This was a request and at first I wasn’t sure if I had anything to provide with, but as it turn out it got a little longer than I expected because there were actually things I had to say!! Wow!!
Anyway, this is some guidelines I follow when I try to make the face expressfull, more specifically the mouth! It is often neglected, since it’s actually pretty hard, I’ll admit. But I’m here to help (hopefully…)! A mouth expression tutorial as per request. Enjoy and hopefully it will help some a little. ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
Draw the teeth at the right angle.
This is super important. The upper jaw follows the angle of the head, and the lower jaw will depend on how open it is. Make sure you have a rough estimate of where the teeth are, and how much of them you’re going to see!
The lips will VERY roughly follow the same angle as the teeth. It really depends on the character, but it gives you a sense at least.
If you DON’T do this, you’re going to lose so much volume and the mouth is going to end up looking unrelatable. I showed this example in this tutorial:
It’s not just the lips!
The cheeks, chin, and tongue play a role too!
Try look at your own mouth or references! I have a very pliable and large mouth, so that’s one reason why my characters have it too lmao.
ASYMMETRYYYYY (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง
I cannot emphasize how important asymmetry is when drawing expressions. It applies not only to the eyebrows to achieve the Dreamwork Face™, but also the mouth. Seriously if you draw a symmetric mouth I will deliver myself to your mailbox and then shout at you until you fix it.
Look at the difference between these two for example: which one has more “life”?
I think you get the idea.
Push and squish – give it flow
Here’s an old drawing I have but it illustrates how I think when I squish the mouth, and use folding and wrinkles to my advantage.
Look at your own face and see where skin bundles up, where it creases the most and when bumps appear on your chin. Subtle details makes all the difference!
One VERY effective detail is illustrated in the first sketch, where I pull upwards on one side, and downwards on the other. That’s a good detail to use when the character is making a skewed expression, or is extremely frustrated. I encourage you to play around with that concept bc it’s ~super effective~!
EXAMPLES:
Happy: Your entire mouth is pushed upwards, not just the corners of your mouth!
I tend to draw a :3 mouth bc I’ve been drawing Lance too much….. You don’t have to but it’s basically imprinted in my motor memory by now.
Pouting/frowning: corners are pushed down, middle pushed slightly up. Sometimes, there’s a slight dip in the middle too. It can give a sense that the character is biting their lips.
Showing frustration/intimidating/is intimidated: basically showing a lot of teeth. The corners are as open as possible and the middle sorta more squished. An extremely important detail here is showing some of the gums, and open space between the cheeks and teeth. That way it looks like the mouth it open to it’s full potential. Here is also where you basically MUST add folds and bumps, or else it’s not going to look relatable.
(Here I am again with the pulling upwards on one side and downwards on the other, as illustrated on the last sketch)
And then again, here’s just another doodle showing how important it is to show the gums. It’s the same face twice, but the second one looks slightly more frustrated doesn’t it?
As you can see, this last one is very versatile and I draw it a lot. Play around with the basic shape and see how much subtle details makes a lot of difference!
That’s it!
I hope that cleared some things up and was somewhat helpful! Enjoy drawing ✨
Artist friends, let me just tell you a thing. FUCK Wacom. Fuck Wacom and their planned obsolescence, fuck Wacom and their broken drivers, fuck Wacom and their over-priced tablets. For years we’ve dealt with them with no alternatives but let me tell you a thing.
I recently found out my Intuos 4′s Pen had broken and rather than spend £60-89 for a new one I decided to get a new tablet. Now, I could get the new “Intuos” (which is just the re-branded Bamboo) and i was going to until I found this beast.
This is the Huion
H610, it has almost twice the drawing space of the low-end Intuos and double the pressure levels. The one and only negative is that the pen requires a battery.
Not only that, it is larger than my Intuos 4 which I paid £150 for back in the day. Know how much this cost? £55. The same as the basic Intuos.
I am in LOVE with this thing. Let’s compare this with the lowest of the low end Wacom Intuos line.
Intuos Huion
Active Area: 6 by 3.7 in 10" x 6.25"
Pressure Levels:
1024 2048
Hard Input Res: 2540 LPI 4000 LPI
Express Keys:
4 8
Not to mention the Intuos is HIDEOUS with buttons that are in incredibly awkward places.
The fact that a £55 matches and exceeds the £150 Intuos 4 I bought years ago speaks worlds. And do you know what the very final nail in the coffin is?
THE DRIVERS. ACTUALLY. WORK.
It’s time Wacom had some real competition in the market, if you’re looking for a new tablet please consider a Huion over a Wacom. I used to be a Wacom fanboy too but now?
All I can find is good reviews on this thing and people doing the same thing I am doing, trying to convince people it’s worth it. So… You have the information, use it as you will.
Fck. I didn’t know they all did this. I thought I was getting a deal buying a Wacom but the driver refused to update after about a year and the pen died around the same time and replacing the pen was nearly as much as a whole new tablet so I bought a different brand. I ended up getting the Huion H610 shown above and it was definitely worth it. Other broke artists please save yourself the headache
I’m not an artist, but just a small correction for OP: it’s actually almost 3x the space. Each dimension is almost 2x as long, but the AREA is about 2.8x bigger. So you’re underselling it by saying it’s twice as big.
please get yourself a huon instead of a wacom
I bought a huion a while back and it’s pretty great.
I also have a Huion, and it’s served me well for quite a few years so far!
For reference, I have the GT-220, and it is absolutely incredible. I thought I’d never be able to have a tablet with a screen in it unless I shelled out £1500+ for an Intuos, and although I tried using a Bamboo, I just couldn’t get along with it, and I just assumed that that would be my life. I could either choose to draw well using traditional means, or I could have the ease of editing and correction that comes with digital art, but not both. There’s no way I ever could afford an Intuos.
But then I found this fucking thing, and now I can have my cake and eat it too because I’m drawing on the same surface that I’m looking at, but I’m also able to have the luxury of digital drawing and editing. It’s amazing! I’m delighted with it, and Huion’s customer service is fantastic, too. I’ve had driver issues once or twice, because Windows 10, of course I have, but they’ve been able to solve the problem quickly and painlessly every time.
I can’t recommend Huion enough.
I recently started using a Huion 680S myself after three (3) of my last Wacom tablets crapped out on me, all of them from frayed wires. And while I don’t regret the decision, I did want to mention that Huion tablets are a BITCH to get started. I had a hell of a time getting the drivers installed, and had to reinstall an older version of SAI because the newer one (with transparency) refused to work with it.
So while it’s a great alternative if you’re looking to break free from Wacom’s monopoly and works fine once you get it running, be prepared to wrestle with it first.
OKAY I have been meaning to do this for MONTHS but hey, there’s no better time than the present so buckle up, here we go!
THESE BOOKS ARE A GODSEND.
I am ALWAYS on the lookout for writing aids that ACTUALLY HELP. If you’re like me, and occasionally venture out to buy books on, let’s say, showing vs telling – you will always get the same rehearsed speeches on what that means. -summons pretentious writer’s voice-You’ve got to shoooooow what’s happening in the scene, not teeeeeeell~~ BAH! What you NEVER get, however, is how to do it, or how do it better.
THESE BOOKS ARE THE STUFF OF DREAMS
Each of these is so freaking helpful, I can’t even convey. They all follow the same format as the pictures I’ve shown above, so you get one detailed page of descriptions followed by tons of more in-depth, thought provoking concepts.
I’ll do my best to lay out the five that I have and if you are interested, hop on over to Amazon and buy these suckers up because they are AMAZING; I have NEVER used a writing resource more than I use these.
Negative Trait Thesaurus & Positive Trait Thesaurus -gives you a definition of said negative trait -gives you similar flaws also found in the book -gives you possible causes of WHY the character might have this trait -gives you a list of other behaviors the chara might have -gives you examples of the chara’s thought process -gives associated emotions -gives positive aspects of the trait, as well as negative -gives examples of well known chara’s that have this trait -talks about how the chara might overcome it -gives traits that, when combined with this one, might cause conflict How I use this information: Chara building, or when I get stuck on what I want a character to do. Man, I just can’t decide what they WOULD do. Well, awesome, I have a little guide to help me think through the character’s possible motivations. Also, I get help building a potential backstory because I get a framework of which to think, why is the character this way?
Urban Setting Thesaurus & Rural Setting Thesaurus -gives a whole lot of examples of sights, smells, tastes, and sounds -gives examples of textures and sensations (ie at an ‘antique shop’ you may encounter chipped paint, distressed wood, etc) -gives you possible sources of conflict (ie at a ‘hotel’ you might have noisy neighbors) -gives list of people you might expect to find at said location -gives related settings -gives tips on this type of setting -gives a setting description example How I use this information: IMAGERY IMAGERY IMAGERY
Emotion Thesaurus (aka MY FAVORITE) -gives a definition of the emotion -gives physical signs and signals (ie chara may look pale, might fidget, etc) -gives internal sensations (aka, blood pounding in the ears, dry throat, adrenaline rush) -gives mental responses (ie fight or flight) -gives cues of acute or long-term impacts of the emotion -gives ‘may escalate to _______’ and directs you to other emotions -gives cues of suppression (ie cues of suppressed rage) -gives writer tips How I use this information: I love this book so hardcore, it’s so helpful with internalizing. It’s great because I get to step outside of that box of using the same five responses to a certain emotion and start really thinking about, what can a character do instead to show that they are feeling this, rather than me using adverbs or his adrenaline pumped fifty gazillion times.
These books are all co-written by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi (bless their souls) and if this sounds of interest LOOK INTO IT!! I get such buyer’s regret after buying writing guides but these are legit the best ones I have found and I reference them so, so, so much.
Hope this helps anyone out there looking for something life-changing!!
I have these books and the emotion thesaurus is my favorite writing aid.
…I am terrible at description and giving my characters things to do while they’re talking, and these look like a fucking GODSEND for dealing with that, oh my god
THAT FIRST SITE IS EVERY WRITER’S DREAM DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I’VE TRIED WRITING SOMETHING AND THOUGHT GOD DAMN IS THERE A SPECIFIC WORD FOR WHAT I’M USING TWO SENTENCES TO DESCRIBE AND JUST GETTING A BUNCH OF SHIT GOOGLE RESULTS
Short disclaimer: Most pictures show clothes of royalty, aristocracy, and burgoisie as their clothes weren’t worn as much and especially not for labour, which is the issue with farmers/workers’ clothes, which also were reused quite often, whether to sew new clothes or have rags. So please keep this in mind!!
It really is very European-centric as I am European as well, and I apologise for it if you expected more from it. I definitely lack the knowledge to determine what are accurate portrayals of other cultures, and to find content for them is really difficult as well. This is why I would encourage you to submit any resources you have to my blog! If you have any book recs or know good pages, please let me know!
Another edit/note: Pinterest has changed a lot since I made the post, so you need to be signed in now to see more than the first row of the boards, I’m really sorry about that! (Also I tested all the links and on my original post they still work, if you’re having isues with that.)
A Beautiful Monster 