Some
heavy concepts today and YouCanDraw.com member Suzy Voye's
drawings
Let's jump right in. Today we're going to
look at some common problems encountered while
drawing complex facial features - namely lips and
mouth. (Yes we talked about this a little last time.)
Today we have the advantage
of having some real
samples to talk about. I must thank Suzy Voye
of Tennessee for her willingness today. She agreed to
let me use a couple of her drawings so all of us may
benefit.
Suzy has been absolutely courageous in her
drawing efforts over the past several months and it's
really starting to show! (These copies really
don't do the originals justice - I had to shrink the
files before I sent them out.
"Shrinking" or
compressing causes loss of detail.)
The strength
of "line" and blending to shadow
Look at the first
illustration just below - it's a drawing of a 3/4
view lips, and a front view of lips on a cylinder.
Suzy's capturing the shape of the lip wonderfully
here. She's doing a very effective job shadowing
(squint and look at the lower pair of lips on the
cylinder - see the depth come out?). I think what's
bothering her however - and I'm guessing at this -
is the possibly more cartoonish look than she wanted.
"If we can name it, we can conquer it!". (Ludwig von
Wittgenstein or Sigmund Freud said something like
that. If they didn't, I did! :- ) And I think the problem
falls in the area of line strength. When you
squint, the lines soften. Now lets go after that
effect without squinting.
Lips, for me - especially when caricaturing
- are the hardest thing to capture. And that's
because the lighting and light/shadow shapes are
so subtle. It gets confusing! When you look at
picture or photo of the mouth (any mouth), notice how
few hard lines you see: the upper margin of the
lip and the shadow that's formed between the upper
and lower lips - right there where the two touch -
are the hardest, i.e. darkest lines of the
lips. The rest of the lips really are a mix of
shapes. The lower lip is much more definable as a
group of shapes or shadows - rather than single
lines. |
 |
3/4
view lips, and a front view of lips on a
cylinder |
|
Through thick and
thin
Look at the second picture (just below), -
it's the larger lip picture. With your eye, follow
your way all the way around the outline of the
lips. Notice how there's not really a single line
that makes up any one part of
the lip? Even the upper
margin of the lip, straight as each segment is
(by "segments" I'm referring to the 4 individual
pieces of the flat "M" shape), each segment is
probably a combination of 3 or 4 light lines.

Second
Picture: Loose lines that imitate shadows
combine to form
the margin of the lips
Take a moment and look at it. Do you agree?
How do you make those thin lines look like realistic?
This is where pure contour drawing comes
in beautifully. The lines are more of an impression
that when perceived as a whole by the viewer look real.
The "impression" I'm talking about is the recording in pencil
of what you, the artist observed with your eye. Shadows
on curved surfaces, like the lip, drawn as blended shapes
are easily interpreted by the eye. "Blended" just means a
gradual gradation of value from light to dark.
So
softening the lines and gradually working into shadows
represents reality more closely than do harsh lines.
Let me say that again. You get a more realistic
picture of complicated features if you blend shadow and
line.
Cross-hatching is an excellent way to pile up
lines for shadow shapes. ---
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this link and sign on up if you aren't already a member...it's
ridiculously inexpensive:
The famous disappearing
lower lip
Another detail of the lower lip: in
bright light, the "red" of the lower lip almost
disappears. It's very difficult to differentiate between the
red of the actual lip, and skin tone of the area just
beyond the lip and on to the
chin. The transition
between the two is very subtle - and it occurs in
the middle of what still looks like the pulp, the
bulge of lip. Often a highlight - the reflected light
- obscures the border altogether.
In fact, it's
actually easier to draw the lower lip by default. How do you
do that? By drawing the shadow shape of the shadow
underneath the lower lip.
To summarize:
to get a more natural looking lip, use several small
light lines in place of a single harsh line for the
"hard" lines of the lip, and blending of shadow
shapes for the softer edges. Excellent start
Suzy!
Assignments: Thought you'd
get out of here without some work? :-)
Assignment #1:
Observe closely the subtle shapes and shadows of the lips
on REAL people. Look at the transition of the "red"
of the lower lip back to skin tone (it's a subtle but
definite line - also called the "vermilion
border".
This is outlined in more detail in the Lesson 13 on Lips and
Teeth).
Assignment #2: Don't be afraid to draw lots of
lips! Trace 10 or 12 of them. Then try them freehand.
Fill a whole 2,3,4 pages of a drawing pad wit nothing
but lips. They will come.
Assignment #3: shadowing.
Spend an hour doodling with cross-hatching -
the little flick of the fingers (on short hatches)
and the flick of the wrist (on longer hatches), is a
simple skill that comes with practice. I use it
in
combination with smearing all the time. In fact,
try this: make a shadow shape. Scribble on a sheet of
paper with pencil until the pencil's so thick it
shines. Now gather up some of the lead rubbing a Kleenex or
your finger
right into it. Take your pencil-lead
loaded finger-tip and make some kind of spontaneous
random shape on the top half of a clean sheet of paper.
On the lower half, try and re-create the shape with
nothing but cross-hatching.
Use more layers of
hatching where the pencil lead is
thicker.
2)
Foreshortening
Foreshortening is the name given to
the way an object seems to change proportion when you
view it from different angles. This is different
than perspective - perspective is the way an object
changes in SIZE with
distance. They're related - but
they're different ideas. (In caricature in you can
get away with mixing both - still your caricatures will be
much more controllable if you understand how to use
both.)
In Suzy's next pair of pictures, she advancing
to drawing the mouth and teeth. (See following
picture). These are excellent starts - they're both
very complicated pictures. Suzy does a precise job of
capturing depth (especially over the tongue and in
the back of the mouth. In the originals here I
can see all the way back into the pharynx in the
picture on the right - right down to that little
tear-drop shaped thing hanging down ion the back of
the mouth (this is called the "Uvula"). That's
awesome detail Suzy! And get a load of the shadow
across the tongue - it's contoured exactly how
the tongue's shaped. I certainly get the full three-d
effect here.

Suzy's
excellent mouth illustration
Where Suzy's having a little trouble is
again within the lips. And I think that can be
cleared up with a few intense sessions of drawing nothing but
lips. (Suzy you really are tackling about 5 lessons
in one in this drawing!) Again by squinting I can see
the shadows make sense. You've captured the
three-d effect expertly in the picture on the left -
where the philtrum (also known in stuffy academic
circles as the "booger canal") curves into the upper
lip. That's very effective.
As we move
north in both pictures we run into just a little problem with
the nose. Both these pictures are "three-quarter"
views. The most difficult problem in a three quarter
view is keeping the proportion and the
"planes" straight.
Ok, I know I'm
confusing
you now...planes...foreshortening...proportion...yea,
it's a jumble - and this is THE most difficult part of
drawing: where perspective, proportion, light and shadow
- where they all meet. And they all meet right here in
Suzy's picture. Lets get down to understanding some terms
here - and lets do it by example (I know I'm getting
long-winded again ;-).
Here's an example of
foreshortening - you can do this right now in
the comfort of your own
home.