FACIAL EXPRESSIONS | The Expression of Distress

Damsels in DISTRESS

THE KEY CONCEPT:​ When depicting the facial expression of Distress, 90% of the information is contained in 15% of the face - the rest of the face and the body goes along for the ride.

Figures 1 & 2: Actresses Lori Loughlin (left) Felicity Huffman (right), as depicted by the courtroom artist, Mona Shafer Edwards. Note the very different facial expressions of the two defendants; only one looks distressed,

I state my case:

When courtroom artist Mona Shafer Edwards sketched her now-viral drawings of two Hollywood actresses facing charges in the recent college admissions scandal, she couldn’t help but emphasize the contrast in their public demeanor.  Lori Loughlin, the higher-profile of the two, had been given one day to return to LA from a shoot in Canada, and she had obviously chosen to preen for her day in court. In Loughlin's sketch, she seems to glare at the court with crossed arms and impeccable hair. By contrast, Felicity Huffman had been arrested and handcuffed at dawn the same day she appeared in court. Huffman was facing less serious charges but, in her courtroom sketch, she appears both distressed and understandably disheveled.

As a facial expression expert, I ask:

Was it the put-together look and locked arms of Loughlin that made her look so tough? And, was it the scruffy hair and carelessly-buttoned blouse of Huffman that contributed to her hangdog look? 

Nope. 

Eyebrows and eyes carry the bulk of the emotional message in anger and sadness, and the mouth reinforces the message of the eyes.  The rest of the context – clothing, hair, body language – is nowhere near as powerful in expressing a state of mind.  To prove my point, I have produced a new version of Loughlin, crinkling her brows in a distress pattern, and pouting her mouth.  Suddenly Loughlin’s carefully groomed look and determined arms are beside the point – she’s vulnerable, and on the verge of tears, an actress in distress. 

Figures 3 & 4.  Loughlin as depicted by the courtroom artist (left). The author re-imagined Loughlin with the typical facial patterns of distress (right). Her body pose is the same; her modified facial expression convincingly shows her as a woman in distress.

The eyes (& mouth) say it all

For Huffman I modified her courtroom sketch in two different ways. In my first revision (Figure 6), I simply removed the pronounced – and very well drawn – kink in her eyebrows, to prove that without that detail, she appears calm and without expression. In my second revision (Figure 7), I chose to make her defiant and angry, messy hair be damned.  My angry face employs a frown, narrowed eyes, and a down turned mouth to create its effect. Perhaps we would prefer this as Huffman’s emotional response, rather than the helpless anxiety in the original sketch?

Figure 5. Huffman, original courtroom sketch showing her distressed facial expression.

Figure 6. Huffman, author-modified courtroom sketch to make her facial expression neutral.

Figure 7. Huffman, author-modified courtroom sketch to make her facial expression defiant and angry.

I rest my case:

With drawings of people, like these courtroom sketches, most of what we see is simply an accessory – it’s what the artist does with the eyes and mouth that carries their emotional state, not the clothing, hair style, or posture.

SESSION ADJOURNED.

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CREDITS:  Figures 1, 2, 3 & 5. Courtroom sketches of Lori Loughlin & Felicity Huffman copyright Mona Shafer Edwards; Figures 4, 6 & 7. Modified courtroom drawings by the author. ​