Anyone who has worked at or toured an animation studio has seen the small mirrors at each animator’s desk. And no — despite rumor, animators are not all narcissistic. The mirrors have a purpose. Animator’s drawings convey emotion through expression. It is important how the character’s legs and arms are posed, the amount of “stretch,” the depiction of how the wind is hitting the character, but especially important are the contortions of the face. It isn’t unusual to see an animator grimacing, yawning, or laughing maniacally into their mirror just to see what the action looks like. (Laughing maniacally may be observed at other times, of course).

Mark Simon has come up with an unusual book, very reasonably priced, that may possibly save a few dislocated jaws in Facial Expressions, a Visual Reference for Artists. This is a volume of photographs aimed primarily at the animator, but could be used by any artists who put people in the artwork they do. Mark came up with the idea for the book while he was building his own reference library of different faces to draw. He says, “I realized that I was not the only artist to need this type of reference.”

A Wide Range of Faces
Each of the more than 3,500 black-and-white photos conveys a particular emotion — fear, amazement, surprise and our friend — the maniacal laugher. In addition, the photos are of different face and nationality types, giving the artist a wider range of face types to draw from. The photos are of 50 male and female models, ages 20 to 83. Some are fat, some thin, longhaired to bald, glasses and no glasses in full front, three quarters and profile. All of the models are identified by name and age. At the end of each group of photos is an example drawing that has been made from observation of the pictures, in a great variety of styles. All of these are credited with the artist’s name. Model and artist contacts are thoughtfully provided in the back of the book.

In addition to a being good reference work for the professional, this book could be a powerful teaching tool, with the artist studying the photos and using them as a take off point for dozens of drawings. Just picture one of the old masters using this book to draw the faces in one of those crowded forum or market scenes.

Galleries of Photos
The table of contents tells a lot about the book. It is divided into sections titled, “Skull Gallery,” Kissing Gallery,” and “Hats and Headgear Gallery,” to name a few. The “Expressions Gallery” is the main meat of the book, and is sub-divided by age. This section is all photographs. Actually, there isn’t much text in the book, but it doesn’t need it, the photos are what you buy a book like this for.

The first “Gallery” is appropriately Skulls, because, as Mark says in the opening paragraph of this section, “The shape of the skull determines the structure and look of the face, and the movement of the jaw affects how we look when we speak.” Then the muscle structure is shown by covering the bare skull with an overlay of clay. This illustrates how the working of the muscles in various positions of the mouth can alter the shape of what you are seeing. Most animators have taken at least one anatomy class, and they know how invaluable this knowledge is in drawing an exaggerated expression.

A real help for animators is the “Phonemes Gallery,” a section that is, in essence, a panorama of mouth charts. These show the shapes made by the mouths on the different letters and sounds of speech used most often. Mouth positions are shown both front and side view, with a variety of head types. This is very useful when marking up a scene. The “Hats and Headgear Gallery” has all sorts of hats on all sorts of heads. It also has things like a gas mask, a helmet with spectacular horns, scuba gear, and an astronaut — all in full face, three quarter and profile. The one that looks like it was the most fun to do, though, is the “Kissing Gallery”. Buy the book and see.