Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference for Artists (Paperback)

~ (Author) "THE FOLLOWING LIST of emotions and ideas was used to inspire the models to exhibit a variety of facial expressions..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

All artists are tired of persuading their nearest and dearest to look sad…look glad…look mad…madder…no, even madder…okay, hold it. For those artists (and their long-suffering friends), here is the best book ever. Facial Expressions includes more than 2,500 photographs of 50 faces—men and women of a variety of ages, shapes, sizes, and ethnicities—each demonstrating a wide range of emotions and shown from multiple angles. Who can use this book? Oh, only every artist on the planet, including art students, illustrators, fine artists, animators, storyboarders, and comic book artists. But wait, there’s more! Additional photos focus on people wearing hats and couples kissing, while illustrations show skull anatomy and facial musculature. Still not enough? How about a one-of-a-kind series of photos of lips pronouncing the phonemes used in human speech? Animators will swoon—and artists will show a range of facial expressions from happy to happiest to ecstatic.

About the Author

Mark Simon owns A&S Animation, a cel animation house, and Animatics & Storyboards, the largest storyboard house in the south. His previous books include Facial Expressions and Storyboards: Motion in Art. He lives in Orlando, Florida.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823016714
• ISBN-13: 978-0823016716
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,322 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #4 in	Books > Arts & Photography > Painting > Portraits
  #5 in	Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing > Specific Objects
  #8 in	Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing > Figure Drawing

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, but too over-the-top, June 10, 2007

By	GameMaker (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

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This book has it's uses. It is organized by the age of the model, and varies from 20 to 83, both male and female. The pictures are clear and usable, and I was pleased that they were large enough to work with. Note that these are head-shots only. Then at the end of the book, there is a brief section on "sequential poses" which basically gives you some still frames in transitions between for example a happy and sad face. There is also a few pages on models speaking the phonemes if you need to do morphing.

The problem that I have with this book though is that, like others mentioned, WAY too many of the expressions are these really outrageous over-the-top kinds of things. I guess you could best describe them as "silly". If you are doing some type of animated cartoon or something, these might actually be real useful. But for any other use they are not nearly as much help as they could be.

For comparison's sake, I also have "The Artist's Complete Guide To Facial Expression" which I feel is a little more useful. It is organized by expression, and contains a lot of discussion about each one. The weakness of that book though is that it doesn't have near as much reference material (i.e. pictures) as this book, but at least the ones it does have are in general more useful.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's really the best *right now*- get it while it's in-print..., July 11, 2006

By	"extreme_dig_cm" (Chicago, Il USA, Amazon.com Fan!) - See all my reviews

This is currently the best and most cost-effective photo reference for heads, features, faces, expressions, angles, and different ethnicities, genders, and ages available today *in-print*. A great price & above-average quality- it's pretty easily worth getting. See also his 2nd book: Babies to Teens.

Some ideas for next edition- mainly my own preferences: more younger models- less older; white pages with white backgrounds- instead of grey pages with black backgrounds; get rid of the skull sections; get rid of the 'art inspired by' amateur art; get rid of the sequential expressions section; expand the kissing section- younger models please; and give us more of the model on pages 234-235! :)

Some of the criticisms here by others really amaze me(!). This is the *only* book of its kind available today- there's simply no competition. Sure, other photo references exist, but none with this specific content. Where else can we find so many expressions, ethnicities, and extreme angles of view? This is a tremendous help in learning to draw heads from memory. Combine this with some of the better how-to-draw type books, and it's hard to find a better value these days. Photo-reference books can sometimes be expensive!

It's unfortunate but true: some of the *greatest* photo reference books ever created seemed to quickly go out of print. Sometimes they popped back into print; sometimes they didn't. The Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual series is a great example of this, as is the Elte Shuppan Pose File series (currently a 9-volume series). Awareness seems key to their survival. It's just a simple reality: these books are intended for a very special & specific audience, and if demand for these books fades, even for the briefest of times, these books go out-of-print & then often become extremely expensive to get. I've written a few reviews for these out-of-print books, but happily *this* book is still available today. Get it while it's in-print!

Also recommended: Andrew Loomis' Drawing: The Head; George Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy & Heads, Features and Faces; Jack Hamm's Drawing the Head and Figure; Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy & Drawing the Human Head; and even How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. Check 'em out!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All the facial reference you need in one book, May 5, 2005

By	Daniel Antkowiak (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Capturing a person's expression is often the key to a successful illustration. Sometimes you have to translate your own features from a reflection and apply them to the face you're drawing. This book alleviates a lot of guesswork and opens up scores of options with the variety of kinds of faces included, the range of distrortion the models allow, and the multitude of angles from which we see the faces. What's great about the collection is it isn't just faces, it's the other details that can sometimes present challenges, from hairstyles to types of shirts and collars, to a specific section devoted to various hats and headgear. All these seemingly obvious things are necessary to include at one time or another, and can present challenges to an artist. Just a sliver of the possible interpretations are included in the book as well, as several artists have contributed sketches based on the actual photos you see. Caricatures, animal characters, sculptures, it goes on and on.
I see this as one of the few staple books for any artist to keep on their shelf, that covers a broad ground within a single volume.