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The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression?
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No the problem is with the expression, not the rendering. I think you didn't commit to an expression, so you did sort of a neutral one, but it comes off as jovial.
You should pick this up and run through it. This is one of the best expression books, because it doesn't use actors faking emotions for the photo-shoot. These are reproductions of candid photographs of expressions, so they're real: https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Complete-Guide-Facial-Expression/dp/0823004325
Have a look at that.
The most useful thing I have found is to cultivate a habit of smiling whenever you greet someone or pass someone you recognize, whenever they're speaking to you about something neutral or positive, or any other time that you're at a loss how to express happiness or friendliness. (I developed this habit because my resting face apparently looks forlorn, and I was tired of people asking me what was wrong.)
Smiling makes you seem more approachable, and it tends to be infectious; seeing you look happy helps other people feel happy, and people who feel happy around you will naturally gravitate to you, even if you're quiet or shy.
Practice realistic smiles. It's not enough to curl your mouth; you have to smile with your eyes (in fact, you can do almost anything with your mouth and still have it read as joy if you smile with your eyes). There are different muscles involved with real smiles and fake-looking smiles, too (for example, showing your lower teeth is indicative of a fake smile).
If, like me, you struggle a bit with understanding facial expressions and the muscles involved in making them, this is a great resource (not just for artists, despite the title). This book can also help you read other people's subtle expressions, which aids being more empathetic and likeable.
So I think everything about your image is extra good. It's very well executed.
I have one suggestion that I think can boost drawings like this a bit. It has to do with capturing more intense and nuanced emotion: https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Complete-Guide-Facial-Expression/dp/0823004325
In this book, the writer collected candid photographs of people actually experiencing the range of human emotions, then drew them to throw off the copyright. There is also musculature analysis. I can't stress enough that this book will help you better capture subtle emotion, but also will show you how to draw whole-hog emotions like extreme anguish and stuff. Just looking at his drawings are very stirring. Just looking at the hysterically laughing faces make you smile. It's funny how well it works.
This process of capturing people "in the moment" is vastly superior to using a studio model who is "trying" to make a sad face. The book goes into depth on how there are "fake smiles" vs "real smiles" for example.
This is really a game-changer for artists who want to emotionally affect the audience. I've read this book a few times and from that I could give you some pointers that would really make the expression more convincing. Things off the top of my head are: - Its unlikely the forehead would be smooth when the eyebrows are furrowed like that. - During even mild sadness the chin compresses, and draws the mouth down. Your mouth is pretty neutral.
If you do end up leaning toward the game industry, id recommend a LOT more quick sketches, maybe just work on 1 character for awhile and get a lot of sketches of them doing different faces. Doing real looking expressions will always be needed no matter the art style.
I've met a few people who made it into pixar and such and they all tell me art directors care more about your sketches than your renders, they care more about your creativity than your skill. Although skill is good.
DO NOT draw WoW stuff to get a job at blizzard, your stuff is great, but never use their style to get in with them, why would they want what they already have, if you want to get into a company you need to offer something they don't.
So I would research what jobs you would go for, find their art, concept, in game, anything and find their weak point. Then perfect it in your own style.
Sorry if this goes on too long, but I myself tried for a short time to make it as an artist, but the schools burnt me out and I haven't drawn in almost a year, they were not teaching what I wanted and my art went nowhere because I felt bored, and couldn't afford any other type of school. So now on to my engineering degree!
Please don't take this as a bad crit, honestly your stuff is great.
Also if you want to be in a creative position go 2d, 3d from what i hear end up just doing what they are told rather than what they want, in the forms of looks and whatnot.
I can't recall all of the references, but in terms of general expressions, I think they could be strengthened and made a little less ambiguous.
Take the crying one. For crying, you generally see the entire brow lowered, especially the inner portion. That high brow, especially the high inside of the brow, reads more like worry or surprise. You've got the wide mouth, which is good, but you'd probably want the lower lip to curve up and have the upper lip straight. You can see that pretty clearly in the clip. When you've got the mouth stretched so far up and the upper teeth showing, it's very easy to misinterpret this as laughter.
For the angry one, you've got some good stuff, but have missed a couple of key things. You've got the down angle of the brow and the extra wide eyes, but for the real rage Jesse is having, the brow should come down over the top lid. You wouldn't see whites at the top of his eyes. The mouth should be squared off and we should see top and bottom teeth. Also, look at the huge crease that runs from his nose all the way to the chin in the reference.
For "science, bitch!", in the reference, the brows are totally relaxed and the eyes are slightly narrowed, both of which are generally signs of happiness. But you've got super wide eyes and down angled brows, which sort of confuse things. Check his mouth, which has a straight top lip with high corners and a very similar crease to the one you see in his angry expression.
Our expressions are generally driven by the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth, and those parts also create creases and wrinkles in the more extreme positions. You've got awesome and totally appropriate creases around the eyebrows and lower lids in the angry expressions, but you're not really doing anything with the wide and tense mouths for that or the crying expression.
The style you're going for might not allow of these notes to really matter, but I think when you're working in a slightly simpler style like this, it's even more important to know which lines matter and help you tell the story you want to tell. Get the angle and height of the brow right, figure out the eye lids, and then sort out the shape and tension around the mouth, and you'll have everything you need to tell the story in just a couple of lines.
Most of what I learned came from observation and Gary Faigin's amazing book, The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression. I have the older edition, but it looks like it's still in print and might be worth checking out. Here's a quick flip through on YouTube.
Get Gary Faigin's Complete Guide to Facial Expression. I picked up the book years ago and it's invaluable for identifying the key components of facial expression. You'll still need to be able to draw features and forms, but I took a look at your work and you'll be just fine.
Here's a video that does a quick flipthrough to give you an idea.
Di libri ce ne sono a bizzeffe.
Visto che vorresti fare i ritratti ti consiglio questo, che spiega quali sono i tratti fondamentali da cogliere per rappresentare le espressioni del volto:
Per la prospettiva poi questo è stato quello che ho trovato più utile, lo ritengo una buona via di mezzo tra il tecnico ed il pratico:
> Do you have a link for this?
I'm sorry, but I don't. That was 13 years ago. It was an experimental program offered at the local uni as part of a research program. The doc who did my diagnosis was one of the researchers, which is how I found out about it.
I see from a quick Google search that there are several firms offering courses either live or online. For example:
Research: http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2011/05/facial-expressions.aspx
Book: www.amazon.com/Artists-Complete-Guide-Facial-Expression/dp/0823004325/
Google Play app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Mazuzu.ExpressionTraining&hl=en
Pinterest page: https://www.pinterest.com/explore/micro-expression-training/
Courses and workshops:
https://www.memrise.com/course/122216/a-guide-to-body-language/
http://www.openlearningworld.com/innerpages/Body%20Language.htm
https://www.universalclass.com/i/course/body-language-101.htm
http://www.robertphipps.com/articles/181-micro-and-macro-expressions
https://www.scienceofpeople.com/2013/09/guide-reading-microexpressions/
https://www.udemy.com/micro-expressions-training-body-language-lie-detection/
http://microexpressionstrainingvideos.com/micro-expressions-training/
https://www.paulekman.com/micro-expressions-training-tools/
I can't recommend any of these courses from personal experience, and I really can't tell which ones are legit, so you should be careful, but they all look like spinoffs from the kind of training I got.
> Is this really something we can learn?
Yes, definitely. I was really bad at it at the start, but after 13 weeks I scored well above the average for untrained NTs. And it carries over outside the lab.
Just an oddity: the expression and body language stuff was the most useful for me and other Aspies, but NTs find the microexpression training most helpful. Apparently most NTs are as blind to microexpressions as many of us are to regular expressions.
Art books maybe ? http://www.amazon.com/Artists-Complete-Guide-Facial-Expression/dp/0823004325
Found this one pretty varied.
i mostly know art so:
Beginner art for teens and adults - Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
Gesture drawing - Gesture Drawing for Animation by Walt Stanchfield (legendary teacher at Disney, this is a "fan-made" pdf of his class notes. this is also free, they made a book of his notes as well, but Walt himself said he wanted them to be for everyone)
Anatomy for the purpose of drawing the human figure - Dynamic Anatomy by Burne Hogarth
Perspective - Perspective for Comic Book Artists
Color - Color & Light by Jame Gurney (this one assumes some familiarity, i've yet to find a really good book on color in general which is even remotely practical, you just have to experiment)
Facial expression - The Artists Complete Guide to Facial Expression by Gary Faigin
Animation/Intermediate art - The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation (this book is more than just a mere animation book, its full of information every artist should be familiar with, the Disney cartoons are extremely advanced despite their soft edges)
On making art - Art & Fear
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