AnimalFACS is a system of coding facial expressions/behavior and I have been very excited to do this (FREE) workshop because:
1. I have illustration jobs/projects that require me to draw animal body language
2. This self-learning workshop is to train our eyes and brains to see detailed/small movements in animal faces. It is like an observational skills workshop! And it's fascinating to me because I am learning to see not only as an "artist" but also as a "scientist".
3. I want to know more about how cat faces work! I am focusing on catFACS first.
Some notes from Part 1:
There was an exercise where attendees could submit their interpretation (emotional) of a bunch of facial expressions in different species. This was really fascinating. I had no idea what the primates were feeling so I took wild guesses, but when it came to the cat, I thought I must've been missing something because I wasn't seeing an "angry cat"! All the submissions said "angry!"
Did I mention that all these manuals are FREE? I have started working my way through the catFACS manual. There is way more detail in the manual than what I have scribbled and sketched here for my own reference... LINK: https://notability.com/n/2A~juHx201XOGw~M0nw92g
All I can say is that I am glad the catFACS manual is not 500 pages (like the humanFACS one) and CATS' EARS are amazing. They really do move in all directions!