Why We Wrote This Book

When drawing illustrations or manga, facial expressions are key to conveying the characters’ thoughts and emotions. In this book, we cover a wide range of facial expressions, starting with the basics such as smiling or getting angry but also looking at those that are a combination of various emotions. Each expression is categorized according to the general emotion it conveys, making it easy to find the one you’re looking for.

However, there are countless ways to express emotions; there’s more than one facial expression for each emotion. For instance, a simple “smile” could mean smiling through tears, smiling even when something is not funny, or other smiles that differ depending on their accompanying emotions. Many different emotions mix and are revealed via the face’s varied expressions. It could be said that even if drawing the same “smiling face,” 10 different characters will wear 10 different smiles, with various techniques making it possible to change the expression completely. For that reason, there are more than 870 illustrations as examples in this book, with accompanying comments to clearly explain areas to focus on and to provide you with ideas for the various appealing aspects and ways of thinking about each expression.

We hope you’ll use the book in a variety of ways, copying the facial expressions that you like and reading the whole volume to find hints to help you draw them. We hope this book helps you bring previously untapped emotion to your characters.

—The Artists of NextCreator
(see pages 174–175 for information about them)