How to Draw Surprised Cartoon Expressions

Video Transcript

"Okay, so let's start off our eyes, which are going to be narrow and long, an exaggeration. Our eyes are likewise going to be stretched out from our neutral expression, but our nose is going to be in the same position. Eyebrows are going to be turned upwards, ever so slightly, and we're going to have a great big "O" shape where our mouth should be, a little line underneath there. Go back up here; let's fill in the ears. Hair will not be standing on end, but it will be close, because this person's surprised; whenever you're surprised, sometimes everything just kind of stands up on end temporarily. Going to draw in the rest of our features, but you're going to notice the face is going to be elongated, so it's like the entire face is one big oh, oh my goodness, that's a shock. So I want to draw the face down in here, elongate everything, still do our jaw line, and fill in everything. For extra effects, you can also draw in little lines underneath the eyes. Another effect is to add a couple of lines shooting out the top. I like also adding an exclamation mark as well, as if like huh! It basically emphasizes your character's shock and dismay. In addition, you can add bowed, bowed shoulders, as if they're kind of drawing back from whatever's just surprised them."