How to Draw a Smiling Mouth with Teeth - Tutorial
Jan 31, 2010 Drawing, Tutorials
Everyone knows that the eyes are what can make or break the likeness of a portrait. What you may not realize is that teeth are almost as important! Like the eyes, everyone’s teeth are unique. It’s not enough to slap a few big chiclets into someone’s mouth and call them teeth, you need to study your reference to get just the right shape and size! This tutorial will show you how I approach drawing teeth and give you some general pointers.
Here is our reference photo, set up and gridded in Corel Draw.
First, start with your 2H pencil and draw your grid lines. Then, following your reference, draw the shapes that you see. Draw the contours of the lips and the teeth, but also draw the major shadows and highlights that you can see.
When drawing the teeth, pay close attention to the corners and edges. How flat are they at the bottom? How rounded are the corners? How much gum do we see? Notice how we see all of the front teeth, and as we get to the corners of the mouth we see less and less of each tooth. It might seem stupid, but make sure you get the right number of teeth!
Also, remember that the center of the lips may not necessarily line up with the center of the top teeth, and the center of the top teeth may not line up with the center of the bottoms.
Erase your grid lines then, still with your 2H, shade in the values that you see. Shade in everything but the highlights, layering the graphite to get the shadows. Don’t press hard or you will indent the paper! Blend with your tortillon.
Now grab your 2B and begin shading in the midtones. Here I’ve shaded the lips, the creases beside the mouth and the shadows on the teeth. Careful to avoid your highlights! Notice how the only definition of the lips is a slight difference in value at the edges. In the center of the upper lip, there is almost no definition because of a sort-of diffused highlight. We’ll add that later. Be careful that you don’t shade too heavliy between the teeth. This line is often not as dark or as regular as you think it is. Keep it soft. Blend.
With your 2B, shade in the darkest shadows. These include the corners of the mouth, the shadows under the teeth, and the shadow cast by the upper lip.Remember that the edge of the upper lip isn’t a solid, heavy line. Look at the reference and notice how it is darker in some areas than others. Blend out your shading.
Lastly, you can use your kneaded eraser to pick out the highlights. Because the teeth are wet, the highlights will have a sharper edge. I used my tortillon to draw a very light line around the highlights on the teeth to create that edge. Don’t forget the highlights that you can see on the gums, as well as the faint one on the upper lip.
Be sure to check out my other portrait drawing tutorials!
Tags: draw lips, draw teeth, portraits, Tutorials
If You Think It, Do It! - Advice for Artists
Jan 28, 2010 Art General, Creativity
A common misconception about artists is that they can see things in their minds. They can envision colour combinations and imagine the way different patterns and textures go together. While this is true to some extent, we shouldn’t always make creative decisions based on these visions. As artists, we are visual and it’s essential for us to see.
As a teenager, I did a lot of sewing. The most difficult part of that process for me was choosing the fabrics. I would be overwhelmed by the choices and, to my poor mother’s frustration, would have no idea about what colours and patterns would work with each other. I relied mostly on her judgement for this, and it wasn’t until my garment was finished that I was able to see that she had been right.
People seem to think it’s really strange that an artist can’t tell what colours and patterns should go together, but without actually seeing them in a composition, it’s impossible to know how they will relate to each other.
This is the reason that many artists do thumbnail studies. It allows them to see several different compositions before choosing the one that is right. Some artists even do colour studies before starting on a painting to work out the best colour combinations. How many times have you gotten deep into an artwork and realized, “that yellow is the wrong yellow.”
And that’s not a bad thing! A big part of the artistic process is identifying and fixing problems, which is where today’s advice comes in: if you think it, do it
Sometimes, as the artist, we become so attached to a piece that we are afraid to change it. The artwork becomes precious to us and this limits our creativity to the point where we avoid anything that we think might “ruin” it.
Have you ever finished a piece and had a niggling thought in the back of your mind that something should be different? That an area needs to be darker or lighter, that there should be a splodge of blue somewhere? A thought that just won’t go away no matter how many times you tell yourself the piece is done?
I think we all have! The question is: do you act on these persistent urges?
If you don’t, you could be missing out on something new and exciting.
When you have a thought that just won’t leave you alone, when you get that urge to do something dramatically different, act on it. Don’t worry about ruining your piece. You need to have the confidence that if you’ve done something once, you can do it again. If whatever change you make detract from your work, you need to know that you will be able to fix it.
Don’t rely on your imagination to make aesthetic decisions. You need to do it, see it, and evaluate it.
If you’re really and truly concerned about making any permanent changes to something, consider using an alternative method. With the painting above, it started out as all reds and pinks. I had this thought that it might look more interesting with some bits of blue peeking through. Instead painting over my piece, I painted blue on some paper, then glued it in different places on the painting. This allowed me to find the places where the blue would be most effective.
Also consider using digital means. With a program like Photoshop, or Corel Draw, or Gimp, you can edit and make changes on the computer without affecting your finished piece. This lets you change colours, change composition, change whatever.
The bottom line is this: don’t ignore those persistent ideas in the back of your mind. Run with it and see what happens because it could be the thing that sparks a whole new series of work. If you always do the same old, you’ll always do the same old! Art is about change and growth, so don’t hold yourself back. If you think it, do it!
Art Marketing Tidbit - Your Mailing List
Jan 24, 2010 Promotion and Exhibition
This is something I wish I’d known five years ago!
I’m reading Alsyon Stanfield’s book I’d Rather be in the Studio. It’s a great resource for art marketing and self promotion, full of simple, easy to accomplish ideas. One of the things Alyson emphasizes is the importance of having a mailing list. I only wish I’d read this book sooner!
If you’re an artist wanting to sell your work, whether it’s part time, full time, or on the side, you need a mailing list. Your list should include anyone who’s purchased a piece from you, anyone who’s expressed an interest in your work, and pretty much all of your friends and family. Give everyone you know a chance to be on your list; you never know where your next commission might come from!
What do you mail? Anything you think your audience might be interested in! Definitely anything about you and your work. If you have a new series on your website, if you are featured in a newspaper or magazine, if you have an upcoming exhibition, let everyone know! Consider using both e-mail and snail-mail. Get creative!
Right now I’m wracking my brain trying to remember anyone who’s ever commissioned work from me, searching my records for contact information and putting together a tentative list. My advice for anyone who is in the very early stages of their career? Save yourself the trouble and start keeping track now!
Here are some articles from Alyson’s blog that will help you get started:
Include Prior Connections on Your Mailing List
Resources for Your Mailing List
Tags: art resources, artists, promotion
Gesture Drawing
Jan 20, 2010 Drawing
On this blog I’ve focused a lot on tight realistic drawing, but there’s another style of drawing that I encourage you to try every once in awhile. Gesture drawing is a very quick, free style that encourages you to loosen up. Think of gesture drawing as the stretches that you do before exercise. It can get you out of that “must create art” frame of mind that can actually stifle your creativity. In fact, when you’re starting a new drawing, you should include a few gesture drawings in your preprations to let you get familiar with the subject matter.
If you’ve done any kind of life drawing, you’re probably familiar with the gesture. Life drawing sessions usually start with a series of very short poses (think 10-30 seconds). Your job is to try and capture the “gesture” of the model in a few quick strokes. This is a great exercise because it forces you to evaluate the shapes you see and simplify it to only the most important elements.
If you’re thinking that gesture drawings are only exercises, think again. Some of my best figure drawings were gestures! A gesture drawing is far more likely to capture the tension and movement in a body than a tightly controlled, realistic rendition. Canadian artist, Julia Trops, draws and sells some gorgeous, gestural figure drawings. These can be very powerful artworks.
Tips for gesture drawings:
- use a large pad of cartridge paper or news print and fill the whole page; the bigger the paper the freer your drawings
- use a big piece of charcoal or a graphite stick; using larger materials will keep you from getting too detailed
- limit yourself to a very short period of time to capture the essential “gesture” (no more than a minute or two)
When doing gesture drawing, try to experiment with different techniques. You can draw the linear elements of your subject, you could scribble the movement of the form, or you could use the flat edge of the charcoal to fill in the mass. Just remember that your goal isn’t to outline the subject, or to render any detail; you want to capture the essence of the form, its movement, tension or weight.
Tags: charcoal, drawing tips, gesture
Learn to… Art! Rolls out a New Look
Jan 19, 2010 Special Bulletins
Hello Readers!
After many agonizing revisions behind the scene, Learn to… Art! ’s new look is finally finished.
I apologize if this interruption caused any troubles for you. I know there’s been some problems with the server being down, but hopefully that’s all sorted out now!
Aside from a new and improved design, Learn to… Art! now features a selection of useful links in the sidebar, a tabbed section that allows you to browse through recent posts and comments, and a section for featured articles.
As always, feedback is much appreciated. What do you think? Do you like it? What works and what doesn’t work? I’d love to hear from you!
Thanks for your patience over the next few days as work out the bugs and continue to tweak some minor things.
All the best,
Miranda
Tags: messages
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Subscribe by Email