Artist’s Comment:
 
Look! Kilala finally did a tutorial! I planned to do a “How to Draw Ponies” tutorial, but there are so many of those. So, since you guys think that I’m pretty good at portraying emotions, I stuck to that. That being said, these tips will prolly only help you if you know how to draw ponies already XP (let me know if you can’t read any of this)
 

 
 
General Emotions
 
 
1.This is the default face. Nothing special here. Just a pony smiling regularly  
2.This is a very happy face. This pony has an enormous smile on her face. Because, of this, her bottom jaw is lowered, making the face seem (vertically) more narrow and long. When the corners of a mouth are lifted, the cheeks lift with them. So, the bigger the smile, the puffier the cheeks and squinty-er the eyes. The eyes are also raised pretty high. The irises are smaller than the ones on the default face, and the pupils are MUCH smaller. Make sure to not make the irises too small. Your happy pony will end up looking psychotic  
3.The sad face is adorbs. There are several ways to do a sad face but this is how I prefer to do them. The eyes and everything on the upper portion of the head droops while the mouth is raised a little. Why is the mouth raised? Try doing a pout. Feel that? Your mouth went upwards correct? Since there’s this up and down motion on the lower and upper portions on the face, everything just kinda squishes towards the equator of the face. The other way to do a sad face is to make the mouth go down like how when you frown. In this case, the upper part of the face will still squish a little, but the bottom will elongate. I like the other way because it’s cuter. Make sure to make the eyes, irises and pupils big. Making the irises and pupils small will make the pony look more traumatized.  
4.The mad face is kinda a mixture of the sad and happy face. How? Well, the mad face squishes the same way as the sad face does and the eyes do a similar thing as the happy face (the cheeks and eye size). The difference between the sad and mad face is the intensity. When making a sad face, your face just kinda droops. When you make a mad face, everything is contorted towards the center of the face (that’s why there’s all kinds of wrinkles on the nose, between eyebrows and under eyes
 
When doing these, pay attention to the ears, neck and shoulders.  

 

 
Head Angles
 
 
Head angles (along with the head placement) are very important. My favorite one is the one looking up and tilting slightly. I tend to use this one a lot when dealing with arrogant characters like Prism, Nidra or Hot Head. Why? Because it makes them look condescending and above others. If you watch anime, you’ll notice that a lot of the the “badass” or “evil villain” or even just cocky characters will do this when monologuing.
 
Examples: [Go to the source. I’m not linking all that]  

 
 
Eyes, Eyebrows, Eyelids
 
 
Eyes  
I strongly believe eyes are the most expressive features on the face. If you’re trying to make a face, you’re eyes could easily betray you.  
When doing eyes pay attention to the size of the eyes themselves, the irises and the pupils  
Big eyes, big irises and big pupils= Happiness, concern, sadness,  
Big eyes, big irises and small pupils= Happiness/surprise  
Big eyes, small irises and small pupils= Scared, pshyco, traumatized
 
Eyebrows  
Almost as expressive as the eyes  
I don’t think they need further explanation
 
Eyelids  
Important for making characters look tired, unamused, calm, etc.  

 
How to Better Understand Emotions
 
 
GET. A. MIRROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
Really think about different scenarios and what you might do/how you might react in those situations  
Feel how your body reacts when make certain faces. (Do your shoulders drop? Do you pull your head back? Does your mouth open? What do your eyebrows do?)
 

 
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!