Visual difference between noble wrath and evil wrath - how to understand/how to draw?

[unknown_user]

Hi. I'm thinking about the following question: why when good heroes are drawn in the state of wrath, this emotion looks different than the wrath of villain?

For example, here:

• Superman's face shows noble wrath;

• Medusa's face shows evil wrath.

Which elements of their mimics makes the wrath of the Superman noble, and the wrath of the Medusa - evil? I see that they are clearly different, but I don't quite understand the algorithm, how to position and shape wrinkles, eyes, brows etc to make an angry face angry in "noble way" or "evil way"...
When I try to draw characters angry, they all are angry in the same way, without such a shades, so I want to learn this difference (and, maybe, use it in my drawings, when I'll find it needed).

[unknown_user]

I remember one difference between anger expression of good and evil anime characters:

• when "bad" anime character is angry, their eyeballs become very small comparing to the eyes;
• when "good" anime character is angry, their eyeballs don't decrease in size.

But for pictures above it's not the case; the styles of them don't include this technique. And yet, they are still very different in expression.

[DualDragons]

One thing i do when i draw this is to change the size of the iris. I found that a smaller iris can make a character go from heroic to mad

Edit: looks like you knew this one already,
But i already drew the eyes so i'll post this anyway

I think a more toothly grin can help: triangular shapes are often more dangerous than square and circle shapes so that can be used as well

[Swamp]

Personally, I like to switch the visual ques but

Villain Wrath tends to be more out of control and wild. If a hero is out of control, it's often less unstable or is an 'evil' moment. They may also cry to show their wrath comes from Big Heroic Feelings

Hero Wrath in the way you're talking about seems to be about control. Chin up, stance squared, jaw set.

[Lummy]

Not sure, but it looks like the evil character's face is a lot more exaggerated to make them look more 'crazy', especially their eyes
Also, I am not sure if it only applies to an evil character, but the contrast in the shading also kind of play a rule when showing wrath

(As I said, I am not sure and it only comes from my own observations)

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I think the distinction here is less between "noble" and "evil" wrath and more between "controlled" and "feral" wrath. There are plenty of evil characters who do "noble wrath" expressions, and even a few heroes who do the opposite. What it comes down to in the end is how their specific brand of anger is shaped by their personality.

"Controlled" wrath is done by just barely tapping into the range of human anger expression. You should know the basic aspects by now: eyebrows pulled in, frowny face, etc. You just do those, but gently:

Basically, it should be clear that the character is angry, but that's about it. The anger is controlled; it's not about to take them over and make them run wild. It's just there.

"Feral" wrath is done by going to the extremes of human anger expression, including more 'animal' expressions of anger/ferocity (bared teeth, 'clawed' fingers, hair raised). You'll want to exaggerate the facial features more:

Basically, now you should give the impression that this character is not only angry, but about to act on that anger violently (even if they aren't).

...I'm sorry my doodles are so simplistic; I'm using my pen-mouse right now. ^^; But I hope I've given a good basic explanation of what's going on.

[im_not_pixie]

"Wrath" is an uncontrolled, violent anger. I don't think Superman looks too wrathful in that panel you've picked out, because he seems pretty in control of himself (out of context). I'm not sure "noble wrath" even exists, since wrath is one of the classic seven deadly sins. The difference you might be looking for -- rather than between "evil wrath" and "noble wrath" -- might just be between wrath and plain old anger. That's not to say heroes can't express their fury, of course, it's a good way to show they're human.

That's just semantics though and it kind of got away from me so as far as visual distinction goes, I agree with DokiDokiTsuna: it's all in the qualities of their faces. Superman is clearly angry, but there's a calmness about him, while Medusa's face is contorted and fearsome and she looks ready to bite my head off. Maybe I'll come in with some doodles too they look like fun.

[AVXP]

A pulled in brow indicates focus, stern and concentration.
The eyes (you know what I mean) don't change size as it's the lids/brows that cover them, so to speak....

Eyes wide indicate lack of control, madness or fright.
The brows raise up- revealing "more eyes" as the lids pull away- with the brow area.

---

I also like how all of these are humanistic (?) things-
as smiling at a dog and showing teeth is an aggressive more to them.
Overall, showing teeth is a thing in the animal world.

[monotone_ink]

An angry superhero still looks dignified--their anger stems from seeing injustice.

An angry villain is undignified (this depends on their character though)--they should be drawn like a wild animal.

[oshirockingham]

if you're playing on good vs evil, I guess you can use the color theme, good color comes from the sky (heaven) so you can play around blue, sunlight yellow, etc while evil color comes from underground (hell) you can play around using shadowy dark aura or just flame red.
if your comic is on b/w then play around the lighting source when portraying their wrath, for the good one the lighting comes from above, while the evil one the lighting comes from below.

[joannekwan]

I think DokiDoki best answered it!

And keep in mind 'feral' doesn't always equate with the 'antagonist' either.

Like I LOVE Kill la Kill's flip of tropes, where the protagonist Ryuko is the more 'feral' character and even has on the black and red color scheme you see ascribed to 'evil' characters so often in media.

And her opponent Satsuki is very controlled and in white and blue.

[unknown_user]

To be honest... I would be happy, if I would manage to confuse my readers by showing the same main characters sometimes in "good" (well, as "good" as it possible in my world) and sometimes in "evil" amplua (plus a ton of moral ambiguity in between, of course). I would like a reader to be constantly unsure about the true nature and intentions of them and wonder, who is (anti-?)hero and who is (anti-?)villain?
But for now, I'm not sure I can handle it. For such a delicate game, I definitely need more skill and more understanding on differences between different shades of emotions. Particularly, about what makes emotion evil.

[33rdCenturyCaveman]

Me theory on emotions (which come from studying horses) am that emotions am like colors. Handful of basic primary emotions that am mixed to produce more complex and subtle emotions. Disgust, for instance, am simply combination of anger and fear.

Ultimately everything that have agency have emotions. And ultimately all emotions am reactions to presence or non-presence of some kind of pain.

[unknown_user]

Haha, thanks. Your doodles are quite illustrative.

[Kelheor]

Doki's illustrations and description and Kill la Kill screenshots from Joanne already did the thing, but I love drawing my very angry men, so maybe this will help a bit too

Additional art with Heilang with wide, not narrowed eyes, but with the same exaggerated toothy smile and facial gesture that are giving him evil look even with him smiling. Exaggerate it till you make it xD

[CarltonIsaac]

And then there are times when the fine line is too fine to determine without prior knowledge of the characters.

[oshirockingham]

what makes emotion evil, well why not taking a look at satan's or the devil's expression, he's supposed to be the root of all evil as most people believed.

[indagold]

Evil: angry person smile
Good: angry person not happy evil guy smile