The Hardest SMILE to Draw
Key Concept: The elusive Stifled Smile is the hardest smile to capture in fine art and animation. |
Figure 1. Cartoonist Bill Griffiths tries his hand at the Stifled Smile, using line work only – a difficult task. The Stifled Smile is a real smile where someone is trying to hold it back, deploying lower face muscles like the Chin Raiser and the Triangularis that fight the upward pull (Figure 4). The use of tone would make describing the complex facial topography a bit easier.
WOULD YOU LIKE A CHALLENGE? Try drawing, painting, or posing a convincing Stifled Smile, the most elusive permutation of the Smile.
There is no doubt that the Stifled Smile, exists in the wild. Figure 2 is a terrific example, which in on-line tests scored a 96% recognition rate for Joy which is as good as it gets. And yet, a closer look reveals an odd detail: the mouth itself is not “smiling,” something that is absolutely required for every other version of facial happiness.
There is no doubt that the Stifled Smile, exists in the wild. Figure 2 is a terrific example, which in on-line tests scored a 96% recognition rate for Joy which is as good as it gets. And yet, a closer look reveals an odd detail: the mouth itself is not “smiling,” something that is absolutely required for every other version of facial happiness.
 | Figure 2. THE REAL THING. This textbook perfect example of the Stifled Smile scored extremely high in online tests. Viewers overlooked the straight, non-smiling mouth because of the happy eyes, bulging cheeks and deep Nasalabial Fold, characteristics of the full Smile. Figure 4 explains what is holding the mouth corners back. |
The "unsmiling" mouth is the detail is what makes the Stifled Smile so interesting and elusive. Displayed correctly, the Stifled Smile delivers as strong a signal of Joy as any other version of the Smile, but unlike your average Smile, it only succeeds if the active areas around the mouth have the correct configuration.
 | Figure 3. NOT THE REAL THING. For the Stifled Smile to succeed the entire face must be correctly configured, to make up for the missing smiling mouth shape. In this altered photograph, I’ve flattened the cheeks and removed the deep Nasolabial Fold evident in Figure 2. The test score of the resulting face, which is otherwise identical, plummeted to 42% for Joy, a 54% drop from the original recognition rate. It is obvious how much less happy he looks. |
THE SMILE IN A TUG OF WAR
The Stifled Smile occurs when someone is highly amused but is attempting to dial it back by using muscles which pull the mouth in the opposite direction, as shown in Figure 2. The resulting ‘tug of war’ expression is not only recognized as happy, but it is a charming sort of happy – endearing, impish, or playful.
The Stifled Smile occurs when someone is highly amused but is attempting to dial it back by using muscles which pull the mouth in the opposite direction, as shown in Figure 2. The resulting ‘tug of war’ expression is not only recognized as happy, but it is a charming sort of happy – endearing, impish, or playful.
 | Figure 4. In the Stifled Smile, the smiling muscle, Zygomatic Major (green arrows) attempts to pull the mouth corners up while two lower face muscles attempt to suppress that movement – leaving the mouth line flat, rather than arced. The Triangularis (blue arrows) pulls the mouth corners in exactly the opposite direction as the smiling muscle, while the Chin Raiser (yellow arrows) compresses the mouth from below, which also resists the upward pull. Meanwhile, all the other cues associated with a sincere, broad Smile remain present – the bulging cheeks with a strongly-defined Nasolabial Fold (red lines), and the compressed, “happy” eyes. Having the entire face “Smile” besides the mouth is critical to the effect. |
THE MOST CHARMING OF SMILES
 | Figure 5. To get the right pose for this illustration in my book, I told my model I had only one exposure left in my camera (remember film?) and I needed her to look totally deadpan. Meanwhile, her boyfriend, a professional clown, stood behind me and did very funny things. I caught her exactly when she was about to laugh and trying not to. The resulting, amusingly conflicted expression is exactly what I wanted with a smiling upper face (cheeks and eyes) and a flat-lined mouth, surrounded with tension folds (see Figure 2). A charming expression, indeed. |
THE "SIMPLE" SMILE IS MORE FORGIVING
In on-line tests, it is clear that viewers only recognize the Stifled Smile if all the required elements are in place; one false move, i.e. the elimination of the active cheeks (Figure 3), and we only notice the flat-lined mouth. With a typical smile, the mouth shape is so characteristic that it matters much less what the rest of the face is doing, as I have illustrated in Figures 6 & 7 below.
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Figures 6 & 7. Unlike the Stifled Smile, a typical, 'simple' Smile can be clearly read without any surrounding facial cues. In Figure 6, the original photo, the deep Nasolabial Fold is clearly apparent. In Figure 7, I edited out the bulging cheeks, and viewer tests should virtually no difference in response. Contrast this with the 54% drop between the faces in Figures 2 & 3.
THE SMILE WITH ANIMATED CHARACTERS
The art of animation often reduces things to their essence. Hence, animated characters rarely display the facial creases and bulges that accompany expressions like anger, joy and sadness. Without these "extra" bulges and folds, stylized faces cannot successfully pose the Stifled Smile, but simple Smiles are no problem as you can see in Figure 8.
 | Figure 8. Here is a typical example of an anatomically inaccurate, but completely effective Stylized Smile. The wide smiles of Elsa and Anna in "Frozen" lack the raised lower eyelid plus the folds and bulging of the cheeks (see Figure 6) that would necessarily be present active in a real face. Once we decide a face is not human, we are much more forgiving of such departures from reality. |
THE STIFLED DUCHESS
One sympathizes with the painter Paul Emsley, whose official portrait of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, was based on a photo of an ambiguous Smile, and was met with a wave of criticism when it was unveiled; See my own take on this unfortunate portrait in Figures 9 & 10. Dinotopia artist & illustrator, James Gurney, also has a discussion of it in his fascinating art blog: "Kate's Stifled Smile."
 | Figure 9. There was a great deal of disapproval of the facial expression depicted in the official portrait of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge painted by Paul Emsley. For me the question is - Slight Smile, or Stifled Smile? The mouth corners aren't raised enough for a Slight Smile, but the face isn't active enough for a Stifled Smile. With neither expression dominant, the resulting face seems more frozen than warm. |
 | Figure 10. With someone as public as Kate Middleton, is was not hard to find this photograph of her displaying a bona fide Stifled Smile and the effect has the energy and charm of the real thing. Compare how flat and deadpan the portrait of the royal appears in Figure 9 by comparison. |
IT'S ALL ABOUT CHARMING COMPLEXITY
Creases and bulges are a natural part of facial expression. What seems to be unique about the Stifled Smile is that it is the only expression that is unintelligible without the surrounding creases and bulges. Otherwise, we cannot see the flat mouth shape as having anything to do with Joy. But put it the right cues, and it scores as high on the Joy scale as any other version of the Smile, with the added attraction of charming complexity – we’re really happy, but we don’t want to show it!
CREDITS: Figure 1. This panel was part of a comic strip titled,, "Let a Smile be your Propeller," 12/23/93, where Bill Griffith quoted three complex smiles from my book, as interpreted by his character,Zippy the Pinhead. (c) 1993 Bill Griffith. World rights reserved. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.; Figures 2, 3 & 4. Photograph of Sir Li Ka-shing, a Hong Kong business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Figures 3 & 4 have been digitally manipulated by the author; Figure 5. Illustration of Jacqueline Huet from "The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression," written and illustrated by blog author, published in 1990; Figures 6 & 7. Photograph of Amy Davidson, staff writer at The New Yorker magazine from a wedding announcement in the NY Times, June 25, 2017. Figure 7 has been digitally manipulated by the author; Figure 8. Animated characters from "Frozen," a 2013 American 3D computer-animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's 1844 fairy tale, "The Snow Queen.;" Figure 9. Portrait of Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery and painted by Paul Emsley.. The portrait was unveiled on 1/11,/2013.; Figure 10. Photo of Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, at a sports event. Published in an article,"All the Times Kate Middleton Was on an Emotional Roller Coaster While Watching Sports," by Britt Stephens, 7/16/2019.
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