Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference for Artists

I bought this book used under the "good" category, meaning one step above heavily used, old and damaged. If I could put a stamp on it I would have put "very good" (and the only reason I can't stamp it higher is because it's been used gently and isn't "like new" meaning no damage or use at all). It's in excellent condition. I highly recommend buying things from Goodwill. Some of them even make donations to Raster Seals or some charity from the sale of what you buy. That out of the way, I clearly bought this because I'm am artist and this is a must have reference for anyone who does really any medium of art that has ant semblance of a human face in it, or monsters or character animals etc. It helps with gestures, expressions glasses sun glasses, hats/headgear of literally any means (ethnic headdress, Sombrero, sports face masks, hats, visors and helmets, snorkel and scuba headgear, safety masks such as gas masks, COVID/medical masks 😷 etc. And it shows them in different positions). There is even a section of two people kissing, a few full pages of them in different types of embrace from the shoulders up which also shows their hands and that's so helpful. There's a section for phonemes. The way different people look when making the sounds words make. Especially vowels. And there's expressions showing different types of emotions, yelling, grimacing anger, laughter, you name it. The book is absolutely packed with 3 pages for each model (sometimes 2) and then examples of absolutely astounding ways artists have used their likeness from one or more of their pictures in their sculpture, comic, painting, drawing... 253 pages of non stop headsets from all different angles with all different expressions from the skull with muscles and without which is really cool all diagramed hen with a page of pictures for each.. And models of all ages of very uniquely different people young and old. The only thing I didn't see was children. That would probably fill another book this size if done by this amazing author. He was VERY kind as to not only thank the models in the front of the book, but he listed all of their contacts should anyone want to use them for more of their work. He also listed all the artists and their websites and contacts and gave them very kind praise for their skill and talent of imagination and creativity. So....this is one heck of a reference that EVERY artist should have on their shelf (mine rarely gets put away which accounts to a lot of the wear you might see in the pictures). Although if your groove is painting watercolor meadows full of beautiful flowers, or oil paintings of giant landscapes, maybe you could pass on this. Otherwise, if you can, don't pass this one up. If I could, I would give it 10 stars. It's absolutely fantastic.

My first though on seeing this book was: "What can it give me that looking through magazines or searching on the internet does not?" A lot, as it turns out. I was seriously underestimating the value of having so many pictures of faces in one place. Especially photos showing various angles and extremes of expression -- which can be difficult find in traditional photos. About thirty seconds with this book was enough to make me realize that I will always keep it within easy reach of my art desk. In addition to being a great learning tool, I think this book will be especially useful to cartoonists and comic artists. The extremes of expression make it easy to extrapolate the kind of exaggerated features required for such venues. Included in the book are example cartoons and caricatures based on the photos. Some of these even show the extrapolation to expressive animal faces! No regrets about buying this one. Now I want one for hands and feet too!

I love it so much! and thank you Mark Simon for doing this! Because you can see the differnt expression: sad, joy, mad... All kind of expression, in one book! This book have a tons of facial expressions and different ethnic people, so you can drawing, painting, and practice expression. And it's very important for practicing the multiples expressions. But unfortunately the details in their faces are not clear, I can't see the details, like the details of the nose, the shadows are very dim, don't have much contrast. The size of each heads are little... And it's a very good book, but I can't see the details. It's very hard to see it. So, for drawing with a good shadows and contrast, the book it's not have it. But I recommend this for a variety things that you can do.

I got recommended this by another friend who I had address my issue on finding a visual reference of expressions from different people, gender and all. And boy, she didn’t fail me. This book has young adults to elderly, each model having three pages of worthy expressions that are fun to sketch. All photos are from the neck up, giving different perspectives and facial expressions. They even have a little gallery of kissing, wearing hats, and mouths showing certain ways of how to say a vowel or consonant. My only consis that I was hoping for them to input children expressions in, but I will take what I got with all the other models. The photo quality could be considered average if you are looking for in-depth details of the face to be clear. Not the best, but I manage with it just fine. Another thing would be that they don’t identify which facial expressions are which, but I don’t mind since I can tell through common sense on most. Other than that, I fully recommend getting if you are looking for visual references of expressions to use! :)

This is one of the best reference books available for artists. No need to doomscroll for hours on pintrest for reference photos! There are a diverse set of models and expressions in this book which will keep you busy for a long time. Regular practice with this book will significantly improve your portrait drawing skills. I'm only disappointed that I didn't buy this book sooner!

This is a great book for referencing faces at different angles in different poses such as laughing, smiling, grumpy, angry, sad and so on and on ,there’s more than enough faces in here to reference and there’s faces of different ethnicities as well so if your into art such as sketching ,inking ,painting and your looking for facial reference book I can definitely recommend this book

Se ajusta a la descripcion dada por el vendedor. Excelente calidad de impresion. El libro es una coleccion de imagenes de expresiones faciales. En mi caso es muy util a la hora de dibujar porque ofrece un gran numero de referencias. El producto llegó en la fecha prevista. Ninguna queja. Lo recomiendo.

Très bonne référence pour dessiner des visages expressifs en BD par exemple. Beaucoup de photos de visages féminins ou masculins expressifs.

Davvero stupendo e utilissimo. Chiaro e fatto bene con tantissime espressioni e visi diversi. Utilissimo x illustratori e fumettisti. Super consigliato!

Ótimo livro.Recomendo.