For the Fun of It - the combination game

a little game with emotions + how we draw them

Hi! My name is Ashlyn Anstee, and I tell stories with words and pictures. Sometimes, that’s picture books (like Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Select “Hedgehog”), or graphic novels (my series “Shelby and Watts”), and sometimes it’s animation (I’ve directed at places like Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network).

This column, “For the Fun of It”, will also have words and pictures. Sometimes it will be stories, or how-tos, or thoughts. A little bit of everything. Hope you enjoy!

Acting and Art

It may shock no one to learn that I was a theatre kid first. I loved acting, or more particularly the comedy part of acting. I previously wrote about my time as an improv team captain here.

Theatre has a lot of warm ups, particularly around your voice and face. One of my favorite ones is LEMON FACE / LION FACE. You can almost tell what it is just from reading it. It goes like this:
LEMON FACE! You make a face like you’re eating a lemon.

LION FACE! You make a face and roar like you’re a lion.

LEMON FACE! LION FACE! LEMON FACE! LION FACE!
It’s pretty fun, and it warms up your face muscles.

How to draw expressions

But Ashlyn, this is an art blog! I came here to learn ART!! Not acting! HISS!!!

Making expressions while you’re drawing is a common thing! It can be hard to figure out what facial expressions look like. Often animators have a mirror at their desk to observe. But what I’d like to suggest is making expressions and try to feel yourself what you are doing. LEMON FACE! How low are your eyebrows? How does your nose scrunch? How does it feel?

LION FACE! How are up are your eyebrows?

Try drawing a lemon face, and then a lion face!

Combination Game

After playing Lemon and Lion Face, some friends and I came up with this game. We never came up with a better name than Combination. Basically, you have to shout out two different emotions, and the other person has to make a face that corresponds.

For example… HAPPY SADNESS. FURIOUS JOY. LUSTY DEPRESSION.

It’s very silly. But in the same way that we used lemon face and lion face, this can be a great drawing practice. How do you combine two disparate emotions?

Emotion Iconography

As we draw and make faces, it’s important to think about “emotion iconography”. For example, think of the classic “SMILEY FACE”.

Wow, so smiley.

Some emotions lend themselves well. Anger, for example.

As you’re exploring these, it’s fun to look at a lot of different kinds of art.

Why do I say look at emotion iconography? I remember particularly, a teacher in college explaining that for a long time, he only drew “nervous” like this.

Because when he made that expression himself, his own eyebrows didn’t go up in the middle!

So as much as it’s worth reference yourself, and your own face, looking up different expressions (both real-life references, and iconography like the smiley face), you can get a variety of expressions.

Speaking of it all- how would you draw HAPPY SADNESS? What about JOYFUL HUNGER?

My substack of the week is the amazing

Lian Cho

! I found her substack early on, when I was looking for a new space to share my ideas. She inspired me quite a bit. Her substack is joyful, and covers both her art and her life. Her art is very playful, and fun, and just teams with expression. Check it out and give her a follow, her substack is a little piece of joy in my inbox.

We very accidentally fell into a new kitten this week. Maybe I’ll make a more comprehensive post next week. It was impulsive (and I am not impulsive!). I was out with my mom, and my husband Grant texted me. A friend of a friend has a kitten- she was found under a porch, covered in glue, and do we want her. We currently have two inside cats (Milo and Moose, you might remember them from this post). We lost a cat about 2 months ago, and definitely weren’t looking. But the cat distribution system sometimes works its magic. I saw one photo of her, and the description from the friend was about spot on. We went, saw her, and then she was ours.

Her name is Lucky. She’s perfect.

ok love u bye