The Girl: Expression Sheet
How to create expression
Introduction
Illustrating your character's expressions is both enjoyable (seeing your characters finally coming to life more fully) and the hardest parts (adjusting minute features and experimenting with proportions) of the character design process. But with time and cutting yourself some slack as you work through the process you can also get through it only slightly scathed.
For some illustrators, they will do a wide spectrum of facial expressions during this phase. Including both major and minor expressions. But for me I am sticking with the basic six as defined by the psychologist Paul Eckman they are:
Happiness
Sadness
Fear
Disgust
Anger
Surprise
These six emotions can then be combined to make more complex emotions later on. I did consider adding Eckman’s later editions as well (Pride, shame, embarrassment, and excitement) but I decided to keep it simple and explore those other emotions as they come allowing for more spontaneous discoveries.
In keeping with my first post on creating this character, I will still be using Margaret O’Brien as my point of reference for developing these expressions. I like her acting style which tends to be mild and not over the top (though she could cry really well especially in “Meet Me in St. Louis”), so when you do see her doing a more over-the-top expression it really stands out, which is something that I want to bring out in my own character as well, restraint and then large emotional peaks.
I think I got the start of something in these expressions there not perfect, but they’re a start to build upon. As the project goes on, I’ll get even more comfortable with each character and that comfort will lead to more expressions and exaggeration.
Here are some of the things I learned while I worked on these expressions.
Take your time with them. It can be a little uncanny to see your character look differently than the original design.
Stay loose and feel out the emotion.
Remember these are just added references. You may use them, or you may not.
It's all about learning and exploring the character at this time.
Don’t be hard on yourself if the expressions aren’t perfect (usually no one sees this part of the process anyway.)
Don’t be too worried if your images don’t exactly match your reference. When using real people as a reference you're only trying to grab a feeling not so much a likeness.
Push the emotion and then you can tailor it back.
Don’t let any design hiccups stop you from progressing in your own work it will get even better and grow as the project progresses.
Most importantly, have fun! That’s what art is all about in the end anyway.
Another handy tip for learning to replicate your character is to draw it freehand at first and then to copy and paste a similarly placed head position and use that to fix any problems that you are having. As you more than likely noticed I was having trouble drawing my character's head to spec. And this helped me to get a better footing. It helped me see that I made the jaw a little too thick, the cheek slightly too wide at times. This is why trace overs are always helpful in the process of getting to know your characters. It will also help to ease any disappointment or stress that you may experience while working.
Images
Though I'm not completely satisfied with how this came out. I’m also not going to let that stop me from progressing to the next step of the pre-production process.
Time lapse
Next time
In the next post I am going to work on the umbrella prop for the Girl and design it in a couple of practical positions that I will then turn into a drag and drop asset for easier use later on.
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