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smokesalty
May '22
1

I can't be the only one who loves drawing "ugly" facial expressions because they feel that much more impactful- (Used sparingly of course! I don't mean it for every scene/panel.)

I absolutely adore when comics have exaggerated facial expressions as it makes it all that much more fun to read for me.

Edit: Ugly is in airquotes as I don't actually believe the expressions are "ugly" - I mean that they're trying to be expressive rather than aesthetically appealing.

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    May '22

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    Jun '22
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NickRowler
May '22

I don’t find these faces to be ugly….

Honestly from the title the thing that came to mind were those Spongebob expressions which are so hideous and over the top and sort of designed to be used as reaction memes. And I was like “Oh no!”

liaroger
May '22

To me these show different emotions (or different stages of an emotion).

The first one looks almost like the person is still in shock after experiencing or witnessing something traumatic, and it's slowly starting to sink in what just happened, hence the first tears coming out of their eyes. The next one is them actually ugly crying about it.

The first smile doesn't look quite genuine, more like a polite smile (or one with suppressed rage), the second one looks more genuine.

The first angry face looks either mildly irritated or - again - like the character saw or heard something that angers them. The "what did you just say?" moment, and then their anger grows and becomes more visible, as shown in the second angry face.

I absolutely agree with you that it's good to use those "ugly" faces during the height of emotion though, and it's good advice considering many wouuld probably include the first faces anyway and struggle more with the more expressive ones (or be more hesitant to include them). There's a time and place for all of these face and it's always good to be able to utilise all of them.

(I'm really just agreeing with you lol, I'm procrastinating uni shit rn, that's why I talked about it at length)

smokesalty
May '22
NickRowler

I put them in quotation marks because I personally don't think they're ugly- I just don't see too many people drawing wrinkles to exaggerate emotions

smokesalty
May '22
liaroger

Absolutely! I more commonly draw the more "neutral" ones- which makes the more dramatic expressions all the more impactful (I had a ton of fun drawing both of them hehe)

Sometimes you only need a slightly sad emotion, sometimes you need the more extreme version, and it can really show how a character feels without any words. But yeah of course, overusing extreme expressions can make them lose their impact, which is why choosing the right moments is so important.

I think people do struggle with drawing more extreme faces because they're afraid of them looking ugly, but in my opinion extreme emotions don't need to look pretty- they just need to show how a character feels.

DualDragonsMaster of Yeet
May '22

I agree (although wouldn't call them ugly haha). Expressive faces just bring emotions home better for me. Otherwise it just feels plastic if that makes sense.

smokesalty
May '22

yup, absolutely! I think the extreme expressions look great, which is why ugly is in air quotes.

I notice a lot of comics that always keep the characters looking pretty- and while that's fine, I find myself not being as invested in sad moments because the faces aren't as expressive- but that might just be me. I love drama :sob::sob:

NickRowler
May '22
smokesalty

I do it, I feel like it is necessary for older adults. Tho it should be used sparingly with children because it can sometimes make them look old.

I would probably recommend people to not really use "bean mouths" because I feel like they are sort of limiting in range and they don't really look good when you are trying to make a character look cute.

MartaTod
May '22

I don't have the link at the moment, but some blog shared character design notes from "Coco" I think (but I could be wrong), and it had notes on how to draw lines on kids faces without making them look old. Like make the line parallel to the bottom of the eye if they're squinting, otherwise they'll look tired and old, and other guidelines like that.

It's a very fine balance with the art style and how you ad lines that can make characters look older. I think this is why people avoid drawing these "ugly" expressions. I like to draw my characters making faces that convey their emotion. Or just adding lines to exaggerate things. Like someone squishing their cheek because they're leaning on their hand.

MeltingCORE
May '22

I love drawing intense emotions (sorrow, fear, anger, etc). Expressive, emotionally charged scenes are aesthetically pleasing to look at and not "ugly" (for me). :blush: They're also important to the story too! I think anime/manga helped with that for me because there's a lot of series who let their characters look "ugly" in scenes of turmoil. (Higurashi, Made In Abyss, Neon Genesis, etc.)

No real gore or anything but this is one of mine for "Red Shift"! I have others but they might be too intense for the forums.

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DokiDokiTsuna
May '22

With the kind of artstyles I tend to use, I don't have a whole lot of experience with face wrinkles...like, this is about as extreme as my expressions get:

The wrinkles are smartly placed, yes, but there's still only two of them (the ones on her cheek don't count; they are a facial feature).

However, I think the main reason people are afraid that they'll make characters look "ugly" is because a lot of the time they do...when you don't know how to use them yet. ^^; And they are hard to learn; faces in particular have a sharp learning curve once you realize that they are dynamic, elastic forms, not static ones. And many, MANY artists spend the majority of their time viewing faces as static, because when you're drawing pinups of pretty boys/girls that's really all you need.

So obviously just introducing wrinkles disrupts that 'prettiness', and that's where a lot of artists stop and turn back. ^^; But if you're willing to move past that and try to master this skill...that's when the real hell begins...

You drew the wrinkles too big? Congrats, your character just aged 50 years.
You drew too many wrinkles? Congrats, your character just aged 90 years.
You're not completely sure where the wrinkles should go? Congrats, now your character looks like they have worms under their skin.
You drew a wrinkle 0.2cm out of place? Congrats, now your character looks confused instead of angry. Try again...and again...and again...

I think it's a little easier when you come from an anime background though, because a lot of common anime expressions require face wrinkles, regardless of art style. Like this classic 'strained smile':

Even in a chibi drawing, you need that little wrinkle next to the mouth, or it's just not the same thing. ^^ A lot of expressions are like that...and although the wrinkles are tiny and easy to ignore, they can both ease you into the concept of using them and begin to teach you where they need to go.

UrMom
May '22

Ugly faces! I got those!

Honestly what's "ugly" is subjective, and I'd say my whole style is a little ugly, but I love giving my characters stupid faces. The whole comic is full of them so I'll just share some from the first few chapters.

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Also there's this face from a page I'm working on.

People tend to be scared of making their characters look unattractive, being in a world that relies on appearance it's kind of be trained in us that attractive = good, so we habitually steer away from ugliness. "Only bad people are ugly." Plus it takes some skill to go buck-wild while conveying certain emotions. This also depends a lot on style, Asian/Asian inspired art styles tend to be pretty, a lot of times characters have very limited emotions for the main style while switching to chibi or some super cartoony style for exaggerated expressions, which shows a lack of skill but artists don't really have a whole lot of reference. Like it's hard to stay on model and keep that pretty style while making your characters expressive at the same time. (Not saying all Asian/Asian inspired styles are like this, but the mainstream stuff leans in that direction.)

That's just a theory from my experience though.

Kann
May '22

Here are some of my ugly faces. xD

Sometimes you just cannot show expression without making it at least a bit ugly. Faces that are pretty all the time just don't feel right.











TheLemmaLlama
May '22

Yeah, I think a lot of artists don't push their expressions too far not because they're afraid of their characters looking ugly, but because they actually just don't understand facial structure enough to know how to push it :'D (I'd know, I'm probably one of them :P)

Sometimes you see artists who draw really pretty, impressive looking pieces and you assume they're just a skilled artist all around and the areas they avoid depicting are a deliberate choice on their part, but actually ... they're probably just not that good at it (yet). They've been focusing on levelling up their skill at drawing pretty pin-ups that their expressiveness/backgrounds/feet/whatever is kind of their 'dump stat'