Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Express Yourself!

Expressions Part 1 - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels, Comic Books and Comic Strips

Expressions are your means to help communicate what the character is thinking or feeling.

They are tricky. Outside of a story the expression may not mean  what you want it to mean. Also, a smile usually means happy, yet the story context may change that meaning, as well as any visuals you add.

Below we see the first basic smiling face which can mean happy. The following faces are exactly identical except for some visual additions, the face itself has not changed at all. 

Add some sweat and the same smiling face will mean nervous. Add some color and that face is embarrassed. Or add some radiating lines and suddenly the face is pleasantly surprised.

Now some of you may say that those faces don't look nervous, embarrassed or surprised to me at all. You would be right! If I didn't put the labels, all of you would come up with different label expressions absent of a story.

Keep this in mind as we begin our discussions about expressions. The context is very important in determining how the expression is perceived, not just the drawing.

to be continued…

read next - Blurred Lines
previous - Action Part 11 - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels and Comic Books


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Remember… Just Create!

Copyright 2016 H. Simpson

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