How to draw nasolabial folds: where the smile lines start and stop

The nasolabial fold is the crease from the side of the nose down past the corner of the mouth, often called the smile line. Drawn dark or straight, or ended at the corner of the mouth, it can make a face look older than you meant or read as a cut. This guide measures where ten drawn heads put it: where it leaves the nose, how far down it goes and how far outside the mouth it passes.

The heads come from the free head rotation reference. On each plate at 45 degrees and from the front we traced the fold stroke row by row with a script, drew every trace back on the plate to check it sits on the drawn line, and read the mouth corners and the bottom of the nose wing the same way. The plates are 1024 px across, and we compare distances as shares of the mouth's width from the front. Points along a stroke are good to about 2 percent of that width. Where a faint stroke ends depends on how faint a mark you count: we followed each one until it was barely darker than the paper beside it, and a stricter cut-off ends some strokes up to a sixth of the mouth's width sooner. The numbers describe these drawings, not people's faces.

Where it starts

At 45 degrees all ten heads draw the fold. It starts at the top of the nose wing as a thin line just outside the wing's outline, follows the back of the wing down, then leaves it and runs down and out toward the ear. On most of the heads a faint line coming down the side of the nose meets it at the top of the wing; the full-lips head has none. In the first stretch below the wing the stroke runs 29 to 42 degrees from upright on all ten.

So don't start the fold at the nostril or under the wing. Start it at the top of the wing, run it down the back of the wing, and only then let it leave for the cheek.

How far down it goes

The ten heads split into two groups.

Six stop above the mouth. On the hard-plane, heavy-jaw, minimal, full-lips and high-cheekbones heads the stroke ends a quarter to a third of the mouth's width above the mouth line, about halfway from the bottom of the wing to the mouth or less. The square-jaw head's runs further, to about an eighth of the mouth's width above it. On the full-lips and minimal heads it's barely there.
Four reach the mouth line. On the gaunt, deep-folds, soft-planes and heavy-brow heads it reaches the line of the mouth, and on three of them it carries on about a tenth of the mouth's width below it.

The high-cheekbones head at 45 degrees. The fold is a short, light stroke from the back of the nose wing that ends about a quarter of the mouth's width above the line of the mouth.

Length doesn't follow age or face shape here. The catalog entries describe the soft-planes head as younger and the deep-folds head as older, and both carry the fold down to the mouth; the lean hard-plane head stops short while the lean gaunt head goes all the way. The two groups differ in how far the stroke goes, not in where it starts.

Where it passes the mouth

On the four long folds, the stroke crosses the mouth line a twentieth to a seventh of the mouth's width outside the corner, on the side toward the ear. The six short ones stop above a point from just outside the corner to about an eighth of the mouth's width out. None of the ten crosses the corner itself or runs inside it.

The long folds bend. They leave the wing at 31 to 42 degrees from upright, and just above the mouth they run at 26 degrees or less; on the gaunt head the stroke even leans back toward the mouth a little. The fold curves around the mouth instead of cutting toward the jaw.

The heavy-brow head at 45 degrees. The fold leaves the back of the nose wing and crosses the mouth line about an eighth of the mouth's width outside the corner, then carries on a little below it.

From the front

From the front we measured the fold on the right-hand side as you look at the plate. Seven of the ten heads draw it; the minimal, square-jaw and full-lips heads leave it out. It leaves the nose beside the top of the wing and runs down and out, as at 45 degrees.

To the mouth line: on the gaunt and deep-folds heads one stroke reaches the mouth line just outside the corner on one and about a tenth of the mouth's width outside it on the other. On the heavy-brow head a separate second stroke reaches it about a sixth of the width outside.
Short: on the hard-plane, heavy-jaw and high-cheekbones heads it ends about a third of the mouth's width above the mouth line, within about a twentieth of straight above the corner. On the soft-planes head one stroke ends about a third of the width above and a second short one about a sixth above.

The deep-folds head from the front. The fold runs from beside the top of the nose wing to the mouth line, about a tenth of the mouth's width outside the corner.

The front and the 45 degree view don't always agree on length. The soft-planes head carries the fold to the mouth at 45 degrees but stops it short from the front.

Order of work

Build the head first: the center line, the nose base and the mouth line, so the fold has something to sit between.
Draw the nose wing. The fold starts at its top and follows its back edge.
Decide the length. These heads split six short, four long, and the split doesn't follow age or face shape, so choose it from your reference.
Keep it outside the corner. A long fold crosses the mouth line about a twentieth to a seventh of the mouth's width outside the corner; a short one stops above a point outside the corner.
Bend it near the mouth. A long fold turns more upright as it passes the mouth, following the round of the mouth area underneath.
Keep it much lighter than the mouth line. The darkest point of the fold below the wing at 45 degrees is barely darker than the paper to about one and a half steps below it on these plates; the darkest point of the mouth line is five to seven steps below it.

Common mistakes

Starting the fold at the nostril. It starts at the top of the wing and runs down its back edge.
Ending it at the corner of the mouth. On these heads it passes outside the corner every time, or stops above it.
A straight line to the jaw. A long fold bends toward upright beside the mouth. A straight dark line reads as a cut, as how to draw an older face also warns.
A fold as dark as the mouth. On every plate the fold is a pale line, far lighter than the mouth line. That's the drawings' choice, not a rule we measured on faces, but a dark fold pulls the eye before the mouth does.

What else is going on

These are ten drawings in one style, bald and with a neutral face, measured at 45 degrees and from the front. We looked at the profiles but didn't measure them. A smile pushes the cheeks up and deepens the fold, which isn't measured here; how to draw facial expressions covers the cheeks rising. The fold sits on the front of the cheek, so how to draw cheekbones and how to draw the mouth and lips at different angles are the parts on either side of it.

A short exercise

Draw the high-cheekbones head and the heavy-brow head at 45 degrees, one beside the other, the same size. Build both heads, then start each fold at the top of the nose wing. Stop the first one about halfway to the mouth. Carry the second past the mouth line outside the corner and bend it upright as it goes. Then draw the deep-folds head from the front and check that each fold reaches the mouth line outside the corner, not at it. Compare all three with the plates.

The high-cheekbones head is Study Pack 09 and the heavy-brow head is Study Pack 10, both in Volume 2, sixteen angles in pencil and tone.

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