My people don’t smile.
They hardly ever smile, that is. Not big toothy grins.
Because of a childhood accident (think Raina Telgemeier’s Smile comic, only more dramatic and traumatic), I quite literally can’t smile one of those big, wide, all-teeth end-to-end grins people are supposed to use to show they’re friendly and good and worth interaction. I’m not used to seeing it in a mirror, and not used to drawing it. My crop of Romans just don’t think grinning fits in with proper gravitas. Although, from time to time, Felix has given a snarky grin. Sure, there are grinning satyrs capering about, but, really, think about it: How often have you seen a bust of a Caesar or Alexander the Great with a grin?
Felix this time. I’m going to do a bunch of facial expressions for him next, which makes me very nervous (at least I know how to draw “nervous”).
I used photo references, but this photo set didn’t have enough variety in angles, so I did another head study more like the one for Iusta.
This is something I don’t ever do—character head studies from different angles—so I collected some photo refs to use with various characters and gave it a go. To be honest, I did not enjoy doing this at all. :/
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