How to draw full lips: front, three-quarter and profile

Full lips are taller, not wider. On the two heads below, the two mouths are the same width for the size of the face, but the fuller one takes a third of the space between the nose and the chin instead of a quarter, and its upper lip is nearly as tall as its lower lip. That's one example of each, so treat the numbers as a way to check your own drawing, not as rules.

The figures come from two bald heads in the free head rotation reference: the full-lips head, with a narrow jaw and a mouth that stands forward, and the square-jaw head, with a slightly wider jaw and thinner lips. Both are shaded as if lit from above, with the shadows under the nose and under the lower lip. The small distances on the plates are approximate. To read tones on your own reference, sample a grayscale copy with an eyedropper tool. Tones below are given in steps of a nine-step pencil value scale from white to black.

The heads aren't drawn at the same size, so heights are compared as a share of the space from the base of the nose to the bottom of the chin.

From the front

1. Measure the height. On the full-lips head the lips take about a third of the space from nose to chin. On the square-jaw head they take about a quarter.
2. Keep the width. The line where the lips meet is a little over nine tenths as long as the space from nose to chin on both heads, so the width doesn't separate them. Widening the mouth only makes it wide.
3. Bring the upper lip close to the lower. At the middle the full-lips head's upper lip is about nine tenths as tall as the lower. On the square-jaw head it's about three quarters, and the upper lip looks like a thin band. The difference is small, close to the reading error, but it shows at every angle on these plates.
4. Shade the same pattern. The two heads use nearly the same tones, within about half a step. The skin above the mouth is nearly paper white. The upper lip faces down, away from the light, and is about one step darker than the skin on both heads. The lower lip faces up and stays nearly as light as the skin, barely darker. Its bottom edge isn't outlined; a band of darker hatching under it makes the edge.

At three-quarter view

As the head turns, the far half of the mouth shortens: on the full-lips head the far half is about a quarter as long as the near half, ending at the outline of the face. The lips keep their heights through the turn. The mouth guide covers that turn in full.

The upper lips lighten on both heads at this angle, the full one more. On the near half of the full-lips mouth it is barely darker than the skin, while on the square-jaw head it is about one step darker. On the full-lips head that's little more than a few light strokes, and the line where the lips meet carries the dark.

The shadow under the lower lip is its own shape: at 45 degrees it's taller on the square-jaw head, where it runs into the fold above the chin.

In profile

From the side, fullness becomes how far the lips stand forward.

1. Push the upper lip out. Below the nose the upper lip slopes forward about twice as far on the full-lips head as on the square-jaw head.
2. Check the line from nose tip to chin. On the full-lips head the upper lip nearly reaches that line and the lower lip passes it slightly. On the square-jaw head both lips sit behind the line, the upper further back than the lower. The line moves with the chin and the nose: a chin set further back tips it toward the lips, so ordinary lips can reach it on a face with a small chin. Read it together with the heights from the front.
3. Shade the upper lip and leave the lower one light. The upper lip is about two steps below the paper on the full-lips head and about three on the square-jaw head, where its hatching is denser; these readings include a little of the outline, so take them as rough. The lower lip stays nearly as light as the skin on both.
4. Watch what happens under the lower lip. Lay a ruler from the front of the lower lip to the front of the chin. On the full-lips head the outline dips only slightly behind it, so by eye the lip slopes straight back into the chin. On the square-jaw head it dips about twice as far into a fold before the chin. The chin and that fold are drawn in how to draw a chin.

What else is going on

These are two drawings, and the heads differ in more than the lips. The square-jaw head has a slightly wider jaw, a firm brow and a longer nose; the full-lips head has a narrow jaw and looks younger. In profile the full-lips head's chin sits further behind its upper lip than the square-jaw head's does, so part of what makes the full lips stand forward is that the chin sits back.

A short exercise

Open the square-jaw head at 0 degrees and trace its face lightly, leaving out the mouth. Keep the corners of the mouth where they are. Make the lips a third as tall as the space from the nose base to the chin, with the upper lip nearly as tall as the lower. Shade the upper lip a step darker than the skin, leave the lower lip light, and put a band of hatching under it. Then compare your drawing with the full-lips head at 0 degrees.

Repeat at 90 degrees: slope the upper lip forward from under the nose until it touches the line from the nose tip to the chin, and let the lower lip pass that line.

The mouth's placement and its turn are in how to draw the mouth and lips at different angles, and the jaw around it in how to draw a jawline. For why a surface that faces down takes a middle value, see the planes of the head and how light falls on them. The full-lips head is Study Pack 08 and the square-jaw head is Study Pack 07, both in Volume 2.

This guide is one step in how to draw the head at any angle, which puts all the head guides in order.