Dear Skerchbookers,
I am so happy to share with you this interview with Meaghan McIsaac! She has been a friend of mine almost from the beginning of my illustration journey but one of the first things I remember linked us was this kiss back in 2020:
Since then, many challenges, draw this in your style(s), have brought us together and now we are continuing this adventure on Substack.
I invited Meaghan to be the first guest of The Sketchbook Games cause her ability to portray emotions has no parallel! Here is a taste of her work:
And without further ado, here is the interview:
Megs, I am so happy to have you here in The Sketchbook Games as my first guest! Â
As you know, we are working on PORTRAITS this month. When I was planning every week, I realized that I had to dedicate some part to work on emotions. My head went at once to your characters, so I asked you if you wanted to take part in this issue. Can you walk us through your illustration journey and how you developed your style for showing your characters' emotions? Â
I've always been obsessed with facial expressions in an illustration. I'm a storyteller first. And my interest in drawing is really an interest in telling a story. I write books for kids and am working on a graphic novel at the moment, so how to tell a story is a big part of my job. An illustration is a medium just like words in which to tell a story. For me, and the characters I create, story starts in the facial expression. I love how an animated character pushes and contorts their face with squishes and stretches. And in real life too! Faces are incredible in the number of muscles and lines all working together to convey a seemingly endless amount of meaning. It's a language all its own. And even more amazing, is that we can read all those expressions! We know instinctively what a person is feeling, thinking, based on the movements of their face. I think that's why I love drawing them so much - it's the easiest way for me to connect with the viewer, to convey the meaning of the piece, the story, with an expression. To make the viewer laugh, empathize, and feel.Â
I love all your work, but I love especially how you can turn a Draw This In Your Style Challenge and make it completely you, always so fun and fresh. I would love to know how you decide which emotions to depict in these characters. Â
Thank you so much! Oh man! It's been a while since I've done a DTIYS! And they were my absolute favourite thing to do to unwind after a long day. I love seeing other people's character designs and it's such a fun opportunity when they invite you into their imagination with a dtiys to play with that creation. Kinda like fan art, but for your friends! Whenever I find myself motivated to do a DTIYS its because the character that the artist has designed inspires me so much to tell a story. I think their version of the character and my version of the character work together. Often, I'm just imagining the next frame. Like if their character is a still image from an animated movie, my job is to draw the next frame - and to do that, I have to imagine what the story is. Sometimes that can be a reaction, sometimes that can be a joke, sometimes that can be a new pose. It all depends on how the character inspires me! DTIYS are such a great exercise because they let you work on and find your own style, and are also such a generous act on the part of the artist - to hold out their creation and say "your turn". It really is such a great example of why the art community is the best.
I am sure you give a lot of time to plan what you will draw and how you will draw it, but are there specific facial expressions that are more complicated than others? How do you overcome these challenges? Â
For me, it's always tricky to draw anything extreme - extreme anger, extreme sadness, surprise, terror. ESPECIALLY if its a character I have to keep consistent from one image to the next like in a graphic novel or comic. Extreme emotion pushes and pulls the face in such crazy ways - but the character still has to be readable as themselves! The logo for Authorstrator was a good example of squash and stretch. When I sat down to draw her, I was just playing with expression. I wanted to see how much I could push a frazzled frustrated emotion, with the character pulling on her face. So I drew the character's face neutral at first. Then I made a new layer and drew over top of the neutral expression, squishing and stretching in the way that I wanted. I didn't hold back - I went as extreme as I dared. I gave myself permission to not care if the character looked good, and just really push the limits of expression. I was really happy with the result (which is why I use her for the logo of Authorstrator!) and I think the reason it worked out was because I started with her neutral expression first.
Can you also share any tips or advice for aspiring artists looking to improve their ability to paint emotions into their drawings and illustrations? Â
I always love to practice with happy faces! If you can convey an emotion in a happy face/emoji, you can do it in a character. Draw 10 circles, and make the first circle a happy face. Then a mad face. Then a sad face. Then a surprised face. Then a neutral face. Now, draw all those same emotions again on the next circles, but make them VERY HAPPY, VERY ANGRY, oh so devastated, HORRIFIED, and what's an extreme neutrality? Boredom? Very bored? See what comes out! If you were able to convey those feelings on your circles, you can use those circles as a guide to convey that emotion on a character! What made the expression work on the circle? How can you incorporate that to a more complicated face?
Now, we are dying to know about your new books and plans for this year. Â
Oh gosh! Thank you! My latest book which is out now is the sequel to The Bear House, it's called The Bear House: Scales and Stardust! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/708702/the-bear-house-scales-and-stardust-by-meaghan-mcisaac/9780823455812
I'm currently working on a graphic novel and I am having a lot of fun sharing the writing and illustration process on my newsletter, AuthorstratorÂ
 ! And of course, you can always find me on my drawing Instagram account - @megsscribble
I loved all of these tips, I have to run now to do the exercises Megs suggested!
See you in the next post where we will be exploring more emotions and simplifying portraits.
Until then friends,
Citla and Megs