Figure and emote sketches

Started out drawing some funny faces. Just trying to improve my expressions. The eyes and mouth are the only things that actually change, so no noses. Then I did some figure sketches to try to improve on that. Someday I’ll take life drawing and really peg this. For now, all I have are the stock pose galleries on DA.


3 thoughts on “Figure and emote sketches

  1. Nice variety of expressions here but… Uhm… Net-san? It’s true that many artists can and do basically ignore the nose. And when it is included, due to it’s positioning on the head, mostly the nose is just used as an indication of which direction a character is facing. Which is helpful since this can allow readers to see the characters body language without always getting to view the whole face. But from what I’ve observed – especially in cartoons and manga – the nose does have a further role to play in a characters expression.

    If a character is:
    excited, determined and/or really angry = nostrils flare

    being modest = brushes the nose off with back of the hand (this gesture may relate to an old saying about how staying out of trouble means keeping your nose clean.)

    being annoyed, nervous and/or anxious = pinching the bridge of the nose

    being obnoxious = pinching someone elses nose

    being mildly affectionate = kissed on the nose and/or gently rubbing noses

    being nosy = sometimes visualized as literally putting the nose where it doesn’t belong

    being shy = having a small nose/often hiding the face

    suffering from allergies = nose may become prickly

    suffering from severe allergies, just plain not well, ashamed and/or extremely surprised = nose may fall off

    telling lies = nose gets longer

    being a pervert = nosebleed

    just lost a fight = less intense nosebleed

    feeling robbed = slight nosebleed if they actually paid through the nose in any way

    being greedy = nose may turn into a pigs snout

    being a snob/overconfident/smug/intimidating = nose high in the air OR looking down over the nose at someone

    being devious/being a rat = nose may sprout whiskers (rare)

    being especially creepy = nose may cast shadows over half of the face

    sad, crying with happiness and/or varying degrees of embarrassed = tears streaming down the nose

    incredibly embarrassed and/or a reindeer = nose may glow in the dark

    spongebob squarepants = nose can be used as a musical instrument

    snoring = nasal snot bubbles

    sniffing for clues = nose may become more pointy/take on an arrow shape so that the character can literally follow their nose

    holding ones breath, horrified and/or smelling something awful = covering the nose (sometimes also the mouth) with the hands. Have seen that it is not uncommon for even officially noseless characters do this.

    confused and/or disgusted = wrinkling the nose

    And those are just the examples I can think of right now. I’m sure there are others.


    1. Those are all actions and don’t apply to the mechanics of drawing the face. On the sketch pages of Girl Genius, they never include the nose, and I figured that was the reason why.


  2. Hrm. Guess I was taught a different method where the nose can effect both the expression and the body language. *shrugs* To each their own – as it is in art, so it is in life.

    My apologies, by the way, for the first post being so long. Am not sure why the computer decided to space out the list like that.


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