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 Flesh
out the mouth now by shading in the lips. Do your
shading just as you see the shadows in the photo. Can
you see that the lips are slightly darker, or more
shadowed, on the left side of the mouth? Overall, the
top lip and the bottom lip look to be almost the same
shade of red, so as you tone the lips, make the tone a
pretty even shade, then add a bit more shadow to the
left side of the lips.
Teeth time. Look at the woman's teeth in the smile
photo. Notice how the teeth recede into the mouth? The
jaw is curved into a semicircle, so the back teeth are
farther away from the viewer than the front teeth. Many
people who "can't draw" will draw lines in the mouth
that are evenly spaced to represent teeth. This looks
wrong because what that represents is that all the teeth
are on the same flat plane. Look at the skull photo to
the right. It may be easier to see that the jaw is
curved if the jaw wasn't wrapped in skin. In the image
below the skull, I've drawn the top teeth of the skull correctly
and also looking as if the jaw is flat, all the teeth
are the same size. Can you see the difference? To
correctly draw teeth think of looking at a picket fence
from the side. Draw the front two teeth as flat and make
the spaces between the teeth evenly spaced, but then
moving on to the other teeth, gradually decrease the
space between the teeth. Very lightly draw the vertical
lines in the mouth area to represent the teeth. Draw
what you see in her mouth and gradually space the lines
closer together to depict the teeth going back into her
mouth. Look at the photo to the right for reference. In
caricature, I usually just draw the vertical lines for
teeth, but sometimes I see the gums and then I have to
draw little arches above the vertical teeth lines.
I drew in the "laugh lines" on this image.
On a face, the laugh lines occur when you smile or
frown. It's the bottom of the cheek that gets pulled up
by the muscles on the corners of the mouth. These are the
lines that connect the nose to the corners of the mouth. I drew them
just as they are in the photo, but they're a bit smaller
to enclose the smaller mouth on the caricature. Notice,
also, that the lines are pretty lightly drawn, but then
they get darker at the corners of the mouth. This shows
the degree of folding that the skin is doing. Closer to
the nose, the crease in the skin is a bit shallower, and
thus drawn a bit lighter. At the corners of the mouth
the skin is creased a bit more so the line is drawn a
bit darker. Everybody's laugh lines are different, some
have shallow creases for the whole laugh line, others
have really deep and dark laugh lines. Draw them the way
you see them. You may have to modify the shape that the
laugh line creates in order to enclose the caricatured
mouth.
Some people are sourpusses and don't smile for your
caricature. Lucky for you, caricaturing a closed mouth
is pretty darn easy. Drawing a guy's closed mouth could
be a single line, and a woman's closed mouth could be
three lines - the upper lip contour, the mouth line, and
the lower lip contour. You may add some lines and shapes
around the mouth, but the mouth itself could still be a
single line. Look at the complete caricatures to the
right and count the lines I used to create the mouth.
Also look at the laugh lines.
 Your Assignment:
Try and caricature some mouths. Try drawing your own
mouth. Draw it closed and smiling, and include the laugh
lines, too. In order to draw the laugh lines and make
them look right, you'll have to draw
your nose too. After you draw yourself, find a
photograph of someone and caricature their mouth. |
