With pencil drawing being such a popular craft, there will inevitably be times whilst attempting a portrait,  that some artists realise the difficulties of drawing a mouth. This may seem odd, after all, we notice other people’s mouths and lips all of the time, so they are aspects of the human frame that we are familiar with.

 

There are some vital factors however, which we do need to take into consideration before attempting our pencil drawing:

 

* Observation

 

Observing the mouth we are trying to draw is extremely important, after all, no two mouths are the same. Learn to trust your eyes and store the observation to mind. Some lips are full; others are uneven and some may even be thin lipped.

 

* Structure

 

Prepare the structure of the face first so that you do not get any misalignment of the eyes, nose and mouth. Draw parallel lines across the eyes, nose and mouth, to ensure that the features follow these lines.

 

* Shading

 

If your subject is smiling and teeth are displayed, then some shading may occur across the back teeth. There may also be shading underneath the bottom lip and there may be dimples near the cheeks as the smile projects across the face. Do not forget that the skin will not be completely flat but will be gently undulating and shading can ensure that depth is added. You may also need to add the shine of lipstick to the mouth depending on who your model is and adding lipstick when just using a pencil is not always easy, however, it can be done by shading the lips dramatically but leaving some lighter areas.

 

* Fullness

 

Lips are completely different on everyone so it is important that you capture the correct fullness and size of the mouth so that it does not over shadows the face.

 

* Practice

 

With any form of art, practice must always come high up the list, and this means persevering even when you sometimes feel you will never produce the drawing you want to.