The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Facial expressions come and go..." (more)
Key Phrases: signature wrinkles, sneering muscle, least kinked, Charles Darwin, The New Yorker Magazine (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Artists love this book, the definitive guide to capturing facial expressions. In a carefully organized, easy-to-use format, author Gary Faigin shows readers the expressions created by individual facial muscles, then draws them together in a section devoted to the six basic human emotions: sadness, anger, joy, fear, disgust, and surprise. Each emotion is shown in steadily increasing intensity, and Faigin’s detailed renderings are supplemented by clear explanatory text, additional sketches, and finished work. An appendix includes yawning, wincing, and other physical reactions. Want to create portraits that capture the real person? Want to draw convincing illustrations? Want to show the range of human emotion in your artwork? Get The Artist’s Complete Guide to Facial Expression!


From the Trade Paperback edition.

About the Author

Gary Faigin trained at the Art Students League and the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris. He has taught at the National Academy School of Design and at Parsons School of Design; currently, he is the artistic director of the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, where he lives.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill; Early Reprint edition (October 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823016285
• ISBN-13: 978-0823016280
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #393,557 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for every artist, August 19, 2001

By	The Artist "Extremely Untalented" (USA) - See all my reviews

This book, for some reason, reminds me of a best-selling psychological fiction book I read so long ago that the title has escaped my memory. In the book, the facial expression of a woman in pain during child labor was described similar to that of one at climax in lovemaking.

Drawing and painting humans are certainly the most difficult task for every artist. It is most difficult because there is very little room for error. Humans have become so familiar with their features that any aberration will be easily spotted. Drawing facial expressions to accurately present the mood and emotion of the subject is even more daunting.

This book is probably one of the most complete documents currently available that deal with facial expressions. Consisting of three parts, the author leads the readers from the structure of the head, the muscles of expression, to the six basic expressions, such as sadness, anger, joy, to name a few. Frequently referring to the works of the Old Masters, the author has done a good job presenting to the readers the greatness of their masterpieces that went beyond the superficial 'just a beautiful face' level of appreciation.

It is certainly not possible to capture completely endless facial expressions by humans, due to diversities in races, cultures, and personalities. This book, however, serves as a good reference for every artist who would like to express the depth and sophistication of human souls through facial expressions.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference for the pro and amateur alike, April 29, 2002

By	Christopher Griffen "Commitment to mediocrity!" (Pleasanton, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I got this book to develop more range as an illustrator and I'm very pleased with the quantity of examples, depth of instruction, and quality of the material.

This book contains detailed information on how to draw all the structures of the face and helps the reader to develop the ability not just to draw various facial expressions, but to understand the physiological occurrences that create different expressions. As any student of life drawing or anatomy knows, it's good to know what the engine underneath the hood is doing to get the exterior right!

The author painstaking guides you through the process of drawing the major facial features, starting simply with the gross structures and paring down to a high level of detail.

This book is a valuable addition to my collection of illustration books and I would recommend it to any illustrator, would-be illustrator, or casual artist who wants to develop her or his skills.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Guide for NLD and Autistic Spectrum Disorders, December 21, 2003

By	Tobie Helene Shapiro (Berkeley, California USA) - See all my reviews

Yes, this is a book meant to be used by artists and enthusiasts, and it is good for that. I am using this book in another way. For people with NLD (Nonverbal Learning Disorders) and on the autistic spectrum (Pervasive Developmental Disorder(PDD), Autism and Aspergers) it is an invaluable instructive tool for teaching how to read facial expressions, and how we use our musculature to form these expressions. I'd been searching for a book like this for years, but was looking in all the wrong places: psychology, social skills, spectrum disorder studies, and psychiatric tomes directed toward the therapeutic community. Then I found this book, serendipitously, at an art store. I am so grateful! My son has high functioning autism, and is terribly frustrated trying to understand non-verbal and social language cues. This book satisfied him in every way, and he now studies it. Not only is he learning the difference between subtle facial expressions, but he is learning how these expressions are made, physiologically. He is becoming more expressive himself, and more able to understand the clues of every day social interactions. I have given this book as a gift to Speech/Language Pathologists who deal with Pragmatic Language skills, to Occupational Therapists, to psychologists and psychiatrists who run social skills groups to help kids and adults navigate the social maze, and to my nephew, a professional clown (on the order of Bill Irwin and Jeff Hoyle, not Emmet Kelley) who is fashioning an act involving social cluelessness (a very common subject in commedy, when you think about it). For these reasons, I highly recommend this book to professionals and parents who are the mentors, friends and teachers of NLD and spectrum disorder people and those people themselves. Terrific. I give it the highest possible marks.