Shapes of mouths and lips

There are numerous shapes of mouths and its feature changes with age. Most lips are curvy with a dip in the middle of the upper one.Mouths can also be uneven, with one side being different from the other. You will observe that there is never a straight line.

Study the Figure 1. These illustrations of lips reveal the way the lips are creased by small lines which follow the curve of the flesh. Once you have become proficient at drawing various parts of the face, it is then relatively easy to attempt drawing the whole face. Get into the habit of sketching the outline of faces. Then go a step forward by drawing a nose and the mouth beneath it, as shown in Figure 2, 3. See the different angles. Sketching noses and mouths is straight forward, and many drawings can be done in an hour or two. The examples shown on Figs 1 and 2 will help you to become accurate and to draw with simple lines.

Most beginners try to draw every line and end up in a mess. My suggestion is to draw form and shape with as few lines as possible.

A beginner tries to include every detail he sees. This should not be the case. Simply draw only what you want. One of the highest forms of art is that in which detail is left out; suggesting what things are like, with a few lines as possible. You can remove unwanted facial expressions, for example, wrinkles which appear on a face. The features of the face are very sketchy, but try to perfectly define every area. The initial sketch has the task of laying out the most elementary and simple outlines. These outlines have to be expressed in very straightforward lines and at the same time, they have to fit.