How to draw lips in three-quarter view: the two halves

A simple way to turn a mouth is to shorten both halves a little. On the ten drawn heads we measured, that gets both halves wrong. The far half shrinks much faster than you'd guess, and the near half doesn't shrink at all: it gets longer than it is from the front. This guide gives the numbers at 22.5 and 45 degrees and the reason for both.

The heads are the ten bald heads in the free head rotation reference, read on the pencil plates from the front, at 22.5 degrees, at 45 degrees and in profile. Each half runs from a corner of the mouth to its middle, the notch under the middle of the upper lip. We read the two ends of the mouth line by hand on tiles enlarged three times, from plates 1024 px across, and measured each half straight across the page, not along the slope of the line.

The middle is harder to see once the head turns, so we placed it from the other plates. The plates are drawn as one head turning on one upright axis: the front center line sits in the same column on all ten, within half a percent of the plate's width. A point's place at any angle then follows from the front and profile plates. We drew the middle placed that way back on all 20 turned mouths and looked: it lands close to the dip of the mouth line, under the notch of the upper lip, every time. The same rule predicts the corners from the front and profile plates close to where we read them, a second check on both.

Treat each half as a rough read. The far half at 45 degrees is very short, so on one head it could be off by a quarter or more; the range and the middle value carry the result. The numbers describe ten drawings with closed, neutral mouths, not people's faces, so use them to check your own drawing.

At 22.5 degrees

At a slight turn the far half is a little over half to just under two thirds of the near half, about three fifths on a typical head. On all ten heads the near half is longer than from the front, by a little under a tenth to a quarter, a sixth on a typical head; the smallest gain, on the high-cheekbones head, is near the read error. The whole mouth, corner to corner, is about nine tenths of its front width.

At 45 degrees, a short hook on the far side

At 45 degrees the far half is about an eighth to a little over a quarter of the near half, about a fifth on a typical head. Past the notch the mouth line runs only a little way, then turns into the curved outline of the far lips. We took the far end where it turns. Read at the outer edge of the turn instead, the far half is still under two fifths of the near half on every head. The soft-planes, full-lips and deep-folds heads have the shortest far halves, about an eighth of the near half; the heavy-jaw and gaunt-planes heads the longest, a little over a quarter.

The near half is still longer than from the front: by more than a twelfth on eight heads, and about the same on the heavy-jaw and high-cheekbones heads (from barely longer to about three tenths longer, about a fifth longer on a typical head). The whole mouth is about two thirds to a little under three quarters of its front width, about seven tenths: the far side loses about four fifths of its front half while the near side gains about a fifth.

The middle of the mouth sits close to the face outline, about a fifth of the mouth's front width inside it. The far end, where the line turns, stops about a twentieth to an eighth of the mouth's front width inside the outline, about a tenth on a typical head. On the gaunt-planes and full-lips heads the outer edge of the turn almost reaches the outline.

Why the near half grows

The middle of the lips stands well forward of the corners. In profile the point where the lips meet is in front of the corner by about seven tenths of half the mouth's front width on these heads. How to draw lips from the side measures from the front of the upper lip instead, which stands further forward, so its figure is larger. As the head turns, that forward middle swings toward the far side faster than the set-back corners do. The near half gains what the far half loses.

At 45 degrees you can work it out: add that depth to the front half for the near side and subtract it for the far side, then take seven tenths of each result. With the depth at seven tenths of the front half, the near half comes to about a fifth longer than its front width and the far half to about a fifth of the near half, close to the measured middle values. A deep mouth, one that pushes well forward of its corners, gives a shorter far half, and the heads follow that trend: the four deepest for their width, the soft-planes, deep-folds, full-lips and heavy-brow mouths (about three quarters as deep as the front half is wide), have far halves of an eighth to a sixth of the near half, and the three flattest, the high-cheekbones, heavy-jaw and gaunt-planes mouths (a little over half to three fifths as deep), about a quarter of the near half.

Order of work

1. Find the middle first. Put the notch of the upper lip on the curved center line of the face, the line through the nose and chin. At 45 degrees that's about a fifth of the mouth's front width inside the face outline.
2. At 22.5 degrees, run the near half about a sixth longer than from the front and the far half about three fifths of the near half.
3. At 45 degrees, run the near half about a fifth longer than from the front, then add a far half about a fifth as long: a short hook past the notch.
4. Stop the far end inside the outline, by about a tenth of the mouth's front width, and turn it into the curve of the far lips.
5. Check the whole mouth: about nine tenths of its front width at 22.5 degrees, about seven tenths at 45.

Common mistakes

• Shortening the near half. On every head at 22.5 degrees, and on eight at 45, it's longer than from the front.
• Making the far half about half the near half at 45 degrees. On all ten heads it's under two fifths of the near half, however the end is read.
• Splitting the mouth halfway between the corners. At 45 degrees the middle sits close to the far end.
• Running the mouth line out to the face outline. It turns a twentieth to an eighth of the mouth's front width short of it on every head.

What these numbers don't cover

We didn't measure the heights of the lips at these angles, or the mouth at 67.5 degrees; for the heights from the front, see the lips from the front guide. At 45 degrees the far corner isn't hidden on any of the ten heads, but on the minimal head a hatched wedge of the far lip runs about 7 percent of the mouth's front width past where we took the end, and on the gaunt-planes head about 3 percent.

Related guides

How to draw the mouth and lips at different angles builds the mouth on a curve round the teeth. At the same two angles, how to draw eyes in three-quarter view measures the far eye and the nose in three-quarter view follows the nose.

A short exercise

Draw the soft-planes head and the heavy-jaw head at 45 degrees, the same size. Place the middle of each mouth first, then the near corner, with the near half about a fifth longer than from the front. Give the soft-planes head a far half about an eighth of its near half and the heavy-jaw head one over a quarter, stop both short of the outline, and compare with the plates.

The soft-planes head is Study Pack 06 in Volume 2 and the heavy-jaw head Study Pack 03 in Volume 1.

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