

This pushes the cheeks up and causes the eyes to appear smaller. The corners of the mouth are drawn back and up. Joy/Happiness: Joy is expressed though a smile or a laugh. The mouth can either be pressed shut or opened with the teeth showing. When this is combined with the lowering brows, it cause the eyes to look as if they are bulging. The eyes will also widen with the lower lid tensing. Without these wrinkles, the expression just won’t look right. The best way to depict this is to add vertical wrinkles between the eyebrows. This is not to be confused with fear, where the brow are drawn together and up. The more intense the disgust, the more these wrinkles will be apparent.Īnger: In anger, the eyebrows are drawn down and together.

The nose is wrinkled causing lines to appear on the sides and bridge of the nose. Regarding the mouth, the upper lip is raised, while the lower lip may be raised or lowered. While the mouth has tense lips and the corners are drawn back and down.ĭisgust: The most important features of disgust are in the mouth and nose. In fear, the lower eyelids are tensed and raised. Instead, they are more concentrated in the middle.Īlthough both fear and surprise have widened eyes and opened mouths, the difference between the two comes down to tension. In the fear brow there are usually horizontal wrinkles across the forehead, yet they are shorter than the ones shown in surprise. This gives a more straightened appearance to the outer corners of the eyebrows. However unlike surprise, with fear, the inner corners of the brows are drawn together. This will be important in distinguishing surprise from fear.įear: Similar to surprise, the brows are also lifted in fear. The important thing to remember about surprise is that the face is not tense the upper and lower eyelids are relaxed and the mouth just hangs open without any tension. The lifting of the eyebrows produces long horizontal wrinkles across the forehead (in extreme cases). Surprise: The eyebrows are raised, the eyes are opened wide, and the jaw drops open, parting the lips. Certain emotions blend more naturally with others, so keep this in mind. For example, you can blend anger with sadness by combining the angry brow with the frowning mouth. You can also blend multiple emotions by mixing the expressions. In general, the more areas involved, the more intense the emotion.įor example, if you wanted to show mild anger, you might only express it in the eyebrows while leaving the rest of the face neutral.

When drawing the different facial expressions, you can control the intensity of the emotion shown by the number of facial areas that are involved. You can then apply this knowledge to your portrait drawings.Įmotions are typically conveyed through 2 or 3 facial areas such as the eyebrows, eyes, nose, or mouth. In this article, I’d like to share with you these six universal expressions and the traits that distinguish them.
#DRAW FACE EXPRESSIONS HOW TO#
This information is tremendously useful for the artist and in my attempt to learn how to draw the face, I’ve sought out Dr. He reported his findings in his book: Unmasking the Face.
#DRAW FACE EXPRESSIONS SERIES#
Furthermore, he has spent years decoding these emotions and breaking down their expressions into a series of muscle movements. Ekman has discovered that there are six universal emotions that are common to all humans, regardless of race, gender, or culture. In order to portray emotions convincingly, we must be familiar with the facial expressions that comprise them.įor decades, the expressions of human emotion has been the subject of study for psychologist Dr. Without them, our drawings would be dead and flat. Emotions are what breath life to the faces that we draw.
