Intro

Well, hello there! This is Tamil and today I wanted to go over the tips for drawing lips. I highly recommend watching the video. I hope you will learn something.

General Shape

These are the basics. Find a good reference and try to apply these techniques.

 

Lips are grouped into 6 shapes ( colored sections ). When you are not sure how to break down the lips you drawing, try to think of them in terms of those groups.

 

I usually draw the darkest corners first. Corners of the lips. Middle V and big shadow for the bottom lip. That is usually enough to get started.

 

Muscles around the lips are very complicated. There are a lot of moving parts there. Most of them end where the lip corners are. That is why there is a small dip in there. Try to draw lips with curved lines to see how they change around.

 

Lastly, lips always stick out from the face. It is not a flat wall. Try to think of it as a ball that has more shope to it inside. It helps me to draw the arrows first.

Keep the Skull Sctructure

Keep the skull structure in mind. The mouth will follow it. I recommend drawing skulls from different angles for a better understanding of lips.

 

A common mistake is that when the character opens their mouth, people just extend the lower jaw without changing the angle. The bottom teeth will move and change the angle. The attachment will rotate, while the rest will stay in place.

 

The top teeth will always be at the same angle as the nose, eyes. They do not move in terms of placement.

 

Generally speaking, the corners of the mouth end somewhere between the corners of the nose, and the middle of the yes. Depending on the person and what their facial expression is.

 

How to simplify the start

How to generally draw lips? An easy way of drawing lips is to create 3 circles that create a pyramid. One at the top, and two at the bottom. The middle is where the V will be.

 

The bottom and top will usually have the dip, while everything else will follow the curve. Just look at your reference and try to piece it together.

 

A tip for drawing teeth is to not draw teeth, haha. The best way to draw teeth is to hide it and not go too crazy with details. They are usually yellow-ish in color. Try to focus on the top gum part and define those without drawing individual teeth.

 

Smiles are very very hard. Even doing photography with smiles is hard. Do not get discouraged if it does not look good. Just keep practicing and maybe focus on the lip shape and smaller smiles when you start out.

 

A small tip I did not know before is that the teeth line is not in the middle. From corner to corner, the top teeth are actually dominating the lower one and will be more curved. Do not draw it parallel to the mouth.

Coloring

Lips are very glossy compared to skin! Do not make them dry. They will be either wet, or very reflective. Play around with highlights and have fun!

 

If you turn the lips into black and white photo, it is easy to see that lips usually are different in tone compared to skin. If the skin is light, lips are red, which makes it darker. If the skin is darker, then the lips will be pinker and give more contrast. Even if the reference does not have that, it's a nice touch to push.

 

Another small hint for drawing a side view is to align it to the nose and chin. The lower lip usually (not always), is pushed more. It depends on the jawline and person's bite. The top lip will less extruding.

Practice Practice Practice!

The art won't draw itself. I recommend practicing more and looking at more references and where they might take you. Play around with how you render and keep the line quality in mind. Darker places will have bigger line work.

 

Watch the video if you do not feel like reading, and I hope you learned something. These are just general rules that helped me. A lot of things change if the mouth moves or the angle is very skewed.

I also did 6 paintings later when I was inspired during this tutorial. You can find the timelapse on my gumroad ( the link is under the video ). I hope you will find it helpful too.

 

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