Send your cartoons and smileys into a rage!

Just what kind of angry do you want to show?

Anger can be fully and furiously expressed

Rage can brood and smoulder under the surface

There are many varieties of anger, and they all spell danger. An angry face in a crowd is the first to be noticed. We know what's good for us. A hostile face, particularly if it's male and glaring at you, is not a welcome sight to see.

Anger is not, of course, confined to the male of the species. We recognise displeasure in either sex from an early age!

Anger is the most physical emotion. It almost demands to be shown in full-body language. Yet however furiously you (or your drawing) clench a fist, it can end up looking simply feeble without a suitably enraged facial expression.

So what is the recipe for an angry facial expression? There are three basic ingredients.

1. EYEBROWS. Frowning, glowering, pulled down strongly at the inner ends.

2. EYES. Wide and glaring.

3. MOUTH. Either:

A (When anger is fully expressed.) Mouth opened wide, showing teeth in a snarl or shout.

B (When anger is suppressed.) Lips pulled tight and thin. Teeth clenched together or grinding.

You can give almost anything an angry facial expression with these ingredients. However, they need cooking. Subject them to the fire of inspiration! Feel the anger as you draw...

...Oops! Wait a minute. Anger is destructive - and not only of the object unfortunate enough to have inspired your wrath. Anger does nasty things to your insides and your life. Let your pencil feel the anger. If you were feeling angry even before you started, now's your chance to experience the joys of self expression. The feeling can flow out though your pencil.

We all function differently, so this is a very hard thing to explain. All I can say is that if you just set the elements down on paper cold, without imagining how the emotion feels, the result will be unconvincing.

I drew this irate blob in the notepad on my Sony Ericsson P990.

Red is the colour of rage. The P990 notepad doesn't have a 'fill' tool, so I transferred the image to my Mac and filled it with a fiery colour.

Drawing angry face emoticons, cartoons and smileys