Facial Expressions, Serious

Face all clouds, like a man in need of physic —George Garrett
A face as sad and featureless as a moon by day —George Garrett
Face austere as a hermit’s —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Face … gloomy as an El Greco —John Fowles
Carlos Baker makes the El Greco comparison with ‘Long,’ which explains the meaning to include mood as well as physical shape.
See Also: FACIAL SHAPE
Face grim as flu —Reynolds Price
Face like a clenched fist —Richard Condon
A face like a stomach cramp —Loren D. Estleman
Face like a vinegar bottle —Erich Maria Remarque
Face … somber as a churchman’s —Richard Ford
Face tightened up like a charley-horse —Raymond Chandler
Face was long, like a sheep’s —W. Somerset Maugham
The comparison is used to describe both sadness and a long-shaped face. To emphasize the psychological there’s Daphne du Maurier’s “Long and grave … like a complaining sheep.” To combine both meanings there’s this by Margaret Atwood: “Face … long and mournful, like a sheep’s, but with the large full eyes of a dog, spaniel not terrier.”
Grim as an ideological bigot —Frank Swinnerton
Had the face of a man suffering the awaited death of a loved one who’s terminally ill —Mario Puzo
Had the look of a boy who had just lost his puppy to the county dogcatcher —Clive Cussler
He [Calvin Coolidge] looks as if he’d been weaned on a pickle —Alice Roosevelt Longworth
His long grim face, with the mouth running across its lower hem like a slipped thread in a linen sack, was as pitted as a battlefield —Cynthia Ozick
A long sad face like a cocker spaniel —George Garrett
Looked dismayed, like a child who’s been used to hearing the same story with the same happy ending, and now the ending has been changed —Margaret Millar
Looked like a man being strapped into the electric chair while his wife French-kisses the D.A. in the hallway —T. Coraghessan Boyle
Looking as if the dentist had told him he’d have to have all his teeth pulled —Ross Macdonald
Looking as pensive as a monk in a spiritual crisis —Scott Spencer
Looking like a broody hen —Margaret Kennedy
(You) look like you just swallowed a bone —Charles Johnson
Sour and gray in the face, like a man who detests the food that keeps him alive; and must yet have it —Paul Horgan
Troubled face … like a gravel parking lot —Ken Follett,
Wore a permanently pinched look, as if he had just bitten into a piece of spoiled fish that he could neither swallow or spit out —Amos Oz
Worried look, like a bird dog uncertain of the scent —Elizabeth Spencer