Character Illustration: From Feelings to Faces

Learn how illustrator Christine Fleming visualizes emotions and injects genuine feelings into her illustrated facial expressions.

This 30-minute class is broken up into two parts: Learning and Drawing. In the Learning section, Christine will introduce the 6 primary emotions—like joy, surprise, and  anger. Then, she’ll expand each primary emotion and discover the 15 secondary emotions—like excitement, wonder, and rage. As you go through each emotion, Christine will point out universal physical changes in the face that communicate with each emotion using photo references. These physical features are vital in understanding how to draw strong, recognizable emotions.

Then you'll put that knowledge to work in the Drawing section, where you and Christine will draw emotions together through speed drawing exercises! You can choose to complete the Core Project and draw the 6 primary emotions, or go for the Bonus Challenge and draw all 26 emotions! This style of speed drawing is a great way to loosen up and get comfortable drawing expressive emotions.

By the end of the class, you’ll have a full set of facial expressions drawn in your own style that you can use as a reference for future character design projects, or just drawing people for fun!

You don’t need any prior knowledge of drawing or character illustration for this class, and no software is required. All you need is a piece of paper, a pencil, and 30 minutes!

//

WANT MORE?

You can see more about Christine and her work at might-could.com

Get weekly essays on creativity and art making here!

Hope to see you in there! :D