Guidelines For Pencil Portrait Sketching - Overall Muscle Structure Of The Muzzle
Capturing the faint, fleeting gestures of human emotions in portrait drawing is a test for every draftsperson. There are effectively six primary emotions: disgust, surprise, fear, sadness, anger and happiness.
The gestures of these primary emotions are instinctual, the muscle relationships and activities are subconscious. In general, the facial muscles are fragile, finely in step and easily seen because they lie just below the skin.
The facial muscles not only portray moods and gestures they also exhibit sympathetic characteristics. For instance, when we are threading a needle we usually purse our lips to "aid" the thread through the needle's eye.
All facial gestures involve the muscles and other parts of the mouth. Therefore, to grasp the facial gestures we must first grasp the mouth which is more than just the lips.
The mouth part extends from the bottom of the nose to the Mentolabial Sulcus, i.e., the sulk-line of the chin. The mouth is a convex form and wraps around the muzzle of the face.
Sketching the mouth should invariably begin with the drawing of the Interstice, i.e., the horizontal line where the lower and upper lips come together. The lips wrap around the convex protuberance of the dental arch and the interstice roughly corresponds to the middle part of the frontal, upper teeth.
Note that the Nodes in the corners of the mouth are lower than the center of the interstice, except in a smile when the facial muscles pull up the nodes.
The lips, or Labia, are put together with mucous membrane whose pinkness results from the blood capillaries lying just under the skin.
The upper lip has three forms. In the center is the Tubercle which is non-muscular and add to the 'V' shape of the upper lip where it comes together with the bottom of the Philtrum. The Philtrum is the stretched, vertical furrow that extends from the bottom of the nose to the tubercle of the upper lip.
The philtrum, which means "love drop", is bounded by ridges on each side. Practically every beginning draftsperson overextends the philtrum, thus placing the mouth too low.
The other 2 components of the upper lip are 2, horizontal stretched forms. The muscles here, however, are the observable ridges of the middle vertical fibers of the Orbicularis Oris whose movement results in the pursing up of the lips. The various facial muscles fastened to the corners of the mouth do the pushing and pulling.
The upper lip is flatter than the lower lip. It is a downward facing plane and commonly appears darker than the lower lip. There is a small up-plane on the vermillion border of the upper lip that quite often catches a soft light. For most people, the upper lip tucks into the nodes.
The lower lip commonly stops a little short of the nodes. The lower lip is heavier and fuller. It is comprised of two stretched forms that give it a more squared-off look than the upper lip.
Somewhat below the vermilion border of the lower lip is a elevated edge that develops laterally and is more conspicuous at the corners.
The vermilion border of the lower lip should not be sketched with a distinct line, it has to be suggested more than sketched. Otherwise it will look like lipstick.
The lower lip is an up-plane and will often catch a highlight. Like the upper lip, the ridges of the middle vertical fibers of the orbicularis oris form the texture of the lower lip.
The bottom of the mouth region is at the mentolabial. Shaping at the bottom edge of the lower lip's two stretched forms are two columnar tubes that radiate diagonally downward. These are the Pillars of the Mouth. This is a down plane and thus will lie into shadow.
With this we end the overall description of the elements that make the mouth and in the end the smile.
