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ProjectOWL — Bird Facial Expressions Tutorial
#anthro #bird #express #expressions #face #facial #human
Published: 2015-04-05 21:36:06 +0000 UTC; Views: 5905; Favourites: 69; Downloads: 24
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Description
Note: You can also use feather partings to simulate "lips" in birds like Barn Owls and Snowy Owls, where most of the mouth is hidden in feathers.This isn't really a tutorial, just a look into how I get birds to display facial expressions. So, my two main tips are 1) Take the saying "chicken lips" literally and 2) Figure out how to draw eyes yourself because I'm too lazy. I learned how to draw eyes by just looking at them. (Some helpful eye tutorials: findchaos.deviantart.com/art/E… equinelover1015.deviantart.com… wickfield.deviantart.com/art/S…
) That's how I learned how to draw a lot of things: Just look at pictures, and get to know the features of an animal or human. Watch cartoons and see how they display emotion. Take this chicken, for example: At first it looked surprised with its eyes wide, then narrowed them and looks suspicious. Wide eyes for surprised and narrow eyes for concentration is universal in the world of cartoon expressions, so get to know which expressions are used repeatedly to get the emotion across to the viewer.
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Comments: 16
This tutorial is very helpful!
As much as I love birds, I really want to draw them. Although I am bad at it, but this tutorial helps me on the way. So thank you very much.
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Lol 
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YES, THAT'S THE CHICKEN...THE KILLER CHICKEN.
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OH NO!!! A DESPICABLE CHICKEN!! Well, be does have one angry face.
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To be honest, I'll find this one as a very helpful tutorial. Well I had a difficulty in trying to make eyebrow-involving expressions, but well, I've tried to use the bird's facial profile to make the expressions. I also see that some of your illustrations look cute here...
Anyways, great tutorial. I'm sure that lots of people will use this, including me.
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Woah! Great tutorial! I could definately see myself, (and i'm sure lots of other people), using this.
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Nice to see you drawing attention to a topic some people might be struggling with but won't be able to find much material about.
I have to admit that a bird's expression is not so easy to get right if you're used to draw mammals. Most people seem to rely too much on the teeth. But it's a very cheap trick to give birds teeth just to make it easier to draw. I'm glad most animated movies and shows don't do this anymore.
For everyone who has problems with creating expressive birds the best advice really is to look at references and practice. Even if it might be hard at first, birds can display more emotion than it looks like at first glance. The eyes are the most important feature. This also might be useful for other species. It even took some years until I was finally satisfied with the way I draw birds.
Never stop practicing! It's great to come across a young aspiring bird-artist. Good luck on your artistic journey!
But maybe you could also provide a link to that eye tutorial you show there, so other people can find it easier if they're interested?
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Why thank you!
Thanks for the feedback! 
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You're welcome!
I hope your tutorial will be an inspiration for many people to draw more expressive characters.
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Interesting points here. It also works for dinosaurs!
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Yeah, I never thought of that, I suppose some of this could be applied to other animals. I've noticed that some dinosaurs have "beaks" as well.
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Most of the Ornithopods (essentially all herbivorous dinosaurs with the exception of Sauropods and Therizinosaurs), along with some theropods (carnivorous dinosaurs and their relatives) including Oviraptorosaurs and of course modern birds. In addition, dinosaurs' face probably didn't have the range of movement and flexibility that mammalian ones do. In fact, most animals' faces don't. Mammals are more the exception than the rule. So if you're doing a cartoon lizard, for example, you automatically humanise its mouth. It's less obvious because it's a mouth and not a beak, but the same principle applies.
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Cool facial tutorial it was really helpful.
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