I can’t draw for toffee! No 2

Expression and Emotion

Last week we left you scribbling away at faces made from the numerals 3 and 0. Just by pulling and pushing and sqeeeeeeeezing we found that you could create faces that had different characteristics just like this……

This week we are going to give them even more life. From birth we begin to recognise the most subtle changes in facial expression and interpret them as signals of mood. Why? Well let’s think about it. In a wordless society how else do you communicate except through facial and body movements. But you say we do use words all the time. But can you always trust words?

You may be listening to words but you are continually monitoring facial and body expression to try and work out whether the words fit the mood displayed on the face or by the body language ( we’ll look at body language in a later lesson.)

So let’s look at facial expression. It will be easier if we keep things simple so we’ll keep with our 3-0 faces for the time being. We’ll look at a couple of the more extreme emotions first…. Surprise and Anger.

No surprise it’s Surprise up first! BOOOOOO!! What does your face and upper body do when you have a surprise? Try to imagine or get someone to make you jump and see what it feels like. We are going to stretch everything up.

Start with your numeral three and stretch it. Do you see how we’re stretching the curly top too and adding a chin.

Start with your numeral three

Now we place the eyes a bit higher and show a bit of the white eyeball

Then we stretch the 0 shape for the head and add some very high eyebrows

What else can we add to make him look even more surprised? How about including his shoulders.

And what might his hair be doing?

So what are we learning here? Yes we’re learning to draw someone who is surprised but also we are showing how it feels to be surprised. That’s what a cartoon (for that’s what we’re dealing with at the moment) can do. It can show feelings not reality. It can convey complex emotions simply. So when you’re drawing it try to feel it!

Let’s try another one. Let’s have a go at ANGER! (Just realised anger is Danger without the D!)

Before we start try to feel what your face and body do when you’re angry. Just for a second though! We don’t want everyone having a day of grumpiness.

Using the 3-0 approach again (this isn’t the only way to begin cartoons it’s just the way we are using at the moment and it is quite effective.) Do you feel the anger? I don’t know about you but when I get angry I feel as though someone has screwed me up into a ball. A bit like what you do to a sheet of paper when your drawing has gone wrong again! So let’s distort the numeral three.

Add the eyes early. In anger it’s all about the eyes and the brow.

Woah! Look at that, one distorted line and two dots and you got angry already! Now add your 0.

Get the shoulders in they’ll help. Remember scrunch them up like the ball of paper.

Six lines and two dots and you’ve made yourself angry! Well done! Now go and make yourself a calming mint tea and just chill. Then watch how by adding a smile we can turn angry into menacing.

We’ve gone a bit Jack Nicholson now!

So I hope that you are enjoying yourself and are beginning to see how drawing can be great fun and that you are doing it! Give yourself another toffee.

Now your Homework. Let’s have a go at creating the heads and shoulders of very happy , really tired, besotted, manic, nervous and in pain. Use your 3-0 technique. I’ll have a go too and post mine mid week. Good luck and enjoy cos it’s funnnnnnnn!

See you next week when we’ll begin to look at a bit of body language or for the more academic amongst us the psychology of form but don’t let that put you off it’s just how different shapes make you feel.

Thanks for reading ‘I can’t draw for toffee’ I hope you enjoyed it. If you did tell your friends. And don’t forget to like and subscribe.