Anatomy of Lips Study - Oil Painting for Beginners
Anatomy of The Lips
Here is the anatomy of a pair of female lips. I find that lips are best painted when this whole area is worked on as one section (minus the nose), they make up the total area of the lips. I like to start with the main shadows of this area, and then outline the tubercle of the upper lip, then outline the wings on both sides. This forms as a curtain that falls onto and shapes the lower lip.The lower lips start with the groove, which protrudes out of the centre of the lower lip, and then eases into the lobes on both sides. And lastly, I fill in the red margins of the lips which are usually the mid-tones that I’m painting the lips with. This will give you a fairly realistic looking pair of lips; from here you can render little details and add highlights to make it come to life.
#1 Determine where the light and shadows are
Every set of lips are different, and every oil painting portrait has a different lighting composition. So the first step is to look at your subject and determine where: the light is coming from, the shadows are set, and where the reflected lights are coming from. For this particular female portrait painting, the light is coming from the top right of the model, the shadow is cast on the lower and outer corners, and is more prominent on the top left side of her lips.
#2 Determine your foundational palette of oil colors - and keep it minimal
In order to keep a minimal palette, it does not necessarily mean use only the primary tubes of colors. You can see here that I have many colors, but my palette is still minimal. What this means is to premix a palette, using whatever tubes of color you wish, that yields no more than five foundational colors, and stick to mainly these colors when you paint. These five foundation colors should include:
1. Mid-tone of the flesh around the lips
2. Shadow color of the flesh around the lips
3. Shadow color of the lips
4. The outline color of the tips
5. Mid tone of the lips
Once you have your palette determined, stick to this palette and make small variations from these foundational colors
#3 Paint around the lips
When I’m painting portraits, as I’m approaching the mouth, I put a lot of attention on the area around the lips. As this paves way into how the lips will come to life, that’s because this is essentially two different types of flesh that fuse together on the face, so there has to be meticulous and subtle blending between the two. So I want to make sure the shadows and the skin colors are pretty spot on before I start outlining the lips
#4 Paint the shadows of the lips
When it comes to lips, I usually paint the shadows first because that defines the shape of the lips. Once I’m inching closer and closer to the actual lips, I’m going to paint the main shadows of the lips as that gives the most definition to it. So I’m painting the outer corners and the shadow underneath the lips. I’d like to note that whenever I’m painting a small area, I tend to start with the shadows because that not only defines the shape, it also prevents me from losing the drawing.
#5 Paint the Lip outline
The reason why I’m painting the outline before filling in the lips is because I want the outline to set underneath the red margins so they don’t look like lipstick liner. I’m painting the top outline of the lips starting with the tubercle and the left and right wings. Then I’m outlining it with a darker pink, and what’s going to make it look more realistic at the end, is to lightly paint over the edges with a flesh tone.
#6 Fill in The Lips
After outlining the lips, I’m filling in the middle, which are the red margins, with a lighter pink. The middle of the bottom lip is usually brighter and warmer because it is receiving light. Where as the top lip will cast more shadow, and have reflected light from the bottom lip
#7 Render Small Details
After all the paint is applied, I’m rendering the details, adding more shadows. I’m using a small round brush with skin tone on it, lightly running over the edge of the lips so it fuses with the face. And I’m also adding in some highlights to really make it pop.
How the lips come together really depends on the shadows and how it blends in with the face in the end. The highlights and pinks of the lips are very subtle and actually worked on the least. I spend a lot of time blending the face with the edge of the lips and on rendering the shadows, because that’s what paves way to the actual shape of the lips.
I hope you found this blog helpful, let me know of any questions in the comments below. Thank you so much for stopping by, I’ll see you next time.
