How to Draw People With Brackets & Dashes

Symbols such as ;) and :( have become ways to express a facial emotion electronically.

Symbols on the computer keyboard have taken on a language all their own. The colon and closing parentheses representing a smiley face (or opening parentheses representing a frown) have become commonplace at the end of messages communicated on computers or cell phones. You can also draw people using other keys on your keyboard such as brackets and dashes. You can even use your imagination and make an entire bracket-and-dash family and then send it to a friend.

Things You'll Need

• Computer or cell phone with texting or email capability

Instructions

1. Create the outline of the face using brackets. Place opening and closing brackets on two different lines to create the outline of the head. Place six spaces from the left margin by hitting the space bar. Hit the opening bracket, followed by five more spaces, before hitting the closing bracket. Hit "return" and repeat this on the second line to complete the outline of the head. The top and bottom head pieces should look like [ ] respectively.

2. Add facial features to your bracket head. You can use dashes for the eyes and mouth. On the first line of your head, insert a dash in the second and fourth space, these will be your eyes. On the second line of your bracket head, place a dash in third space for the mouth. The top head piece should look like [ - - ]. The bottom head piece should look like [ - ].

3. Add a body to your bracket head by expanding from the neck down. Centered beneath your head, or eight spaces from the left margin, place an opening bracket, followed by a space, followed by the closing bracket. Repeat this on three lines total to complete the body. The body pieces should look like [ ] on each line.

4. Add legs to the bracket body by using brackets near the bottom of the drawing. From the left margin hit the space bar five times. Next, place an opening bracket, followed by a space, followed by a closing bracket. (This is the top of the left leg.) Add three more spaces on the same line and repeat with an opening bracket, followed by a space, followed by a closing bracket. (This is now the top of the right leg.) Repeat this entire process on the next line so that your legs occur on two different lines. The leg pieces should like like [ ] [ ] on each line.

5. Add arms to the body by placing opening and closing brackets on either side of the middle torso piece. Do not put a space between the brackets. Starting in the left margin, add opening and closing brackets. When the arms are done with the middle piece of the torso, it should look like [][][][ ][][][].