Mark Simon - Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference for Artists

Acquisitions Editor, Joy Aquilino
Project Editor, Robbie Capp
Designer, Mark Simon
Graphic Production, Hector Campbell Copyright 2005 Mark Simon Published in 2005
by Watson-Guptill Publications, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York
www.crownpublishing.com
www.watsonguptill.com
Library of Congress Control Number 2004116562
eISBN: 978-0-8230-0831-5 All rights reserved. v3.1 OF COURSE, A BOOK LIKE this could not exist without the wonderful models who gave their time so generously and posed their faces so expressively for my camera. On behalf of artists around the world, I thank you. I am also grateful to the incredibly talented professionals whose art for this book inspires meas it will generations of artists who will benefit from the imaginative work created for these pages based on my galleries of reference photos. My immediate and extended family will be looking for their thanks, and they deserve it! Not only do they put up with me day after daythey also agreed to pose for me while I tried to make them look as funny, scary, and uncomfortable as possible. Thank you, and I love you.

To my assistants: The only reason I can continue to produce books on top of everything else I do is because you all give me such great help. I hope I have helped you as much as you have helped me. Thank you, Richard Bartley, Chris Boyd, Cow Lauterbach, and Cindy Rangel. And, of course, to the crew at Watson-Guptill, thanks. Thank you all for sharing in my vision and helping me make it better.

MARK SIMON has been a professional artist for over twenty-five years. MARK SIMON has been a professional artist for over twenty-five years.

His background includes live-action and animation design and production, advertising design, comic strips, storyboarding, lecturing, and writing. He is based in Orlando, Florida, where he founded and owns A&S Animation, Inc., a cel animation house, and Animatics & Storyboards, Inc., the largest storyboard house in the southern United States, with more than 1,600 productions to its credit. A&S Animation develops and produces animation for commercials, television, training videos, mobile streaming media, and the Web. The A&S team has produced award-winning shorts, commercials, and shows for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, and designed sets and special effects for live-action feature films. Simon teaches at the DAVE (Digital Animation and Visual Effects) School, located at Universal Studios Orlando, and his animation and storyboarding articles have appeared in various industry magazines. He is also the author of Producing Independent 2D Character Animation and Storyboards: Motion in Art (Second Edition), both published by Focal Press.

IVE BEEN A professional artist for over twenty-five years.

Early on, I had a repertory of only about five different faces that I always drew. Then I began looking for additional reference sources. I took pictures of family and friends to use as reference for my various projects. Next, I went through magazines and newspapers and cut out photos of interesting faces to add to my collection. Then came the internet, a wonderful source for accessing photos of celebrities. Consistently forcing myself to draw new and different subjects helped me to grow as an artist, and my file of references contributed greatly.

But then I realized that one image of one face did not give me all the reference I needed for drawing an individual from several angles, showing a range of facial expressions. Granted, like most artists, I have mirrors around me and can mug into them and copy the look I need for a given piece of art. But suppose I want to draw a large woman with an angry look. The angry expression on my slim male face wont look the same as the anger on a heavy female face. And if I needed to depict a sad old man twice my age, the lines on his face would be quite different from those on my face. I realized that instead of trying to have a harem of models at my beck and call, I needed to develop a file of faces representing many types and ages, with expressions simulating a variety of moods, photographed from many different angles.

The book you are holding is the result. It was motivated by my quest to be a better artist and to help my artist friends by sharing this collection of indispensable reference material with them. In discussing the concept for this book with many professionalsfrom animators to fine illustrators to comic book artiststhey all agreed that this book would be an essential tool for them. These pages show more than fifty different men and women of various ages and ethnicities, each expressing a broad array of emotions for my camera. As their faces simulated different moods, I took pictures from a number of angles, so there are dozens of shots of each model. In addition, since this reference book is for artists, I thought that you, the creative reader, would enjoy seeing examples of how these photos can stimulate creative work, so I asked a number of professionals in the art world to select a reference photo from this collection and base a work of art on it, using any medium of their choice.

Scattered through the book youll find realistic illustrations, caricatures, sculptures, and many other works of art inspired by these photos. At the back of the book, there are indexes listing the artists, as well as a number of the models. Feel free to contact them. Save the worldemploy an artist! Enjoy the references. Allow your creativity to thrive. And never let anyone talk you out of expressing yourself.

Toons!

DRAW. LOOK AT THE PICTURES. Draw some more. Besides that, there are lots of creative ways to make use of these reference photos. Suppose you need to draw a man with a ponytail, but you cant find any good examples. Simply choose any mans face youd like to illustrate, and then use a womans ponytail as the reference for his hair. You can mix and match many other elements from these photos to help you find just the look you want.

Draw the eyes from one face, add glasses from another, choose a hat from a third. Consult the Table of Contents when youre looking for a face of a specific age; the models are sequenced by age for quick reference. When you want a certain kind of hat or headgear, those are also separated and listed by category. Of course, these photos should never limit your imagination. If your work calls for caricatures, enlarge the models chin or maybe add a large bump on his nose. Study the faces to find the subtle differences between genders and ethnicities.

Notice how muscles distort the shape of a face. Make use of this book as a starting point on which to build your character designs. If youre a storyboard artist, you may also use the book as a casting session. For example, when a commercial director asks you to draw a classic couple in their thirties, you can turn to the section of the book devoted to that decade and ask, Like one of these? The photos can quickly narrow the visual approach the director wants, so you can move ahead with your boards. If youre an animator, youll find reference material for character design, mouth shapes, and a huge range of facial expressions. Many camera angles are shown to help you in illustrating turnaroundscharacters drawn from every angle to guide other animators and ensure consistency on a project.