50 Facial Expressions and How to Draw Them
Here’s a guide to drawing a variety of different emotions, moods, and characters.
Tips for Drawing Facial Expressions
The Most Important Features
- The Eyes - Probably the most important feature for evoking a clear emotion. Utilize the eyelids and eyebrows to create your effect.
- The Cheeks - The way they squash and stretch will affect the look and position of the eyes.
- The Mouth - The shape of the mouth is also very important. It affects how the cheeks move and the shape of the entire face.
Additional Tips
- Note that when you move the shape and position of one feature, it affects everything else. Nothing stands completely on its own.
- For a stronger drawing and character, really push the expression. Instead of simply drawing a happy person, draw one that is ecstatic; instead of drawing an angry person, draw a furious one.
- Have a mirror nearby. When I’m trying to nail down an expression, I often find my own face making weird movements unconsciously. It can make for good reference.
Facial Expressions Chart
Happy
|
Ecstatic
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Content
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Sad
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Depressed
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Embarrassed
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Nervous
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Angry
|
Furious
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Devious
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Bored
|
Annoyed
|
Surprised
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Tired
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Exhausted
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Disgusted
|
Something Stinks
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Are You Kidding Me?
|
Hyper
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Grumpy
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Proud
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Cute
|
Snob
|
Brat
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Evil
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Sneeze
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Sour
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Talking
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Shouting
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Laughing
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Excited
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Twitterpated
|
Smile!
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Fake Smile
|
Wink
|
Asleep
|
Shut Tight
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Kiss
|
Scared
|
Terrified
|
Studly
|
Tough
|
Intimidating
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Stoic
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Intense
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Goofy
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Serious
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Thinking
|
Supermodel
|
Confused
|
Download a PDF version here.
Feel free to leave additional tips, comments, links, and info by commenting on this post at DaniDraws.com.
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December 6th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Great!
December 6th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Cool one Dani !
I’m just about to get into a 3d character animation project, and your chart will sure come in handy.
Thank you very much !
December 7th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Great collection! Guess it will help me for future drawings.
Big thanks!
December 8th, 2007 at 1:02 am
TE LA SABES CHICA CADA VES ME HAGO MAS Y MAS FAN TUYO… GRACIAS POR TUS TIPS
December 8th, 2007 at 1:03 am
Gracias por los tips te la sabes, cada vez soy fan tuyo… muchas gracias
December 11th, 2007 at 2:21 am
Arigatoo Gozaimashita. Thank you very much. Translated from Japanese. Yeah, I downloaded the .pdf file to study later.
December 12th, 2007 at 4:00 am
You’re brilliant, Miss Jones. Absolutely brilliant.
December 12th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
wow, you are so good! Thanks so much!
December 17th, 2007 at 7:53 am
Very cool facial expressions! You are skillful!
Dugg
December 17th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Hi,
Great article! Is it ok if I link to it on my blog?
Really useful stuff!
Seb
December 17th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Yes, Seb. Linking is fine with me. I only have a problem with duplicating an article in its entirety.
December 17th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Great work Dani! You’re very talented.
December 18th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Yeah, those are great– if your head’s a circle… Look at Loomis instead.
December 20th, 2007 at 4:59 am
Awesome drawings!
December 21st, 2007 at 5:40 pm
amateurish. I doubt if this can be of help to anyone.
and if you won’t follow the guides (circle and central lines) why do you bother drawing them?
December 23rd, 2007 at 5:00 pm
good stuff.. keep it up!
December 24th, 2007 at 5:23 am
Thank you so much for including the pdf version. I appreciate that very much. You are quite talented!
December 24th, 2007 at 10:55 am
This chart has helped me understand so much about expression, be it round heads or not.
December 25th, 2007 at 1:10 am
This is of help to those who have only ever drawn stick figures ( like me) haha Thanks!
December 26th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Cool! Great work!
December 29th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
This would make a great moo theme at livejournal. would you make one? or allow me to do so, with credit, of course!
January 4th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Nice! Thank you, I’ll download your PDF and use it for future drawing references!
January 5th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Very nice! Regardless of whether you are drawing this figure or your own style, it’s an awesome guide to basic expressions. I use guide lines in a similar way, to keep a somewhat accurate perspective, but they are just that, guides.
January 7th, 2008 at 8:49 am
awesome…handling is so gud and idea of drawing such a sketch iz fabulous becoz nothing is impossible but not even easy but DANI u have done with it n ur work iz worthy..and even self-precious….WELLDONE keep putting ur efforts to be more presentable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 7th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Great!!!!
January 9th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Thank you very much!
January 14th, 2008 at 4:24 am
Dear Dani.
You are great. First time in life I could draw faces so well taking tips from you. Thanks a lot.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:46 am
Excellant help!
You were a lifesaver with this!
January 17th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Excelleeeeent!!! :):):) thank you veery muuuuch )
January 18th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Great drawings, such expression. i’m a primary school teacher and this will be very useful to me. I will definitely use it with my students. Thank you so much.
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 pm
thanks a lot!!
February 26th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Great!
You are quite talented!
March 15th, 2008 at 4:28 am
Thanks a lot
March 17th, 2008 at 12:13 am
that s great!!!!! i am learning about sketching cartoons by myself now my cartoon characters got the life ………. thanx a lot… and i have downloaded .pdf file …. is there any more facial expression than these????
March 27th, 2008 at 1:16 am
Very cute faces! The expressions are perfect.
April 11th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Hey Dani,
I have fallen from heaven. I’llbe using your tips to draw for my students….We are talking about mixed emotions and this comes in handy!
Great job
Paulo
Manaus - Am
Brazil
April 15th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
These facial expressions are fantastic. I am a trainee primary school teacher aide. I’m going to have some drawing lessons with some of my students with aspergers. As they have trouble reading body language and facial expressions I definently feel that your drawings are going to help them hugely.
Thanks heaps
Rach.
April 26th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
hiyaa. i hope you can some more pictures on your website cos i think its real good. could you possibly put some more realistic facial expressions on so that i can please learnt hem. thank you ever so much. its realy appreciated that someone goes to the reouble of helping people like me. thank you. x x x x
April 26th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
thank you for the help. i can use these in my gcse art portfolio as i am doing expressive faces. this is perfect. thanxx
May 4th, 2008 at 8:46 am
hey good drawings! i was kinda looking for heads that are more like Calvin and Hobbs. but thanks anyway!
p.s. is it ok if i save this as one of my favorites?
May 9th, 2008 at 5:48 am
Wow!
Really good post Dani!
May 13th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Great guide to have. Thanks!
June 18th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Thank you for taking the time to put all of these GREAT tutorials together and sharing. The information here is invaluable! Wonderful stuff and fantastic work! I’m definitely going to try out many of your tips!
June 19th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Great expressions. A little cartoony, but very adorable
June 27th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
i loved this expressions *-*
very funny!
August 6th, 2008 at 4:20 am
Those are excellent, they really capture emotion.
Makes me want to get back to drawing.
Jason
http://www.mythemefinder.com
September 10th, 2008 at 3:41 am
Very cool resource for my own art. I have now bookmarked this page and http://www.faceturn.com as a future reference for face expressions. Thanks very much!
September 21st, 2008 at 5:45 am
Thanks a lot man, this will greatly help me out with my comic