Body Language
Expressing mood isn't limited to facial features. Your character's posture and gesture will tell the reader as much about what's going on as the facial expression and dialogue. Don't get complacent and draw the figure in positions that are comfortable for you to draw. To exploit the full potential of your cartoon, you must make the body help convey the character's mood.
Take advantage of any opportunity to learn more about body language. Some colleges offer courses on the subject, and your bookstore will have several titles available on it. As you gain a deeper understanding of body language, you'll be able to pose your characters more constructively.
Much of your character's body language will come to you quite naturally. For example, shaking a fist sends a very clear message. So does turning one's back to another character who's speaking. Closed posture — such as crossed arms or hands on hips — tends to be negative. Open posture — such as hands outreached — tends to be positive. Many gestures involving moving the hand to the face serve to draw attention to the face as an emotional medium — amplifying or diminishing the facial expression.
If you're having trouble finding the correct body language, try acting the scene out. Whenever possible, ask a friend to help. When two people role-play together, they start reacting to each other, resulting in totally unexpected gestures. Through role-playing the comic, you may find that your exercise goes beyond determining body position and becomes much more like choreography.
Feel free to exaggerate gestures — especially in action or superhero comics. Sometimes a gesture can diminish when it is drawn in two dimensions. Amplifying the gesture will compensate for this and keep your illustrations dramatic and exciting.
It's a good idea to jot down a simple one-or two-word description of a character's emotion as you're roughing in the images. Then, as you're firming up the illustration, you can concentrate on the details that communicate this emotion. As you improve, you'll find that you don't need to use as many word balloons — your characters' bodies are doing their fair share of the talking.
