Skillshare

Character Illustration: From Feelings to Faces

Name: Character Illustration: From Feelings to Faces
Availability: InStock
Rating: 3.8 (108 reviews)

3.8(108)9k students

Korshub's take

Draw emotions, not just faces

Christine Fleming teaches a radical simplification: emotions have universal physical signatures. Joy, surprise, anger, and others trigger predictable facial changes. Recognizing these patterns is the key to drawing expressive characters that readers immediately understand.

In just 30 minutes, you'll learn six primary emotions and fifteen secondary emotions through photo references, then move to speed-drawing exercises where you apply this knowledge in real time. The core project invites you to draw all six primary emotions; the bonus challenge pushes you to complete all 26.

You'll leave with a personal reference library of facial expressions drawn in your own style—immediately useful for character design, comic work, or illustration. No prior drawing experience required; just paper, pencil, and willingness to push your expressive range.

About this course

Learn how illustrator Christine Fleming visualizes emotions and injects genuine feelings into her illustrated facial expressions.

This 30-minute class is broken up into two parts: Learning and Drawing. In the Learning section, Christine will introduce the 6 primary emotions—like joy, surprise, and anger. Then, she’ll expand each primary emotion and discover the 15 secondary emotions—like excitement, wonder, and rage. As you go through each emotion, Christine will point out universal physical changes in the face that communicate with each emotion using photo references. These physical features are vital in understanding how to draw strong, recognizable emotions.

Then you'll put that knowledge to work in the Drawing section, where you and Christine will draw emotions together through speed drawing exercises! You can choose to complete the Core Project and draw the 6 primary emotions, or go for the Bonus Challenge and draw all 26 emotions! This style of speed drawing is a great way to loosen up and get comfortable drawing expressive emotions.

By the end of the class, you’ll have a full set of facial expressions drawn in your own style that you can use as a reference for future character design projects, or just drawing people for fun!

You don’t need any prior knowledge of drawing or character illustration for this class, and no software is required. All you need is a piece of paper, a pencil, and 30 minutes!

WANT MORE?

Check out my other Skillshare classes here!

You can also see more about me and my work on my website: might-could.com.

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Thanks so much! <3