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Forums » Art & Creativity » Facial Expression Challenge (Large image heavy)

Sooo... expressions are a funny thing, wildly variable while only really having a handful of things the face can actually do. So I got this idea to play around with that a bit. Your goal is to create expressions based on 2 features: mood and affect. Some crossup is fine, so long as each expression makes use of the two features. The end product should be a grid of faces with various expressions. All the faces ideally should be the same character (or just an everyman face) to best show how expression affects a face. And if you want to add more moods or affects, feel free!

For the purposes of this challenge, a mood is a feeling that a person might experience, and an affect is something their face does as a result of that mood. Your goal is to figure out how each mood can cause each affect!

It's okay if you can't fill them all out, but do as many as you can. In case you're wondering, no I haven't thought this out very well. :D


Moods: Happy, Sad, Angry, Flirty, Calm, Afraid, Embarrassed, Curious

Affects: Smiling, Raised eyebrows, Blushing/flushed, Frowning/grimacing, Mouth open, Wrinkled nose, Pursed lips, Lowered face, Closed eyes, Tears, Sweating


The image here is just a basic example, and pretty small at that. I'll try to get one actually filled out soon. :)

expression_challenge_quick_by_novalyyn-dcjjqy1.png

Did you want to try to draw in my tiny boxes too? You don't to have to use this thing, it doesn't give much space.
Zelphyr Topic Starter

So I've started getting some expressions in there. (First 2 rows done as of this post.)

Angry is difficult! For Angry-Smiling I attempted to do a "Must. Not. Murder." thing, and for raised eyebrows, it was an attempt at a surprise/disgust mix.

Whether or not you're joining, do you have any thoughts on what I've gotten together so far?
Ok...now I get what you're doing. I didn't understand at first. But now I get it. What a cool idea/project. I don't draw or I would help, but no, I don't draw well.

YES, I totally see the "must not murder" expression under "angry, smiling." All of the other ones look like what they're supposed to be, to me, except one: the "angry, raised eyebrows," guy doesn't look angry to me.

Maybe because furrowed eyebrows are part of an angry expression usually. Maybe if somebody was pursing their lips and raising their eyebrows, that might look angry, idk. But great job, cool project. Interesting.
Sanne Moderator

I need to do this!

I like what you've got so far. :) I expected more detailed faces though (as in with a jawline, hair and a neck etc.) Is there any particular reason you're going for this style?
Zelphyr Topic Starter

Abigail_Austin wrote:
YES, I totally see the "must not murder" expression under "angry, smiling." All of the other ones look like what they're supposed to be, to me, except one: the "angry, raised eyebrows," guy doesn't look angry to me.

Woo, at least that narrows it! I actually was making faces myself to draw them, and I could feel angry face with raised eyebrows, but efforts to draw it just... Didn't come out right.

Sanne wrote:
I like what you've got so far. :) I expected more detailed faces though (as in with a jawline, hair and a neck etc.) Is there any particular reason you're going for this style?

I'm lazy, and I wanted examples up quickly. I definitely encourage more detail for anyone willing!
Novalyyn wrote:
Abigail_Austin wrote:
YES, I totally see the "must not murder" expression under "angry, smiling." All of the other ones look like what they're supposed to be, to me, except one: the "angry, raised eyebrows," guy doesn't look angry to me.

Woo, at least that narrows it! I actually was making faces myself to draw them, and I could feel angry face with raised eyebrows, but efforts to draw it just... Didn't come out right.

Sanne wrote:
I like what you've got so far. :) I expected more detailed faces though (as in with a jawline, hair and a neck etc.) Is there any particular reason you're going for this style?

I'm lazy, and I wanted examples up quickly. I definitely encourage more detail for anyone willing!

Novalyyn, I just want to say that the image of you making faces of different expressions in your mirror to draw them made me smile. That's pretty adorable. Carry on!
Zelphyr Topic Starter

Abigail_Austin wrote:
Novalyyn, I just want to say that the image of you making faces of different expressions in your mirror to draw them made me smile. That's pretty adorable. Carry on!
Nah, no mirror. Just guessing how it looks based on how it feels. XD Less seeing how it looks, and more considering how the face might legitimately change for different feelings.
Which, incidentally, is supported by science!
Research shows that the ability to imitate an expression helps us to understand the feeling that causes it, and it's theorized (as in proper scientific theory that already had evidence to support it) that holding and expression can alter our feelings. The VSauce guy does some digestible mini-experiments on it in his show Mind Field, including one where people were given the same tasks, but one group was "tricked" into "smiling" the whole time and the other to "frowning," and the "smilers" consistently reported a more positive experience!


Also sometimes touching my face to better feel out wrinkles and stuff.
Well that's amusing too. Category: things to do at home and not at a coffeeshop! Although if someone was doing that at a coffeeshop, I would probably have to go talk to them, for sure. I don't know how you do that though, that's amazing. I'd have to see it. Anyways, it looks good.
Emo

Novalyyn wrote:
Nah, no mirror. Just guessing how it looks based on how it feels. XD Less seeing how it looks, and more considering how the face might legitimately change for different feelings.

Thats how I draw faces xD
I took a different approach. I have been going through an art block and i need to work on my facial expressions so i did Raine. I didn't do all of them because I was a little stumped on how to draw some expressions but thats okay. it was a good exercise regardless

expression_challenge_raine_by_inquisitorcat-dcjsnke.png

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