Portrait Drawing Week 5: Mouth and Chin

This week we’ll look at the mouth and chin. The first thing to note is that the upper jaw is fixed so when the mouth is closed it is the muscles alone that enable us to smile and also to appear relaxed or concentrating. Fred in the drawing above looks as though his interest has been caught by something, he’s concentrating rather than smiling or looking sad. Notice the curve where the lips meet and the shadows below the lower lip and on the chin. This curve between the lips appears very different on the smiling lady below, as the muscles of her face pull the corners of her mouth up.

To understand what happens when we let out a yell or sing have a look at the link below where you will find an excellent drawing of the skull with jaw closed and with it dropped, and also shows the appearance of the face in these two positions.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/448248969177542053/

Below is a link to another rather more fun image showing the hinging of the jaw and various facial expressions.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/663155113905951759/

In the pastel portrait of Beth below, her mouth is slightly open. Do resist the temptation to try to draw every tooth you can see, very often just a suggestion of teeth and of the dark areas at the sides of the mouth is much more effective than the hard look of teeth drawn in full detail. This looks especially bad if the rest of the face is treated in a softly drawn manner to convey the smooth softness of a child’s face.

So this week I would like you to make at least one study of a closed mouth and one of an open mouth.Then produce a portrait painting or a three crayon study where the mouth is a little open or wide open. You may choose to work in any medium but do pay particular attention to the teeth and go very gently, especially if you are drawing a young person.

There are instances of course, where you may want to depict a real grimace in which case you can afford to be as bold as you like!

Your Paintings/Drawings: