Joshua Nava Arts

Gary Faigin

his comprehensive visual index to the subtleties of emotion conveyed by facial expression is the only book of its kind. The Artists Complete Guide to Facial Expression carefully explains and illustrates the role of the muscles of expression and the effects of these muscles on the face. The images presented, from the author's own work and from photographic and artistic sources, focus on the action of muscles in three key areas of the face—the forehead and brows, the eyes, and the mouth and chin.

Gary Faigin shows how the successful portrayal of the face is dependent on an understanding of the deep forms of head and skull. Faigin goes on to illustrate the expressive results of individual facial muscles. This structural information is then drawn together in a brilliant section, which is devoted to depicting the six basic human expressions—sadness, anger, joy, fear, disgust, and surprise. Each emotion is portrayed in steadily increasing intensity, from subtle signs of the emotion to full-blown expressions. Detailed renderings are supplemented by illustrations from such other sources as news photos, cartoons, movie posters, and art masterworks—complex, finished works that show the basic emotional patterns in use. An appendix features examples of each nuance of the basic expressions, including similar facial states of purely physical origin, such as yawning or the face of pain.

The Artists Complete Guide to Facial Expression is a major contribution to the literature of art instruction. This is a unique work, highly intelligent yet lively and entertaining, on a subject crucial to the development of every artist.

400 black-and-white illustrations. Index.

WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS

Gary Faigin is a painter and printmaker whose work has been exhibited in one-man and group shows around the country. He was trained at the Art Students League and the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris. He currently lectures at the Art Students League of New York, and has served on the faculties of the National Academy School of Design School of Fine Art and the Parsons School of Design. His own school, the Academy of Realist Art, offers classes in Santa Fe, Seattle, and New York City. He lives in Seattle and Santa Fe with his wife, architect and designer, Pamela Belyea.

Jacket design by Bob Fillie, Graphiti Graphics

WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS

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The Artist 's Complete Guide to

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WATS ON-GUP TILL PUBLICATIONS/NEW YORK

To Henry, Frieda, and Pamela

Senior Editor: Candace Raney Associate Editor: Carl Rosen Designer: Robert Fillie Production Manager: Ellen Greene Production Coordinator: Marybeth Tregarthen Typographer: Trufont Typographers, Inc. Set in Century Oldstyle

Copyright © 1990 Watson-Guptill Publications

First published in 1990 In New York by Watson-Guptill Publications, a division of BPI Communications, Inc., 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Faigin, Gary, 1950-

The artist's complete guide to facial expression / Gary Faigin.

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. Includes index. ISBN 0-8230-1628-5

1. Facial expression in art. 2. Art—Technique. I. Title. N7573.3.F35 1990

704.9'42—dc20 90-48379

Distributed in the United Kingdom by Phaidon Press Ltd., Musterlin House, Jordan Hill Road, Oxford OX2 8DP

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems— without written permission of the publisher.

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Printing, 1990

11 12 13/03 02 01

Illustration credit: Page 10 (bottom)— Vasily Baksheyev, The Prose of Life; 1872; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

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