Our faces change by the moment as we respond to our environment. Even small movements can provoke responses from people, but, particularly for stronger emotions, our features usually act in combination. For example, when we smile we don’t only move our mouths, we crease up our eyes too. Smiling with the mouth and not the eyes looks fake – and people are sensitive to the difference.
We are so keen to communicate through our faces that we adopt ‘sympathetic’ expressions. If people around us are laughing it can be hard not to smile ourselves, even if we don’t know what the joke is; or if we see someone get hurt, we may wince as if we felt it ourselves. When you are drawing someone with a distinct expression, you may find yourself involuntarily mimicking it as you work. Similarly, when we are concentrating on an activity our faces will help it along, like the small child who sticks her tongue out when she’s intent on her classwork.
Facial expression is so important and powerful that your ability to get it just right can make or break a work of art. Some of art’s most famous works depend for their effect upon an expression, such as the anguished howl of The Scream. Other cases are more subtle. In his book Faigin uses the great example of this pair of portraits by Courbet:
The left-hand painting depicts the model Joanna Hiffernan admiring herself in a mirror. In the right-hand version, however, her bent-upward eyebrows make her expression more anxious. Faigin observes that the right-hand painting becomes ‘a meditation on the fleeting nature of beauty, or a study of melancholy’. A simple adjustment transforms our response to the image.
Muscles of facial expression
Our expressive faces are animated by a network of muscles, lying under the surface and concentrated in particular around the eyes and mouth. They are tiny and don’t really have any bulk of their own. Whereas most of our muscles work by pulling two bones together, the facial muscles attach to the skull and insert into the skin; when they contract, the skin end is pulled towards the bone end.
We have looked at the muscles of the head and neck before, but below I have annotated them with the origin and insertion of the major muscles and their role in facial expressions. My notes are only brief – I haven’t tried to list every single muscle that contributes.
You should be aware that not every anatomist agrees about which muscles do what. Unlike some muscles, those of the face are threadlike and complex and therefore can be hard to figure out.
Key
1. Frontalis. This is the forehead muscle. Origin: along hairline. Insertion: under eyebrows. Action: raises one or both eyebrows, wrinkling the forehead above.
2. Procerus. This fan-shaped muscle sits between the eyebrows. Origin: nose cartilage and nasal bone. Insertion: skin of forehead. Action: acts with the corrugator (see note 3) and the depressor supercilii (see note 4). Allows us to scrunch up our eyebrows into a frown. The procerus pushes down and the corrugator pushes inwards.
& 3. Corrugator. Lies underneath the orbicularis oculi. Origin: nasal bridge. Insertion: middle of eyebrow. Action: Lowers inner end of eyebrow downwards and inwards to create a frown.
4. Orbicularis oculi. This muscle encircles each eye socket (orbit). On the inside corner there is a triangle called the depressor supercilii, sometimes considered a separate muscle. Origin: inner orbit. Insertion: the skin of the eyelids and eye socket. Action: the inner portion of the muscle on the eyelids (not visible on my main illustration because the eyes are open) opens and shuts the lids; the surrounding outer portion squeezes the eye shut, e.g. when squinting. In time this action creates crow’s feet in the outer corners.
5. Levator labii superioris alaeque nasi (LLSAN). Runs down either side of the nose in long strips. Origin: root of nose. Insertion: has three branches that insert into the skin above the upper lip. Action: Lifts the upper lip and wings of the nose when we sneer and register disgust.
6. Levator labii superioris. Further out from the nose than the LLSAN, and known as the sneering muscle. Origin: Lower orbit. Insertion: skin of upper lip. Action: helps raise the upper lip.
7. Orbicularis oris. This circular muscle surrounds the mouth and many other muscles weave into it, allowing a wide range of movements. Origin: upper and lower jaw bones. Insertion: the lips. Action: closes, compresses and puckers the lips, for example for kissing.
8. Zygomaticus major and minor. These are the larger and smaller cheekbone muscles. The minor is on top. Origin: zygomatic bone (cheekbone). Insertion: corner of the mouth. Action: both muscles work with the risorious to pull the mouth wide into a smile.
& 9. Risorius. Sits on either side of the mouth. Origin: Zygomatic arch / tissue around the parotid gland. Insertion: other muscles around the mouth. Action: sometimes termed the ‘laughing muscle’, it contracts upward and outward to extend the mouth in a smile, creating dimples.
10. Depressor anguli oris, a.k.a. triangularis. Drops from the corner of the mouth to the jawline. Origin: bottom of jawbone. Insertion: skin and muscle at corner of mouth. Action: pulls down the corner of the mouth as in a grimace or expression of sadness.
11. Depressor labii inferioris. Sits under the lower lip. Origin: bottom of jawbone. Insertion: skin and muscle of lower lip. Action: Contracts to pull bottom lip downwards and/or to the side, for example while speaking or in sad expressions.
12. Mentalis. A V-shaped muscle on the chin. Origin: lower jaw just under the teeth. Insertion: skin of the chin. Action: Pulls the skin of the chin upward, creating a pout.
13. Platysma. A broad sheet that extends up the neck. Origin: chest and shoulder muscles. Insertion: jawbone and skin of lower face. Action: Helps pull down the corners of mouth and the jaw.
Some areas of the face are more expressive than others. Our expressions are created by many muscles working together across the face, but the main centres are the mouth and above all the brows and eyes, which often work in combination. Compared to them, the nose moves little, aside from the occasional flaring or wrinkling, and the ears barely play a role at all. People are very good at interpreting expressions going by the brows and eyes alone.
Important facial expressions
Psychological research, in particular the work of Paul Ekman in the 1960s, has suggested that there are six facial expressions universally recognised in every human culture: sadness, anger, joy, fear, disgust and surprise. In Making Comics Scott McCloud labels these ‘emotional primaries’, arguing that we can expand our palette of emotions by mixing two or more of the primaries.
It is clear that facial expression is to a large extent universal across all humanity, but whether there really are ‘six basic expressions’ is debateable, and I’m not convinced it’s a useful concept. So what follows is simply a set of illustrations and notes on a handful of common expressions – you will find plenty of similar, more comprehensive studies in books and online.
Please don’t treat such guides as definitive. Human expression is infinite, and often takes forms you won’t find on a chart. There is not one sort of smile, for example: smiles can be broad, proud, fake, sexy, appeasing, rueful and so on. And every emotion has a range of intensities: sadness can range from feeling a bit off-colour to a fit of heart-rending grief. As always you must rely on observation of real behaviour to get things just right.
Sadness
There is a general downward pull at the sides. The eyebrows slant upward at the inside, and may knit the brow. The eyes narrow. The mouth forms a pout, with a long, squared-off upper lip.
Accompanied by slumping shoulders.
Anger
The eyebrows draw down low, furrowing the brow and wrinkling the top of the nose. The eyes stare. The nostrils flare and the mouth snarls.
Accompanied by an aggressive forward tilt of the head and shoulders, and a reddening of the face.
Fear
The eyebrows rise. The eyes widen, with raised upper lids that show white above the pupil, and the pupils contract. The mouth opens and stretches.
The head may flinch backwards.
Joy
The eyebrows rise. The lower eyelids rise too, creasing the skin at the outer corners. The cheeks bunch and lift. The mouth opens wide to reveal the teeth, curving upwards at the corners and creating a nasolabial fold.
Surprise
Eyebrows lift up. The eyes open wide, exposing the eye white at least above the top of the iris. The mouth drops open.
Accompanied by a backwards jerk of the head.
Cruelty
This is basically a combination of anger with a smile.
Disgust
To express disgust the face creases up. The eyebrows drop and the brow creases at the top of the nose. The eyes narrow. The nose wrinkles and the nostrils pull upwards. The mouth opens and narrows, pulled down at the bottom corners and filled by the tongue. The chin wrinkles up.
Contempt
The brows and eyes remain neutral while the lip pulls back and up, raising the nostril and creating a nasolabial fold. Tends to be asymmetrical with the sneer or half-smile appearing on one side only.
Wrinkles
When muscles contract, the skin has to bunch up to fill a smaller space, and this creates wrinkles. Some of the most obvious wrinkles are the furrows on our brows, or the nasolabial fold that appears between our mouths and cheeks. These wrinkles appear on everybody, but the older we get, the more the years of contracting and expanding deepens them. Eventually old age creates a pattern of characteristic wrinkles on our faces – someone who smiles constantly and strongly will wrinkle differently to someone who smiles rarely.
When you draw wrinkles bear in mind that they are not just lines on the face. They are forms in themselves and lit the same way as other forms: in normal lighting they will be darker in the folds and lighter on the peaks, and when the light on them is intense, they become less obvious.
Note how I have not made the wrinkles perfectly regular or symmetrical. Real faces are organic forms and when the skin is too perfect or the repetitions too exact, they can start to look artificial.
Expressions in context
Facial expression is a powerful means of communication, but we often express emotion with our whole bodies. The face acts as the focal point and the body language reinforces it. For example a sad person may have slumped shoulders and bury their head in their hand.
We also follow cues from the person’s environment, such as the reactions of people around them, and what we know of the person’s immediate situation. Some expressions, such as a bellow of laughter at a joke, are easy to read, but others are less obvious and invite interpretations – without supporting information it can be difficult to know whether, for example, someone is crying out of grief or happiness. It is up to you as the artist to judge whether you are communicating your intentions successfully.
What to do next
However subtle and accurate your reading of expressions in daily life, it doesn’t follow that you can draw them. Keep a library of images, whether physical photos or digital or both. If you search the internet for facial expressions you will find no end of material. You can also look up the countless ways in which artists past and present have tried to depict expressions in their works.
Rely above all on direct observation. Watching others is difficult, as expressions are fleeting, and the stronger emotions are unusual. If someone near you is furious you may feel self-conscious about looking in their direction at all, let alone pulling your sketchbook out! You could ask friends to adopt different expressions for you, but they’ll probably just start laughing. The best method is to observe your own face, using a mirror. When it’s just you and a mirror, you can contort your face however you please.
Get to know the muscles, because it is easier to understand the subtle forms of facial expression when you know the underlying anatomy. However I am going to be iconoclastic and say that it is much more important to notice the precise forms on the surface, which you will be doing anyway, than to try and memorise the names and details of all the invisible stuff underneath. I am in favour of study, but doubt whether anyone’s drawing of a snarl is better because they can recite the origins and insertions of the levator labii superioris.
Practice. You need to make lot of studies. Once you know what you’re doing, you can create quite complex expressions with a minimum of drawing if need be (good for cartoons). As an alternative to drawing random faces pulling random expressions, try drawing a group scene where for example one person is talking and everybody else has a different individual reaction written on their faces.
Further resources
I have already mentioned the books by Gary Faigin and Scott McCloud. If you only get one book, get Faigin’s. McCloud, whatever you think of his ‘emotional primaries’, has lots of illustrations of expressions in that section of his book. There are also anatomy books such as Stephen Rogers Peck’s Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist that include sections on the facial muscles and expressions.
Artnatomy (www.artnatomia.net/uk) is an interactive online tool designed to teach ‘the anatomical and biomechanical foundation of facial expression morphology.’ The Flash interface enables you to visually explore expressions feature by feature, muscle by muscle. It is free to use online or you can purchase the software. The images aren’t always perfect but it’s quite an achievement and you may find it insightful.
I like Joumana Medlej’s article Human Anatomy Fundamentals: Mastering Facial Expressions in which she explores more individual expressions than I have done here.
