eye should be located very close to the edge of the conditional square, and the nose, mouth and chin should extend slightly beyond the border.

In order to successfully depict this angle, it is worth remembering three things:

• Size: The right side of the face looks larger because it is closer to us and takes up more space. The left side is further away and will therefore always look smaller.
• Overlap: the nose locates on the part of the face that is furthest from us.
• Planes: in this angle we see both the front and side of the face

Look down

Now let's try to understand the features of this difficult angle.

• Size: because of top part The head is closer to us, it looks larger than the rest of the face and takes up more space.
• Overlap: the nose overlaps the distant elements of the head, in in this case lips and mouth. Also, the eyebrows slightly overlap the eyelids.
• Planes: Because we're looking at the character from above, we only see the top surface of the head, nose, and eyebrows.

It is worth remembering that the ears appear higher than the eyes from this angle.

Look up

The turn came to the angle with the gaze directed upward.

• Size: now the lower part is closer to the viewer and appears larger.
• Overlap: the nose again covers the farthest parts of the face.
• Planes: in this perspective we see the lower plane of the face, namely the chin and nostrils
• From this angle, the ears appear lower than the eyes.

2. Emotions and facial expressions

Emotions, one might say, breathe life into our faces, and without them any drawing looks uninteresting. But in order to portray them convincingly enough, you need to understand how they are expressed on our faces.

Renowned psychologist Paul Ekman has spent many years researching human emotions and their physical manifestations in people around the world. He identified six basic emotions that are common to all cultures, genders and races. What's more, his team broke down these basic emotions into facial muscle movements to gain a more detailed understanding of how emotions are expressed on our faces.

For any artist, this knowledge is priceless. Once you understand how these emotions involve the eyes, nose, eyebrows and mouth, you can portray any emotion and control its intensity.

Astonishment

Eyebrows raised, eyes wide, jaw open, lips parted. The inner corner of the eyebrows is raised. It is worth remembering that this is not a tense emotion: the upper and lower eyelids are relaxed, the mouth is simply open without much tension. This is very important to remember so as not to confuse surprise and fear.

Fear

Just like in surprise - eyebrows raised up. But in this case, the inner corners of the eyebrows are brought together, making the eyebrows arched. This arching of the eyebrows creates small wrinkles between the eyebrows. Again, the eyes and mouth are wide open, only in the case of fear, the facial expression is much more intense. The eyelids are slightly raised, the lips are tense and curved, with the jaw pulled back.

Disgust

The most important thing in this expression is the nose and mouth. The upper lip is raised, the lower lip can be in either a raised or a low position. The nose is wrinkled and creates wrinkles around the mouth. The stronger the disgust, the more wrinkles there will be around the mouth.

Anger

In anger, the eyebrows are lowered and drawn together. This expression should not be confused with fear, where the eyebrows are drawn together and raised. The best way show this position of the eyebrows in the drawing - add wrinkles between the eyebrows, without them it will be difficult to convey the expression realistically enough. The eyes are open again, but with the lower eyelid tense. The nostrils are upturned, the mouth is tense, and may be closed or open with clenched teeth.

Happiness

Happiness is conveyed by smiling or laughing. The corners of the mouth are stretched and raised up. Because of this, the cheeks also rise, making the eyes smaller. In this emotion, it is very important to remember that there should be wrinkles near the corners of the eyes (“ crow's feet). The absence of smile wrinkles indicates that the emotion is not entirely sincere. Just this small detail can transform your drawing.

Sadness

The inner corners of the eyebrows are brought together and raised. Interior The upper eyelid tends upward, and the lower eyelid may appear raised. The corners of the lips are lowered, the lips seem to tremble.

Having managed to use knowledge about these basic emotions you will very quickly learn to depict any emotion and even character on a human face. Once you have mastered the basics, you can easily mix these emotions to create new expressions. For example, you can use eyebrows for fear and a mouth for joy, and end up with a fierce expression.

3. Ethnic characteristics

In order to make your work even more dynamic, realistic and interesting, you also need to be able to depict ethnic differences between people.

Our unique external features– what makes us so unique. Different races, as a result of adaptation to external conditions, have developed different external characteristics.

Let's try to look at the characteristics of each race and understand how these physical differences can be transferred to paper. For ease of reference, we will conditionally divide people into several ethnic groups, with pronounced physical differences.

Asians

A distinctive feature of the Asian face type can be considered high cheekbones, a small nose and a narrow eye shape, with the outer angle higher than the inner one. The eyelids and eyebrows are usually poorly defined. The face shape is usually oval or round. The hair is dark, straight and coarse. The skin is slightly yellowish. Lips are medium in thickness.

African Americans

A feature of the facial structure of African-Americans can be considered their nose and lips. The nose is usually wide but not flat and is rarely pointed or prominent. To get it right, first draw an inverted triangle and three circles at the bottom. This will help make the nose the required width. The lips are very full and swollen in both men and women. It is worth remembering that African-American hair texture is usually very curly. Hair is not always black - it can be brown, red or even ash white. Color – all shades of brown.

Caucasians

Hair is usually wavy or straight, with a variety of color scheme. The skin is light, pinkish or olive. The nose is prominent, but not wide, the eyes are located horizontally with a poorly developed upper eyelid. Lips are thin.

Now that we understand the basic anatomy human face, we hope that you will finally be able to turn your idea into reality, begin to better understand how emotions work, how races differ from each other, how to correctly depict a particular angle and choose the right face shape.

Main photo taken from the site

There are millions of eyes, mouths, noses, ears, chins in the world, and they are all different from each other. However, to create a cartoon character's face, you need to know the basic rules. Once you do this, pay attention to the depth, make sure your characters head looks three-dimensional, and you will have a realistic character. If you succeed, great! But if you really want to attract attention to your creation, it is worth learning the technique of creating emotions and facial expressions.

Almost anyone can draw a face. You just need to draw a circle with dots for eyes and lines for lips and eyebrows. Everyone recognizes a face in this image, but not everything is so simple, in fact.

It takes a lot of effort to make a character's face look realistic. If you don't know how to draw a face, check out the previous article. If you are wondering how emotions are created, then you will find the answer in this educational article written by Nastassja Peters.

Facial expression

The infection of a person's face changes involuntarily, and is the result of contraction and relaxation of the opposing facial muscles. This, for example, happens when you smile and laugh, the same muscles work. but with different intensity.

Try to describe what feelings you associate with the image below.

Most likely, you will answer that the character makes you feel calm. Perhaps he is thinking about something. Nothing like this! This is an image that conveys a complete lack of expression as none of the facial muscles are used. We look at the absence of emotion, so the picture gives us a feeling of calm.

It's normal to use this kind of facial expression on a character, in fact, it's the expression we walk around with more than 80% of the day. A calm facial expression, without the absence of facial expressions, is present when we do not react to others. but are immersed in themselves. When we communicate or look at another person, emotions are not present and facial expressions change. In animation, the facial expressions of the characters should be exaggerated and brighter in order to attract attention and convey the character’s experiences to the audience.

Basic emotions

Basic emotions are those that we do not control intentionally. This means that this type of emotion does not have a correct direction. For example, they appear suddenly, as a reaction to some action.

These basic emotions are expressed on our face arbitrarily, regardless of skin color, age or nationality.

Below are the basic human emotions:

• Happiness (1): the corners of the lips are raised up, the eyebrows are raised, the eyes are wide open,
• Anger (2): The lip line is curved down, the eyebrows are slightly lowered, wide open,
• Fright (3): the lip line is curved randomly, the eyebrows are raised, have a curved shape, and the eyes are wide open.
• Sadness (4): the corners of the lips are lowered down, the eyebrows at the edges are raised slightly upward, the eyes are lowered

• Surprise (5): The man's mouth is slightly open, his eyebrows are raised, irregular shape, eyes wide open,
• Offended (6): The lip line is lowered down, the eyebrows are frowned, the eyes are closed.

“Then why do you separate the latter from the main group of emotions?” The answer is simple: if you notice. then the last two emotions are a variation of the first four.

Now that you are familiar with the main types of expression of emotions, the question arises: why are there so few of them?

The answer is simple: Just as there are primary colors that can be mixed to create others, primary emotions can be mixed to create new ones.

Here's an example:

Note that to create a sleepy expression, we took the eyebrows from the expression of happiness and mixed them with almost eyes closed sadness. Agree, this is great!

Family emotions

But we won't stop there! Family emotions are those that differ from each other only by replacing one component of the face, creating a new emotion!

Notice that only the position of the mouth has been changed in these two drawings. We can express two different feelings of disgust just by changing a single element of the face!

Here's another example:

Once again we simply changed the position of the lips to convey the emotion we want.

This time we use the lips and eyes to create another variation of the same basic emotion.

Not only do primary expressions give rise to other emotions, we can create a third emotion from a secondary emotion.

For example:

As we did above, the lips were fixed.

Fantastic, isn't it? Using this method, you can create dozens and hundreds of faces.

Emotions of physical state

Emotions of physical states are very close to basic emotions, but, unlike them, they can take somewhat unpredictable forms.

Note that physical emotions are also derived from basic emotions, fatigue is derived from sadness.

We can enhance the emotion simply by adding an additional element such as tears, for example:

Let's look at another example of a reaction over which we have no control. This time we will shock our character. In short: control over emotions will be completely lost.

Since we cannot control shock reactions, this is a plus for a cartoon, since we can exaggerate the character's facial expression to get the desired result. In this case, we exaggerate the facial expressions of the mouth.

Also notice how the underlying emotions dominate. Shock, even if uncontrollable, is a variant of fear. The interesting thing about physical emotions is that in real life we ​​get these expressions without knowing how we get them because we are exposed to external factors and conditions.

Intensity and additional elements

A character's facial expression in a cartoon is limited to a certain degree of intensity. Depending on the intensity we can get very interesting results:

Vegeta? (Hero Dragon, if you don't know).

In addition to intensity, we can also insert additional elements to enhance the emotion. In the first image we added a few beads of sweat flying off the face to enhance the feeling of fear. In the second image we show a little of the hero's tongue to enhance the desired effect.

Getting back to the fear, let's change the image to make the hero look like he's panicking!

By enlarging the character's eyes and covering his face, we achieved a breathtaking effect for the cartoon! Congratulations!

Change your angle

To create a more vivid and emotional scene, various changes in the character's position, called camera angles, are used. Thus, showing the viewer the hero from an angle that is not typical for him, you put him in an “uncomfortable” situation, and makes the scene more dynamic.

An example of how the angle of position changes the intensity of an expression.

By changing the angle of the scene from the top down, the effect is automatically created that the hero shrinks, becomes more fragile and defenseless. On the contrary, placing the camera from below creates the effect that the hero can boldly confront fear. The character's chin becomes visible, a mockery appears, and the bright light helps create a wonderful atmosphere of threat!

IN cartoon style at negative heroes often large chins and small eyes. However, weaker characters have large and expressive eyes, but their jaw is much smaller, the mouth is always very close to the chin. Try to apply these techniques in your drawings and you will notice it!

Playing with familiar stereotypes and context

To create big stereotypes to our characters, we can add subtle elements that enhance the context of the scene. Some methods can create this effect immediately due to their meaning. This happens due to several reasons such as the influence of movies, television and characters in our lives.

Please note: dirty hair, unshaven, heavy eyelids, visible teeth - depict a sloppy drunkard. We grow up to recognize such stereotypical traits in a certain type, such as a drunkard.

While a sick middle-aged man with a big nose and closed eyes is associated with a sick person.

Here's another example. The picture below can be viewed in several contexts. I could tell that the person on top was very sick, while the person on the bottom was angry!

Let's add some additional elements to completely change this perception.

Did you understand what we did?

By adding tears and small pieces of fabric to both characters, we can of course tell that both are crying.

Adding elements to change the context of the scene.

Facial signals

When we add details to send certain signals to other people, our face also changes in different directions. This is because, just like physical emotions, we cannot control these “signs” that cause us to react in unexpected ways, most often controlled by the heart.

Below we have an obvious example of signal exchange. The heartthrob directs his fatal gaze towards the girl, making every effort to gain her attention. She answers him with an interested look. Do you think she fell in love with him?

Let's look at another example. The image below is a very common scene in the cartoon: a cute girl, making a sweet and pitiful look, always gets what she wants with dexterity.

Who can say no to such a cute look?

Let's change the context.

We only changed the direction of the eyes, which now look away from the person in front of her. This little detail makes her more shy. Great, isn't it?

Conclusion

If you have difficulty creating emotions, use our tips.

This way you can create your own perception of the character and expand your knowledge.

Facial expressions are a very broad topic that goes far beyond the study of the face to express emotions and feelings in a cartoon style. As stated above, we have complete control over our emotions, just as we completely lose control when, for example, a dog bites us.

Do you want to create interesting cartoon? Invite your family. take a photo and see how each of their faces changes when they smile, how they manage their emotions, what changes occur in their facial expressions. Scare them and look at the changes in their faces, you will see that everyone's expression is different, it is uncontrollable, and there are no similar features.

I hope this material was useful to you and will help you create expressive and vivid emotions of the characters. Having understood the basic principles, you can easily convey to the viewer the state of the hero and his feelings.

Who has never used the power of a seducer to win someone's heart with just a glance??

How to draw emotions? - Reviews and Comments

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