The mouth is an important part of the face, and with full shiny lips, it can leave anyone wowed. It is not surprising that drawing a mouth with complete expression is also tricky, as it can literally make or mar the appearance of a face while drawing it. But if you learn the tricks of how to draw a mouth, you can add numerous expressive impacts to a face.
- To draw a mouth effectively, you first need to understand the lip structure – the slants and shadow of the upper lip, projection of the lower lip. The lower lip is generally thicker than the upper lip and hence catches more light. If you notice other paintings you can observe a shadow under the middle thick area of the lower lip. It adds to the natural look of the mouth.
- A common problem with drawing a mouth is misalignment with other parts of the face such as the nose and eyes. To avoid this problem, first draw the lines on the face structure to make segments of the face and mark the positions of different parts on the face. Draw the mouth on both sides of the middle vertical line. In case you are drawing the face from its side view, draw half of the mouth under the nose. Once you get the alignment right, you can draw different expressions with curves of the lips.
- For a normal mouth, draw the top lip horizontally a little longer than the lower lip and the lower lip thicker in the middle portion than the top lip. Draw the top lip with a small indentation in the middle and the lines slanted towards both ends. The lower lip is more protruded in the middle and extended towards both directions ending a little before the bottom edge of the top lip. Define the edges of both lips by drawing another horizontal line going in between the other two lines. Draw vertical lines on the lip to give it a realistic look. Remember that the vertical lines of the top lip should be drawn upward from the midline of the lip, while the lines for the lower lip should be drawn downwards.
- While drawing a mouth with a smile or laugh, determine exactly what kind of smile or laugh u want to create with the mouth. A simple lip structure spreading towards both ends can show a decent smile. If you want to draw the mouth with teeth to display laugh, draw the lips with space in between them. In this case, you have to draw the lips separately with the ends connected on both sides at the corner of the mouth. Draw the teeth and shadow them at the edges to highlight their appearance. In case you want to draw a mouth wide open you can consider drawing the tongue.
- You can also express sorrow in a face with the curves of the mouth. While drawing the lips make the lips curved slightly downwards.
Tip:
- Though there are several factors of drawing a face that work together to express a feeling, the expression is incomplete without the proper articulation of the mouth part. Though the above tips are useful to create a basic expression of the face through drawing the mouth, you can add your creativity to the basic ideas and draw a mouth that exactly fits the requirements.
