Facial Expressions Buddy Sheet (Application #01)

An interesting weekend project. This took me literally a whole Saturday to complete with multiple breaks and one exercise session in between.


Remember this Facial Expressions Buddy Sheet? ---> Well here's where you can start practicing the real deal! --->


Go on, do yourself a favour and make a start, you're never too young or old to learn new things or improve upon something that you're already good at!


Some info on this piece: two series I've only discovered these two graphic novel series during my revisit to the United States in 2011 (I was attending Comic Con International 2011 at San Diego with friends) - BLACKSAD and NORDGUARD. I'm starting to see the similarities in art styles and if I could ever get to their level I'd be over the moon.


Take note that the artist who drew Blacksad, Juanjo Guarnido, is someone who's worked in a Disney Studio (Montreuil, France) hence his art style reminds me of Tom Brancroft (who also worked at Disney Studio Florida). I just recently bought two of Tom's books (check out the description on this link), studied them and noticed the ascetics of the Disney style of animation/drawing characters. It's pretty amazing when you start making these connections because then I can set a benchmark of where I'd like to be when it comes to improving my technique of drawing humans and designing characters. I can learn alot from these guys and what they've learnt from Disney Studios, let's see how far I can go when attend art school next year in San Francisco!


Nevertheless the way I've approached this exercise was by applying what is known as observational study. I know I'm got at observing something and replicating it on paper - you can see examples of this when I did some at my local museum in the city. --->


Now there is a difference between observing and replicating what you see on paper from creating something completely from scratch! I cannot come up with something completely new until I've mastered the basics - it's just how I work. I don't feel motivated to draw something completely new until I'm confident in my basic drawing ability (ie human anatomy, dynamic poses etc).


There were some drawings that I did from scratch and check out a reference picture of the character - the only one evident of this is Blacksad himself (find him in the top-right hand corner). Notice how he isn't on par with the original style? Not perfect but at least I'm proud to say that I took initiative on that one. The rest of the characters I have either drawing directly from a comic panel or did that and modified the expression a bit to tailor what's available on the expressions list.


So yeah at the end of the day I end up with something pretty stunning - a wonderful collection of my favourite expressions of characters from two series I highly admire. It's stunning to look at and it's a great resource to use whenever I'm stuck on drawing an expression I want for a character I may be designing.


Good luck guys and gals - get started and get drawing!