lips.

Lips are very expressive. Many muscles working together to pull on various parts of the lips.

Also it's the only feature that involves bone movement.

BASIC FORMS

the tooth cylinder that fits right between the nose and chin, can be simplified into

a bloated tuna can. By bloated I just mean that the wall of the cylinder curves out rather

than being flat. This comes into play when looking at the lips from any angle other than

straight on. The bloated tuna can affects the surface forms of the lips. The center

line of the lips gets pushed outward and when viewed from top or bottom, the lips wrap around

the cylinder. Notice that from this angle, the corners of the lips are actually lower

than the bottom of the bottom lip.

Try to avoid drawing the lips on a flat surface.

MAJOR PLANES

The major planes of the lips are very simple. They are very much like a staircase of 3 steps

from the chin to the base of the nose. In fact, if you look at the head from profile,

the entire front of the face is like a staircase. The major planes alternate from top plane

to bottom plane.

When drawing from a front view, this staircase is usually indicated by alternating dark and

light shapes. Dark, light, dark, light etc..

Let’s go over a little bit of anatomy

I’ll probably go into more depth on the anatomy in a future series. I plan on covering

facial expressions, and the anatomy is important to understand for that. For now, let’s just

take a little peak.

The red portion of the lips and the part directly above and below is called the orbicularis

oris. It originates at the corners of the lips called the nodes. These nodes are visible

as ‘bumps’ since so many muscles meet and overlap here. In this simplified diagram

you can see that there are a lot of muscles that attach around the orbicularis oris and

pull on it to form various expressions. The orbicularis oris can also tighten to form

an ‘O’, or to blow a kiss..

The lips attach to the tooth cylinder at the base of the nose and the top of the chin.

MINOR FORMS

The top lip has three forms and the bottom lip has two. Think of these forms as squishy

little pillows. The rounded form in the middle of the top lip (called the tubercle) is shaped

like a heart and wedges between the two forms of the bottom lip. When looking at the lips

from an angle, these forms overlap each other adding depth. When drawing a foreshortened

object, I always look for overlapping lines to show a form is in front of another. Overlapping

forms are indicated by T intersections. The lower left overlaps the tubercle, the tubercle

overlaps the lower right, the lower right overlaps the top right, and the top right

overlaps the far corner.

The local value of the red portion is different from the local value of the skin. The relationship

depends on the race of the person. With darker skin, the lip could be lighter, and with lighter

skin, the lip could be darker. If the person is wearing lipstick, that would change the

local value of the lips.

Because the lips have a bit of moisture, the highlight will appear brighter and sharper

than the highlights on the skin. Unless of course, the skin is also wet...

When shading the lips, pay attention to the minor planes changes of both the top lip and

bottom lip. The darkest tones will usually be around the crease, corners and core shadows

at the top of the top lip and bottom of the bottom lip. Each of the squishy pillows will

have subtle tones indicating their volumes.

This upper region of the lips usually has a gradation revealing the rounded ‘tuna-can’

shaped tooth cylinder underneath. In the middle of the upper lip region is the philtrum, a

concave depression composed of two planes. The darker plane of the philtrum will be on

the opposite side of the dark on the overall upper lip region.

The edge of the upper lip has a small ridge, or top plane that sometimes catches light.

I try to play down this effect and avoid drawing a white outline. This could look like a milk

mustache.

The ridge that borders the bottom lip is steep in the middle and softer on the outsides.

The lower lip region has two pillars that angle inward toward the top. Together these

two pillars form an arch under the bottom lip, which is often in shadow since it faces

downward.

At the corners of the lips, there are bumps where many of the muscles connect. The volume

of the nodes is similar to a bean. When shading, make sure to think of it as a rounded form

that pinches inward. The roundness of the bean creates a soft edge at the outside and

top. The pinch creates a sharp edge at the inside and bottom.