Requested by anon (edited slightly for length): Reader is a kinesiology student. Connor notices her staring at him while heās walking around shirtless and thinks sheās checking him out, but sheās really just fascinated by his anatomy.
I don't know anything about kinesiology so hopefully this makes sense
Professional Interest
pairing: Connor Bedard x female reader
description: You're a kinesiology student who can't stop staring at Connor's shirtless form at the gym, though he mistakenly thinks your academic fascination is romantic interest.
TW: Fluff.
masterlist
The gym is quiet this early, only a few dedicated souls moving through their routines. You're supposed to be studying, but your textbook lies forgotten on the bench as you watch him. Connor, shirtless and glistening with a light sheen of sweat as he moves through his cooldown stretches.
It's not in a romantic way, well, not entirely. As a kinesiology student, you're fascinated by the human form, by the way muscles work together to create movement. And Connor, despite not being heavily built, has an interesting physique. His larger muscle groups are well-defined, the product of years of intense training. You find yourself mentally tracing the line of his deltoids, noting the way his trapezius muscles contract as he reaches for his water bottle.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer," a voice interrupts your observations.
You jump, realizing Connor has stopped his stretching and is now looking directly at you, a smirk playing on his lips. Heat rushes to your face as you fumble with your textbook.
"I wasn't...I was just..."
"Staring?" he finishes, walking over to your bench. "It's okay. I'm used to it."
You roll your eyes, recovering from your embarrassment. "Actually, I was just observing your muscle definition. It's quite interesting from a kinesiological perspective."
Connor raises an eyebrow, his smirk widening. "Kinesiological perspective? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?"
"It's a legitimate academic field," you defend, though you can't help but smile at his teasing. "I'm studying how different muscle groups work together during athletic movements."
"Right," he nods, though his expression suggests he doesn't believe you for a second. "And what have you 'observed'?"
"Well," you say, deciding to lean into your academic explanation, "your deltoid development is impressive, especially given the rotational demands of hockey. And your core engagement during those stretches shows excellent proprioceptive awareness."
Connor's smirk falters slightly, replaced by genuine curiosity. "You can see all that just from watching me stretch?"
"There's a lot to observe," you explain, warming to your topic. "The way your scapula moves during shoulder rotations, the slight asymmetry in your obliques, probably from your shooting motion and the tension patterns in your lower back."
He seems genuinely impressed, sitting down beside you. "You're not just checking me out, are you?"
"Not primarily," you admit with a laugh. "Though I can appreciate the aesthetics as well as the mechanics."
Connor laughs, a genuine, warm sound that makes your stomach flutter. "Well, in that case, Ms. Kinesiology Expert, maybe you can tell me why my shoulder's been bothering me after games."
You hesitate, torn between professional boundaries and the opportunity to work with such an interesting subject. "I'm not a certified trainer yetā¦"
"But you know your stuff," he presses. "Come on, just an observation. What do you see?"
You find yourself studying his shoulder more carefully, noting the subtle imbalances and tension patterns. "You're overcompensating with your rotator cuff," you diagnose after a moment. "Probably from an old injury that never fully healed. Your deltoid is trying to do the work of smaller stabilizing muscles."
Connor's eyes widen. "How did you know I had an old shoulder injury?"
"Educated guess," you shrug. "Hockey players, shoulder injuriesā¦ statistically likely. Plus, the way you favor that side slightly, even when you think no one's watching."
He shakes his head, impressed. "You're really something else. You know that?"
"Just observant," you reply, though you can't help but feel pleased by his praise.
"Well, Ms. Observant," he says, standing up and grabbing his shirt, "would you be interested in making these observations a regular thing? Maybe over coffee sometime?"
Your heart skips a beat at the implication. "Are you asking me out?"
"Maybe," he grins. "Or maybe I just want a free consultation from a future kinesiology expert."
You pretend to consider it, tapping your chin thoughtfully. "Well, my consulting fees are quite steepā¦"
"I'll pay in coffee," he offers. "And maybe the occasional opportunity to observe my muscle development up close."
You laugh, shaking your head. "You're impossible."
"Is that a yes?" he asks, his expression hopeful.
You nod, unable to resist his charm. "It's a yes. But only for academic purposes, of course."
"Of course," he agrees with a wink. "Purely academic."
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Some art-related asks! (And a disclaimer - this advice is from my experience, and if you feel the advice doesnāt resonate with you, thatās okay!)
Before I even answer anything, my two overarching tips are always these:
Practice, practice, practice! You have to practice drawing a lot and regularly to build that muscle memory - improvement wonāt happen overnight, so please donāt be disappointed! Art has the weirdest learning curves. The kind of practice I recommend is studies, live or from references of real things, regardless of your artstyle (in fact, some of my favourite stylised artists have a very strong ability to draw realistically, and they use that knowledge to supplement their styles!). If youāre a digital artist, you still must also do studies on paper, no matter how much you hate it. You need practice without the experience of being able to mirror, liquify or ctrl +z. Even if you feel the attempts are rubbish, keep doing them!
Immerse yourself in art - so surround yourself with your favourite artists on any socials you use. Make a regular habit of watching speedpaints, process videos, tutorials, and those āfixing your artā videos. Even when youāre not drawing, youāll be surrounded by art. Itāll help you learn to spot whatās missing in your own works - is it contrast? Form? Colour selection? Have you misunderstood the lighting? You develop your own inner critic that allows you to view your own art from a technical viewpoint
Some really great artists Iād recommend for help with proportions/anatomy/etc are the following (they have other socials, but Iām just putting down their ig handles): @joshhunterblack, @taco1704, @tomfoxdraws, @angelganev, @riylart
Now onto more specific tips:
Drawing faces:
Use the Loomis method! I wonāt bother explaining it as thousands of artists have done a better job of this online, but thatās what I use all the time to ensure I have decent proportions
Follow the natural curves of the face, for example:
The orange curves help me orient the plane of the face. Thereās also certain facts like the nose begins in line with the top of the ears, and ends at the bottom of the ear. These ācheckpointsā are useful when you change perspectives. The eyes sit below the top of the ear (typically). Also eye shape can tell you a lot about perspective
Naturally this is a very whistle stop tour to faces, but I hope that helps!
Drawing hands:
One thing I find helpful is nails. Theyāre often neglected, but they tell the viewer a lot about distance, perspective, and angles. They also help me draw the fingers. If I draw the nails ahead of time, I donāt end up with weird-length, disproportionate fingers.
Also note the shapes! Knuckles are diamond-like, and are attached to the back of the wrist by thin strips of ligaments. When the fingers are extended, they become more prominent. Also, at any joint in the fingers, the finger will be thicker. I like to exaggerate these a bit more than you typically see in real life as I find it adds a bit of character. Hence why itās important to learn realism, then you can subtract the parts that you donāt want to suit your artstyle
hello strawpage anon my sketches literally look like this im not sure i can help youššš
but alr lol. as you can PROBABLY tell just by looking at these its mostly breaking the body down into shapes. Most artists tell you to draw boxes or whatever the fuck but we're not made of boxes we're made of stupid ovals and cirkels and rounded trapezoids and whatever tf. heres a basic runthrough
i just found this white guy on my pinterest and i think he's cool so let's try to draw him.
if i roughly trace guidelines over him, these are my shapes I end up with. For instance, for the torso i use this weird, curved trapezoid with a thing sticking out shape. Whether you're drawing a man or a woman the chest will protrude, and for women drawing the protrusion also helps me estimate where to place the breasts.
mostly what simplifying the form down like this does for me is it makes humans a LOT easier to imagine in perspective. if I want to draw the body in perspective, it's much easier to rearrange these basic shapes and work from there rather than trying to start with details
similarly, if i wanna draw this guy, it's much easier for me to construct him and redraw from the shapes that i see (especially when NOT tracing over the image, starting off with just shapes helps me nail a pose down pretty much 100% of the time, because i can easily move them around and i can easily get ratios and proportions correct). With a bit of studying the human body and a bit of anatomical knowledge (cant escape this one no matter how bad you wanna), i can easily draw the rest of his body from here within just a couple minutes
otherwise, a big thing i see people making mistakes in is proportions!! Keep in mind simple things like: eyes should be approximately the length of one eye apart from each other; upper arms and forearms (and upper legs and lower legs) are roughly the same length; the waist is the center of the body, dividing you into two equal halves that should be approximately the same length; your hands reach your mid-thigh when your arms are down; your hands are the same size as your face; etc, etc. Use references to practice this stuff! It probably sounds tiring as hell, but when I'm drawing i'm constantly thinking things like "oh, collarbones are this far apart and attach to here" or "shoulders protrude slightly, let me draw a line for that" or "the jaw should be lower, since this character has their mouth open" etcetera enzovoort enzovoort. Ultimate price to pay in order to understand anatomy
Keep in mind to draw organic shapes for the body, if not in your sketch/guidelines then at least in your final render. Depending on your style strong, sharp lines can look really good!! but regardless dynamicism is important, and these styles are typically harder to execute because they're working with stiff shapes. If you're drawing a form of semirealism/stylised realism, where i consider my own art to lie, then these rounded, soft shapes for the body are important.
i personally take note of naturally forming curves on the body and exaggerate them for the sake of stylisation, like this for the arms
or like this for the legs
(i also do this for the torso in order to make the pose more dynamic, which is harder to see with the finished piece through his clothes, but easier to see in my original sketch. The waist is an easy way to make a pose look more dynamic, and therefore a good target for stylisation)
Regardless of your endgoal or dream style, studying accurate, realistic anatomy first is most important, then finding a way to simplify it into basic shapes that make sense to you (i am probably in the minority for how i draw these shapes. I see many artists online using either boxes, cylinders, ovals, you name it. It doesn't matter what your sketch looks like so long as you can make sense out of it and add to it in your lineart fase, so any easy to rotate shapes that make the body simpler to draw works!), and then apply your learned anatomy on top of these shapes to draw accurate, proportionate bodies.
Iām in loooove with the way you use lines, shapes and colors/shading to show form in your art. The way you draw bodies shows a lot of understanding of the shapes that go into them, and thatās something I often personally struggle with. Iām familiar with the shapes of a face, but when it comes to connecting them to the shapes of the body and so on, I get frustrated that itās jumbled instead of cohesive.
I was wondering, when youāre looking to practice, whether thatās anatomy, line-making, still life shapes or whatever, do you have any exercises youāve done and would be willing to share? Iāve been trying to crawl out of the no-art-depression-hole for a bit and want to start with things that donāt take much willpower but help me improve
I might be the worst person to ask this! My relationship with art is not typical and I do not practice mindfully! (I just draw whatever I want and that's my practice, y'know?
Anyways, here's my progress of how I learnt to draw :3
Step 1 is proportions - breaking up the human body into manageable blocks and pieces. And step 2 is learning the muscles that build up the body, and from there you can simplify as needed... Or do that thing anime art kids do and skip directly to the simplified bit! (You probably shouldn't do that but if it's a hobby who cares!)
For specific tutorials, I find that proko is probably the best mix of entertaining/educational content you can find, but aside from that I watch a lot of speedpaints.
As a sort of get rich quick scheme, I think the absolute easiest way to get stupidly good at art is studying perspective - but you at least need a basic understanding of proportions and anatomy before you can draw someone in a funky perspective.
Everything in life is in perspective, and every piece of work you will ever make will have perspective in it. Perspective is sort of like an all-encompassing thing in our reality that you don't realise is there, and maybe even not realise is missing in your work (just that something feels... Wrong) AND LIKE NOBODY EVER TALKS ABOUT IT! WHAT THE FLIP!!!
I don't really have a specific source for learning perspective, because I've been on-and-off trying to wrap my head around it for a few years (I'm still awful at it but I'm getting there...!) here's a video!
I do think that drawing with progression in mind might help, but I think with art (as a hobby) the most important thing is probably love for a special guy and joy of creation. You have to love what you're drawing and the simple act of creating, or it just won't work out. If you're in a depression hole maybe just try creating for the sake of it, and don't give yourself too many expectations :)
How did you get so good at drawing such expressive bodies/faces??? tell me your secrets!! (But srsly your skills are amazing)
AAAA THANK YOU!!
I think my initial inspiration was about 10-11 years ago watching Adventure Time and finding Rebecca Sugarās boards. Sometimes I get a little frustrated because she gets so much more notoriety than the other very very amazing AT boarders, butā¦.. her expressions manā¦. she was always able to convey so much with SO LITTLE. (SUās expressions are on another level of course, but I think ATās are just so impressive to me because theyāre dot eyes)
But the thing is!! Iām also a fan of deadpan. Which AT also does very well. Itās tempting to want to do BIG, extreme expressions at every moment, especially in comedic comics, but you really donāt need to. I find that characters often feel more expressive if you reel it in more often. That way, when you DO have bigger expressions, they FEEL bigger!
for example, a panel where the contrast between big and subtle expressions sells the contrast:
I donāt really,,,, know exactly what I do that works, ?? I kind of just like, think of the emotion I wanna convey, make the expression, think about what my face feels feels like, and try to convey that. Using a mirror helps!! Youāll feel a little stupid but itās funny.
some misc expression tips:
Definitely prioritize eyebrows, eyes, and mouths!
Noses arenāt as important BUT flared nostril can totally sell an expression, so it depends!
Remember that your upper jaw is stationary, and your lower jaw can move, and then your lips and cheeks can move all around that!
Just subtly changing the placement of eyelids and location/size of irises can completely change an expression
Donāt be afraid to make your characters look weird or stupid.
Donāt reinvent the wheel! Take reference from different media you like that stylize expressions in different ways, and find what works for you. I take a lot of inspiration from AtLA
Again, NUANCE! Like, when most people are sad, they do their very best to try NOT to cry. People hold things in. Sometimes what characters donāt say can speak louder than what they do.
some expressions Iāve done that have varying levels of nuance:
Also framing!! You can use the composition to help project how the character feels:
As for body language!
Having a better sense of three-dimensional form and anatomy isnāt necessary, but it sure helps a lot
Hands!! I have adhd and my family is italian so I use my hands a lot when I talk. But even still, most people donāt just leave their hands hanging loosely by their sides. People cross their arms and fidget with their zippers and put their hands in pockets.
Head, neck, and shoulders. If you can master the foreshortening of these overlapping shapes at most angles, you will be very powerful
Hips & feet!!!!! People RARELY stand straight with both feet flat on the ground with even balance. Most people will shift their weight to one hip, leaving one leg looser and at an angle. It also helps to practice perspective, because people also rarely stand with their heels lined up side by side. One leg may get kicked foreward or loosely bent backwards. I sometimes cross my legs when I stand.
Ultimately, if you want more lifelike expressions and poses, study from life!! Donāt worry about your drawing being āgoodā or ābadā, instead think about what can make it successful. Ask yourself, āis this conveying the expression I want to convey?ā and if itās not, figure out what you need to change to get it there.
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one of the best and most unironic pieces of art advice i can give is to draw yourself with your favorites. whatever you want to call it, self insert, self shipping, hanging out with your muse, doesn't matter; draw yourself and your favorite characters in the same space and interacting.
you don't have to post it, but make it for the love of god.
I'm serious, by the way, and it doesn't matter what kind of dynamic you're imagining, either.
if it's platonic or familial-- play with the body language. does your favorite's body language change around you versus other people? if they're a villain, how would they relax in that sense of privacy versus in the public or "keeping the face"? what are the gestures you'd draw for both of you talking? do they touch their face while talking? how would you draw yourself leaning in with attention?
if it's romantic-- how do you draw them relaxing in the space with you, and/or vice versa? if they give comfort with tactile quality, how would they give a hug, and how does the overlapping forms of the bodies interact on paper? how do you draw longing vs satisfaction, and playing with the distance of space of both?
(and yes, if it's sexual-- what kind of kinks have you always hidden away? what's the shit you can't imagine poking at with a stick in daylight or in reality? how would you render the textural implements of fetish items? how does the anatomy work in 3D/perspective/the space itself? how do you draw the raw tension lines of intimacy to the point you "feel" the intimacy and/or it feels believable? how do you convincingly portray shyness or lust?)
this exercise, for lack of a better word, also has a funny but cool side effect of letting you play with how you want to present yourself too. are you not feeling your own shape language? change it up! want to wear the clothes you've always felt a little too scared to put on? want to play drag? use this chance to study how clothes look, how to render the tactile quality of fabric, what makes silk feel different than leather, how would you draw confidence in a person?
how would you erase the idea of artistic shame in your vocabulary?
Second response to a few art questions from @johnny-and-clyde letās gooo!
I love references! Like most artists I did have that phase where I thought I was better than everyone because I didnāt use āem, but lemme tell ya- starting to use references took my art from this
(Art from 2021-2022)
To some better lookin stuff, and eventually to the stuff yāall know me for now lol!
Nowadays I do use references for almost every drawing, but the amount that I reference them varies
Occasionally itās pretty direct, like my drawing of Curly Shepard, in which I HEAVILY referenced a photo of myself for the pose and fit:
(I donāt dress like this on a daily basis the pic was taken at a Twilight-themed school dance ok) (Iām not cool enough to wear that many necklaces w/o a good reason š)
In drawings where I directly reference photos that donāt belong to me, I put the reference in the post under the drawing, so folks know I didnāt plan the concepts/compositions on my own. But usually I donāt directly reference thingsā¦
Usually I use a bunch of different references for a bunch of different things. This is for two purposes:
1- Making sure everything stays vaguely anatomically decent, that the fabric folds in the right places, that the perspective works, that the lighting looks good, etcā¦especially in tricker/unusual poses. Um Iām also pretty sure that I might have some form of aphantasia, or at least a really weak āmindās eyeā, which is probably why I struggle with composition/planning in art and why I do so much better with references
Like here, when I used this pic of Emilio Estevezās character in Repo Man to make sure I was getting Mark Jenningsās face shape right- just glanced at it off to the side and (more or less) drew what I saw
Or here, in this pic of Steve Randle- I didnāt know how to even start to draw the angle I needed, so I took a pic of myself and used that
2- Capturing the likeness of a person. For most new characters I draw, I take a bunch of screenshots and roughly redraw them and occasionally trace them to build muscle memory, all while taking little notes about unique features they have. Then, once I have a feel for them, and enough odd-looking line drawings to look like a crazy stalker, Iām ready to start actually drawing post-able art yk?
Hereās an example from 2023 where I studied Nancy Wheeler. Final product aināt fantastic, but this was two-school-years ago so itās basically ancient in my book lol
I do still use refs often in the finals, but less directly and with less adherence
But I will say, for rougher/cartoonier drawings I donāt use as many refs. Like, I didnāt use references for these (although I did pose in the mirror to get the arm right in the self-portrait lol) :
Lastly, I also find itās nice to have a mirror/window nearby to look at my own anatomy and reference that, although thatās mainly just useful for characters who look semi-like me/have similar builds to me lol. Like I can reference myself for drawing Steve Randle or Johnny Cade (at least his face lol), but not so much for drawing likeā¦Dally or Evie or Marcia. Still, itās useful, especially when I canāt find a specific reference I want, yk?
Anyhow, those are the main ways I utilize references in art! Hope some of this was helpful :))
Hi! First post of the Art Resources thing I mentioned a while back :) Figured I'd start with something people generally want to know more about- or something people think they already know about but could still used some lesser known tips!
Resources, break downs and tips under the Keep Reading thing :]
1. The Basics
There are thousands of methods to constructing the face. The most popular one is the little circle with the cross in the middle, and sometimes a few more lines for the jaw. While that can be a useful guideline, if you're just starting to learn the ropes it might be better to use a method that has more structure decomposition and land marks to help guide you. Here I'll leave two methods of deconstructing the face that I believe are the most useful to draw faces in different angles and perspectives as well as identify where exactly should each element be placed.
REMEMBER: All of these methods are just guidelines. In order to get different facial features, you can adjust proportions for each of these and play around with sizes.
1.1 The Loomis Method
A structural approach to drawing the head, based on first: simplifying general forms and second: identifying landmarks for the face elements. Pretty good for beginners, helps you understand the head from a more tridimensional stand point to be able to draw it from different angles.
1.2 The Reilly Method
Also a structural approach, but this one is based on understanding the rhythms of the face (proportions, harmonies, and even some general muscular anatomy). It can be a bit harder to understand and use as a building block for beginner artists, but it can serve as a way to check your proportions after an initial sketch.
Here are other two methods, a bit less known, but that go a bit more in depth about the head. If you're a beginner, I'd recommend watching the Loomis method first before diving into these other two methods. Note: these are playlists covering each method, and the videos are longer, but worthwhile.
1.3 The Michael Hampton Method
1.4 The Steve Huston Method
And here's a hybrid of a visual and structural approach too if you're interested! (Again, this one is recommended mostly if you already have a good grasp of the general structure)
Having trouble finding that reference of the head from that specific angle? Here's a 3D model that can be used as reference from any angle. Bonus: It has a built in light feature that allows you to understand which planes of the face the light would hit!
There's also a version with more feminine features.
Here's a website that lets you pick a head angle and then searches for reference images with that angle too. Allows you to pick age, gender, and other features like glasses, facial hair, etc.
2. Understanding What's Below
When drawing the head and face, what most people think of is what we see everyday: the skin. However, there's more to the head and face than just that: there's a whole structure laying underneath that builds up everything on top. Understanding that structure can lead to better execution of skin level facial anatomy.
And what's that structure? Well, bones of course. And muscles. Even if (most of the time) we don't draw them, knowing they exist and how they are placed on top of each other can help with building what we do draw. Understanding the building blocks of the face will make it easier to avoid, say, making one eye bigger than the other. Or a forehead that's too small. Or ears that are too high. Or side profiles that cut off the brain.
Something I recommend for this is making study sheets of the bone structure, muscular structure, and skin structure. For this it's important to name the main bones and muscle groups. Not because you need to commit them to memory, but because if you name them on your practice sheet, it's easier to remember later on that they EXIST (even if you don't remember the name).
Here's a 3D model of the skull
Useful guide for the names of the bones of the skull
Here's a 3D model of the face muscles with names
3. Elements of a Whole
So we now understand the general structure of a face and some useful guidelines to build it. Good! But now, a face has a bunch of individual elements with their own individual structure and stuff to look out for. Those are, of course:
Eyes
Noses
Lips
Ears
3.1 Eyes
It's important to note that the eye has a volume of its own- it's not just a sticker laying on top of the face. It can be helpful to think of the eyeball inside the eye socket when drawing it (taking into account the bone structure we learned before). When understanding the eyeball as a sphere, it becomes easier to place the skin above: the eyelids. This can help with drawing the eye from any angle.
This can also help when drawing the dreaded Other EyeTM, specially if you are still a beginner artist. If you start by constructing the eyes with spheres and approach it from the perspective of "placing" the skin above that sphere, it's easier to get sizes and proportions right.
3.2 Noses
Again, spheres can be your friend.
3.3 Lips
Spheres part 3
A funny thing with lips that often gets over looked when one is just learning the ropes of anatomy is that it also wraps around the volume of the face. Just like the eyes aren't stickers laying on top, the lips aren't either. It's important to take the curvature of the face when placing the lips from different angles and expressions. For example, when we thing of a smile, its usually this idea that comes to mind:
Which yeah, that's fine! ...As long as your subject is facing straight to the camera.
But when we have even a bit of perspective, the way the mouth looks changes, and we often don't think of that and just draw what we think the mouth looks like... which can lead to odd looking mouths, like they're pasted on. So, it's important to keep in mind the volume of the face:
This is true for all features of the face: keeping in mind the volume. But, it can be more noticeable on the mouth.
3.4 Ears
Spheres part- no.
Even if the ear is one of the "flatter" parts of the head, it doesn't mean they don't have volume. Depending on the angle of the face, it'll change how much of the ear is shown- or which parts.
All ears are different and have their quirks, but they all can be divided in three major segments, colour coded in the image. If you deconstruct the ear in these three major parts, keeping in mind they have their own volume, it should be easier to figure out which of those parts will be seen depending on the angle of your face.
4. Expressions!
Now that we understand the elements and construction blocks of the face (bones and muscles), we can play around with them a bit more. So, time to make expressions!
When playing with how the skin moves, it's fundamental to understand the muscle groups of the face and how they move, relax and tense depending on the expression. Knowing that these muscles exist and how they interact with the skin above will help you know where the eyebrow should furrow, where wrinkles would form.
A BOOK I widely recommend is Anatomy of Facial Expression, which you can find here for purchase
Or here as a PDF
This book also covers skull anatomy, so it's a useful tool to study the structure talked about in 02.
There's also an ArtStation account that uploads a bunch of useful 3D model resources for anatomy (facial or otherwise).
Scott McCloud's book, Making Comics, has a section dedicated to facial expressions too (great book in general, not only if you're interested in comics!). You can find it in PAGE 80 (or 88 in the document).
Another thing that can be helpful is studying from life! You can do that by making different expressions in front of a mirror and pay close attention to which muscle groups tense and relax, where wrinkles appear, how your skin moves. Or, if you're like me and hate staring at your face, you can also study from video references.
Here's a link to a PLAYLIST containing various videos of people making different expressions.
The previous playlist contains real people, thus, REALISTIC ANATOMY. It's important to note that even if your drawing style is heavily stylised (like anime, cartoon, etc), it's still fundamental that you understand real world rules so you later know how to bend and break them properly to implement those to your own style.
However, that doesn't mean you can't study STYLISED EXPRESSIONS too! It's actually a great idea to see how other people exaggerate certain anatomical aspects to their own work so you can also understand how to do it in yours. Here's a list with various videos of EXPRESSIONS IN MOTION for animation tests. Study them the same as the previous ones: paying close attention to how the face and muscles MOVE.
Pause the videos you study as needed! While all of this might seem more useful for animation, it's also incredibly useful in illustration, and studying things in movement can help with understanding them better, thus putting them to paper (or tablet) becomes easier.
Finally, here's some videos in a sort of CLASS FORMAT that can help with walking you through drawing expressions more effectively than a text post could lol
