Product Description
Making Faces gives artists easy and effective techniques for creating expressive faces for comics and cartoons. Readers will learn to take the basic ingredients of an expression--eyes, nose, mouth and lips--and use them to create a wide range of human emotions. This one-of-a-kind guide is loaded with unique insights on human facial expressions, graphic storytelling, and character interaction. Nothing else quite like this book--it's the only book out there that's specifically about creating facial expressions for cartoonists and comic artists. Various artists teach their approaches to the complex subject of facial expressions in a variety of scenes and emotions. Features over 50 step-by-step drawing demos.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 5 reviews)

Happy with the purchase by M. May (Tonawanda, NY)

5 Stars
October 20, 2009
I bought the book "Making Faces" and it was in excellent shape, and arrived relativly quick. I'm very happy with the purchase and would order from them again.

bad by taki renzaburo (antarctica)

1 Stars
June 04, 2009
First of all, Id like to make it clear that this is a kid's book and is in no way a serious treatment of the subject. But even kids would benefit from good information and sound instruction, neither of which are found here. The collection of artists who put together this book are in no way qualified to do so. It seems like most of them are recent grads, and frankly it shows. Annoyingly, they don't seem to realise how bad they are. The purported subject of the book is barely dicussed before the ragtag crew launches into a series of awful step by step demos that display a total lack of subtlety or insight. You would be much better off buying a book by an experienced, talented artist such as Ben Caldwell, or picking up a book on Disney animation and just studying the expressions.

Not much depth to this drawing book by R. Clark (Wellington, NZ)

2 Stars
May 12, 2009
This was one of several books I bought to help advance my understanding of comics and to give me insights into techniques used by profressionals to help advance my own skills, practically. This book isn't too big on understanding the subject, it's way more about doing. It could go a lot further in explaining what builds up believable characters, body poses, facial muscles, anatomy, how to achieve shades of emotion as opposed to extreme ones. It should also tone down on #1 putting the authors on a pedestal, they could almost be the centrepiece of the book. And #2 There's a lot of superfluous commentary, especially on the pages where the reader is guided through drawing various expressions. However there are a lot of good insights and useful tips interspersed throughout the book. This book is much more suitable for an artist who wants to mimic the style of these artists rather than learn about comics drawing in general.

Great Introduction to one of the most difficult aspects of drawing by John Joyce (Dublin, Ireland)

5 Stars
March 17, 2009
Virtually Maria (Virtual Trilogy) As someone who wanted a simple guide to creating realistic expressions on my cartoon characters, I was delighted to find this book on Amazon. While many artists (myself included)find the task of conveying emotion in their characters challenging, this book gives a series of simple step-by-step examples of how an entire spectrum of facial expressions can be conveyed in a well laid-out easy to follow style. While by no means as academically comprehensive as some of the more advanced manuals that go into anatomical detail about the movements of various muscles in the face during different emotions, this book has the one great advantage of being fun to read. Starting with basic chapters on 'Materials and Equipment', 'Drawing & Sketching', 'Inking and Shading' and notes on the various features of the face - eyes, nose, lips etc. that make up the foundation of expression, this book then proceeds to a series of beautifully illustrated "scenarios" that evoke a range of expressions, with wonderful graphic illustrations to match. As an introduction to the world of facial expressions, a source of ideas and inspiration, or simply as a great book to flick through and appreciate, I would heartily recommend this book to lovers (and artists) of comics and cartoons everywhere.

A book after my own heart! by Danielle Abel (Newport Beach, CA USA)

4 Stars
December 06, 2008
This book was something I picked up as a quick inspirational read. But I find that no matter how many times I read this book, I learn something new or come up with new ideas for my own art. As a character designer and concept artist working for a professional studio, I'm always looking for ways to improve my designs and come up with the best characters to fit the current project of a competitive industry. This book shows designs of multiple styles and creates a story behind each character to fully test the expressions per personality. With a documented thought process and heartwarming characters, you'll find this book a pleasure to browse through or study. Whether beginner or expert, this book is sure to please!

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