Tutorial 57 - Planes of the Lips
Added 2016-02-27 08:46:22 +0000 UTCLips, equally as complicated as any other part of the face, come in many different shapes and sizes.
I've tried to illustrate the basic contours showing the landscape of overlapping lumps and folds. Pay close attention to the gradual softening of the edges as we approach the corners of the lips.
The lips will usually, but not always, be a different local color to the rest of the face, which can sometimes be mistaken for a plane change when it isn't.
The lower lips bulge as the upper lip tucks and vice versa, and so each part overlaps the next. To explain a little further, starting from the center; the upper lip is bulging and the lower lip folding behind that bulge. As we move laterally, the lower lips bulge and the upper seem to tuck in behind the lower, only to swap again as we reach the corners. The lower lip then lifts, which might catch a subtle highlight.
The lips might be considered a satin surface. Highlights will be sharp due to an almost wet look.
Comments
This is a nice breakdown of a very complicated area of human topography. We symbolically turn mouths into parentheses, or straight lines, but the lips have to be agile enough to form sounds, and convey intent of expression, and whistle, and kiss.
Dustin Resch
2016-03-01 20:44:09 +0000 UTC
