Drawing Anime expressions comes down to lots of practice and memorization of certain patterns in the facial features. Once we internalize how the elements of expression work – the eyes, the eyebrows, the nose, and the mouth, we can adjust to convey a set of varying expressions. Understanding how facial features come to form expressions such as laughter, confusion, anger, happiness, sadness, excitement and so on, we can become confident and comfortable at drawing Anime expressions from our memory.
Let’s start by studying the most common facial expressions in Anime and Manga art. We will use a classic example Neon Genesis Evangelion, as well as some others.
For each redrawn frame in this guide, we will go through the analysis of the composition of the facial features that provide for a specific expression.
Synonyms Funny And Joyful Royalty Free Vector Image
Without further ado, let’s then start on our important work of identifying how features are adjusted to achieve the desired emotion in an Anime drawing.
Before we get into specific expressions and how to draw them, it is important to discuss exactly what we will be working with. When developing a new expression for your Anime characters, realize that you are working with specific elements. Here they are:
This means as we evaluate expressions, pay attention to the eyes and the lips first. How were they drawn to express happiness, anger, sadness, excitement, surprise, and so on? Try identifying them separately. First, segment the features and look at them separately and also look at them in that order: eyes and lips, eyebrows, nose, then the silhouette of the face.
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Further, when we set out to redraw some expressions, or design expressions of our own, try this approach of designing elements in a sequence:
Excitement, happiness, laughter are all interrelated emotions and represented very closely in Anime art. Laughter and general feeling of happiness is usually accompanied by an open mouth, closed eyes that follow the roundness of the eyebrows and some indicator of emotional spike on the cheeks – usually a form of crosshatching is employed, or change of color to show blushing.
Happy and content feelings are similarly represented, mostly with the lips closed. Lips are drawn in an arc curving up communicating that the character is pleased or content.
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Look closely at the line representing the mouth at the above drawing, the line is thicker at the edges and disappears in the middle. Where the line ceases to exist is an area where the lips are pressed closer together, resulting in less of an opening for the shadows to occur.
One of the ways to draw a content or happy face when drawing Anime expressions is to create a careful half-smile with the lips closed, and draw the eyes open not too wide, as well as have the eyebrows follow the shape of the eye.
To show laughter or joy, we can further manipulate the facial features. Remember, we are working with the eyebrows, the eyes, the nose, the lips and the shape of the cheeks/jaw in orchestrating our emotions on Anime characters. In the example right above, the eyes are closet shut, the jaw is open (except in many angles, instead of moving the jaw down, the nose moves up on the face to make space for the open mouth, note this is not the case in real life. In reality, the bottom of the jaw moves down, and the top (above upper lip) and the nose stay stationary). The teeth are showing.
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In the example above, a female character is drawn in a similar way: the eyes are closed, and the teeth are on display. Feelings of joy are largely expressed by the eyebrows and the corners of the mouth. Also, notice the tilt of the head, she is kicking her head back, as people often do when they are laughing or smiling.
Sadness is usually represented with the eyes shown as staring into the distance, as if staring at something beyond the tangible materials items in the vicinity. The above frame can express sadness or concern. The lines that develop the lips are carefully designed and drawn to indicate displeasure. The eyebrow is lowered close to the eye. Both work in tandem to create a foreboding feeling.
In Anime, expressions of sadness are visualized through closed eyes, and a couple of small marks for the lips. Notice the edge of the mouth is pointing downward.
Herlander Elias (2012) The Anime Galaxy
Anger is perhaps the easiest to represent in Anime and Manga art. Features determining this emotion are easy to identify: the eyebrows are lowered and slanted to the center of the face. The mouth is open – the character is often shouting in anger. The whites of the eyes are visible as the eyes are open wide.
Really intense and emotional spikes of anger are highlighted by a shouting mouth in Anime, perhaps just like in real life. In this expression, the jaw will move down substantially in real life, but no so much in Anime and Manga art. The silhouette of the head stays the same in most examples. However, a lot of the faces showing anger in Anime are drawn with the nose higher on the face, making space for the open-shouting mouth.
A drawing of a character shouting at another, or a character leaping into a fight with a battle cry is characterized by a forward-moving motion. Notice how in the image just above, the head is drawn to show forward movement. Inevitably, if this drawing showed up in Anime frames, we would see the character moving forward (to our right) on the screen.
Drawing Of Anime Facial Expressions Chart Illustrations, Royalty Free Vector Graphics & Clip Art
The jaw is dropped down at this angle (unlike in the two examples above). We are looking up from below at this character – as indicated by us seeing the bottom of the nose, and the bottom of the chin, and not seeing the top of the hair/head.
This is a good time to talk about the angle from which the face is drawn (or served up to the viewer). It is unusual to see emotions of happiness or joy to be drawn from this angle of looking up at the character. This tells us that Anime artists carefully select the camera for each frame, harnessing the camera angle to work for them in conveying emotion.
In the example above, the eyebrows are tipped down to the center of the face, showing displeasure. The eyes are open wide, focused on the object of dissatisfaction (often another character in the story).
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In the above example, anger is depicted in another way. Here, there is no shouting of visible rage, instead, the character is silent and focused, yet we feel anger brooding in their mind. Pay close attention to the lines of the mouth. That single dash of a line between the lips represents the lips clenched tightly together. It is very subtle to the eye, but our mind picks up on it right away.
Pay close attention to the distance between the eyes and the eyebrows, the distance is shortened in faces showing anger, hostility, and so on.
Finally, take a look at the shape of the eyes. In each eye, the iris is seen through underneath the upper eyelid. The upper eyelid has been manipulated to generally follow the curve sloping downward toward the nose. While we might not find eyes shaped this way in real life, we can find examples of this expression when we look at the eyebrows in an angry face.
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Above is another example that can be staged to describe fury or anger or alarm. Much also depends on how the rest of the body is drawn. This character could be trying to get the attention of others and the face can be described as expressing alarm.
Alternatively, the face could describe anger or fury. Ambiguity in this example comes up through the eyebrows. If the eyebrows were to be drawn slightly higher up, the resulting expression would signify definite alarm, if the eyebrows were to be drawn pointing down to the nose, the expression would signify definite anger.
It is worth noting, that when expressions of anger are taken to the extreme, like in the above example, we end up with a face expressing rage or fury. In this case, Asuka’s mouth is open even wider, the eyes are also open wider, and the eyebrows are sloping down further.
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Bushing faces in Anime are expressed with cheeks turning rosy red. When the artist wants to demonstrate that someone is really shy, they may extend this rosy blush over the bridge of the nose. Blush could be added to expressions of surprise, shyness, dismay, or if someone is upset or angry until they are “red in the face”. A character who is shown to be an extreme introvert will often be drawn with some blush in many scenes.
Drawing an anime character upset comes down to manipulating the same features: the corners of the mouth are down, the eyebrows are low on the eyes. A crying character can be depicted in various ways, usually, the eyes are semi-closed, and the tears are built up in circular drops on the corners of the eyes, and
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