Capturing facial expressions and emotions. (Fan art)

As an excersise to explore into different facial expressions, I created some fan art of some characters from different TV shows. This was an interesting thing to do and it makes a difference when you really know the characters personality that you are drawing. This will be useful for my own work and characters. I chose facial expressions that were quite complex and really captured the personality of each character. I chose characters from Breaking Bad and Dexter.

Gus Fring - pencil

These are drawings of Gus Fring,a character from AMCs' Breaking Bad. He was an important character and in this episode he had been tricked to his death. He was very proud and wouldn't show much emotion. Even in this situation.




Breaking Bad character, Gus Fring. From the episode (Face Off) Just after an explosion - pen and water colour

Gus Fring - I also created a much more cartoony version to compare the effect it has on portraying the emotion. I used entirely ink for this illustration. I think it still actually work quite well and it works well with the brighter colours in a way that wouldn't work for the more detailed pieces.

Breaking Bad character Walter White (Heisenberg) - Pencil

The skecth above is of the main character form Breaking Bad. The way his charcter develops throughout the series is incredible. His mannerisms and appearence change dramatically and it is interesting to study the differences. In the skecth above he has become quite evil and I tired to capture this in his expression. Whereas he started off as a quiet family man.

These are some of my sketchbook notes regarding character development in Breaking Bad

The images above shows some examples of the character development. The facial expressions have changed and also his appearence. It's surprising how much a face can say.



Dexter from Dexter - pencil and watercolour

The work above is of the main character from the TV series Dexter. He is a blood splatter analysisit and also kills bad people without anyone knowing. I don't think I captured the severity of the emotion in the drawing above and the colours are quite pale. I think he looks a bit washed out although it does make the blood stand out more.


This was a useful exercise that allowed me to capture emotion in more detail with familiar faces as visual reference.  I also tried to use different styles in order to experiment with style and subject matter. They all have a slight unrealistic edge to them apart from the Breaking Bad sketch of the main character. I think this was a good choice of style for the particular character and expression. You are instantly drawn to look into his eyes and it feels very serious, real and deep seated. Whereas the other images sort of speak for themselves.