“Mastering Facial Expression” Workshop by Gary Faigin

I’m sure most, if not all of you are familiar with Gary Faigin’s excellent book, “The Artist’s Complete Guide to Facial Expression.” If not, it would be an extremely valuable book to have in your library. As anyone that does composites knows, you can’t just rely on the reference photo and copy it exactly. Sometimes the witness will tell you “He had those eyes, but he looked meaner” or, “His lips were like that but he was sneering.”  How do you, as the artist, pull that off?

With a strong knowledge of anatomy, and some help from Mr. Faigin.

He will be teaching a week-long workshop in Seattle, Washington this coming December, and it’s a class that I’m not about to miss. And I’ll use my soapbox to make a point:

I think some forensic artists get caught up in taking only forensic art classes. I’m not sure why…maybe it’s because its what they think they should be doing, or maybe they don’t think they’re “good enough” to take a fine art class. It can be intimidating if you’ve never done it. Just don’t fall into the trap of taking all your classes through the same instructor, and don’t take one class and think you’re done, either. Branch out and take a class from someone else.

Because as good as any forensic art instructor might be, they can’t possibly know it all…and hopefully they don’t think they do either!  A good instructor, a confident instructor, will encourage you to take a class from someone else. So go ahead, jump in, learn from someone new, learn from someone that knows waaaay more about a topic than you, who is better than you. You’ll never grow as an artist if you’re always the star pupil in class.

So, with that being said, here is the overview of Mr. Faigin’s course, courtesy of the Gage Academy of Art:

UNDERSTANDING & MASTERING FACIAL EXPRESSION
Five-Day Workshop | Mon, December 6 – Fri, December 10, 2010

Teaching Artist: Gary Faigin

                  Author: The Artist’s Complete Guide to Facial Expression
Lecturer: Industrial Light & Magic & American Academy of Plastic Surgery
Consultant: Animation Production Capstone, Computer Science Dept, UW

Despite our familiarity with faces, a discrepancy can occur between transferring the facial expression one sees in real life into the representation of one. Gary Faigin, artist, author and acclaimed lecturer will address this phenomenon and other common problems in a five-day workshop at Gage Academy of Art in Seattle. This workshop offers forensic experts, animators, cartoonists, plastic surgeons as well as those curious to learn about the mechanics of a smile, a unique and comprehensive opportunity to understand the subtleties of facial expression.

During the workshop, students gain a logical and objective understanding through a systematic exploration of the muscles of the face. Students begin the week working with modeling clay to form important muscles of various expressions which are later positioned onto a plastic skull. Using this foundation, students are then able to use their own face as a model to create front and side views that highlight the various muscles in action.

Working in conjunction with Faigin, students also learn how to depict the six categories of emotion (sadness, anger, joy, fear, disgust and surprise) and progress to life drawing from an actor or model at the week’s close. Students also examine a variety of visual sources, including cartoons, master paintings and other artistic depictions of facial expression to inform their work.

To learn more or to register online for Mastering Facial Expressions, please go here.