Gary Faigin

Drawing Facial Expressions

Gary Faigin

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  • In-depth Instruction; over 153 mins
  • On-demand video access anytime
  • Bonus downloadable PDF resources
  • Access to class Q&A
Meet your instructor, artist and author Gary Faigin. Gary gives you a glimpse into the techniques you'll learn over the course of this class and explains how to get the most out of the interactive Craftsy platform as you prepare to start drawing!
Why do we visibly express our emotions, and why are our brains so carefully trained to recognize facial expressions? Gary covers the answers to these questions and more as he guides you through the six most universal expressions: surprise, fear, sadness, anger, disgust and happiness. Next, Gary introduces you to the anatomy of the human face in regard to the elements that you'll be focusing on in your studies.
Surprise and fear are two fascinating and complex emotions, and Gary shares tips on the best ways to recognize and re-create both. You'll explore the fearful transformation that a face goes through after an initial shock, focusing on the curves of the mouth, eyebrow angles and white of the eyes. Gary shows you how to work with a mirror or a photo to create the exact fearful and surprised poses and expressions you need to inform your sketches.
Sadness is a powerful emotion that evokes deep reactions, but it it can be very difficult to draw. Explore the best ways to recognize the facial movements that indicate feelings such as sorrow, loneliness and regret before carefully studying the muscles that pull, pucker and strain various features of our faces. Gary shares examples of varying degrees of sadness to help you capture a range of emotions.
The mouth and the eyes are instrumental to recognizing and interpreting fear. You'll learn how to distinguish an angry expression from a fearful or sad one, and how to translate those elements into your portraits without accidentally drawing anger or sadness instead. Gary shares more valuable tips on how to elicit raw emotion from your subject (or yourself) as he shares techniques for drawing a range of angry faces.
We've all experienced disgust, but what does it look like? Discover the subtle and overt expressions that we give off when something turns our stomach and makes us react in revulsion. Gary shares troubleshooting techniques and efficient ways to draw as he outlines the areas of the face that turn up the nose and pull down the corners of the mouth.
Shakespeare's Hamlet once proclaimed "...one may smile, and smile, and be a villain," summarizing the complicated relationship human beings have with happiness. Explore the many secrets that can be contained in a single smile as Gary discusses the subtleties in expressions ranging from droll smiles to broad grins.
Continue your studies of the smile that you started in the prior lesson as you delve deeper into nuanced smiles, ranging from bittersweet expressions to overly eager and even phony smiles. You'll discover the importance of engaging (or not engaging) the eyes as well as how to sketch teeth without accidentally adding distracting details. You'll finish the class ready to capture virtually any expression, with a new understanding of the anatomy and emotions behind what a face is communicating.
 
 
8 Lessons
2  hrs 33  mins

Description

Discover techniques for drawing the human face’s full range of emotions alongside Gary Faigin. Draw faces that clearly exhibit the shock of surprise or the agitation of fear by accurately recreating the corresponding curves of the mouth, angles of the eyebrows and more. Understand the facial muscles that pull, pucker and strain to produce a spectrum of sad expressions. Depict different levels of anger as you learn the role of the mouth in creating this fiery expression. Portray faces drawn back in disgust as you capture the facial characteristics of this visceral reaction. And unlock the secrets for skillfully sketching every kind of smile: slight, broad, eager, bittersweet and even insincere. Learn how to draw realistic facial expressions for more impactful portraits and illustrations.

Gary Faigin

Gary Faigin wrote The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression, which is now in its 17th printing and published in six languages. Trained at the Art Students League of New York and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he taught in New York for 15 years. He is co-founder and artistic director of the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, where he teaches drawing and painting and leads art tours around the world with his wife, the architect Pamela Belyea.

Gary Faigin

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