Maintaining balance. Tips on the nose and mouth.

More on Developing Features with Value and Line

Developing features and achieving a likeness can be frustratingly elusive. Like many artists, I was often struggling with getting a look – even though I could draw quite accurately. Then I picked up the idea of two ways to approach the challenge – There are often “2 ways to play” and results are the better for it: Start with line, and balance with value; Initiate colour and overlay line; Merge shapes with value. There are always possibilities to create, balance and re-balance! I always keep this in mind when I am developing features, perhaps favouring value as in the following video:

Tips for painting the mouth

John Singer Sargent said “A portrait is a painting with something slightly wrong with the mouth”. Perhaps more than any other part of the portrait, close observation of the landscape around the mouth, including upper and lower lip areas and outward towards the cheek is key. I keep the following in mind:

1. The upper and lower lips are different, one or the other invariably predominating.
2. I treat the upper and lower lips differently, the upper dark as the lip is often trapping light, the lower light as the lip is in full light and often reflecting light. Take a look through the Reference Gallery and you’ll see what I mean.
3. I never paint the lips a different colour from the skin, at least initially. There is continuity of form and that’s what I strive for, layering some warm onto the already built shapes and forms.
4. There’s a lot of action in the corners of the mouth: slight creasing, upturns and downturns – they all add character. As a minimum, I make sure that the corners of the mouth are dark. This helps the mouth turn into three dimensions and pocket in the corners, otherwise it risks looking flat.
5. Likewise, the center line of the mouth offers some great opportunities to find character. I never paint a solid line. Rather, I look for where the upper or lower lip predominates and use the boundary between upper and lower lip to capture this.
6. Finally, I form the fullness of the lower lip by creating the shadow area below the lip and above the chin. I find this works better than trying to show this with line, or manipulating highlights.

Tips for noses

Noses are perhaps the area where, above all “Value is King”. There aren’t really any lines to get your brush to, except for the top boundary of the nostril. I proceed in the following way:

1. I look for the shadow area under the nose, both on the nose itself and on the upper lip area. In many lighting conditions, this will be quite prominent. Capturing this, probably more than any single factor, sets the stage.
2. Working around the side of the nose, I look for subtle changes in tone to explain the shape. This approach spreads well into the cheek area and eye sockets too. I am rarely just “painting the nose”, but rather implying the nose in the overall landscape of the face.
3. Oftentimes, there is more shadow on one side of the nose than the other and this is a great opportunity to help define the overall structure of the nose. In fact, I will emphasize and even create this effect with washed-out lighting to underscore the form.
4. The nostrils themselves are typically sharply dark at the top and diffused toward the bottom. The shape and spacing is often under-observed and this can throw off the whole.
5. Should you put a firm boundary around the nostril it will tend to look “flat on” to the viewer and hence a little snout-like.
6. Finally, I look carefully for the highlights on the nose. These can have a big effect on the way the shape (and length) of the nose is perceived. It’s important to catch the shadow at the bottom and not place the highlight too low or he nose could look proboscis-like.

Creating an overall completed portrait likeness

In this example, I follow a general progression, as described above and in the preceding sessions, to create an overall completed portrait likeness:

Low-tone underpainting.

This is my initial underpainting, helping get the layout and placement of features. The overall layout is established with placement of features and key lights and darks.

Colour blocking

The overall topography of the face so established, colour is applied onto the low-tone base, the lips developed by glazing translucent colour onto the formed shape. You can still see the underlying lips and I have not made an attempt to entirely cover, although in fact, they have been somewhat re-profiled and teeth defined, perhaps a little too prominently.

Finalizing likeness.

In this final version, the face has been brought into more light with additional layering and blending, the darker paint beneath still underpinning the whole.  The lips have also been worked: toned down a tad (I think the previous version looked a little “chocolate box-ey”) and generally more dramatic highlights added. As with the example in lesson 5, the eyes have also been developed more fully. The toothiness of the previous version has also been adjusted. Teeth are invariably difficult to get just right and in this case, I had to settle the canine back under the bottom lip.

Exercise

1. Pick two or three of your previous studies and assess mouth contours, specifics of each shadow area and the cheek-jaw area for application to future portraits. Perhaps experiment on the side with some charcoal. Now give the nose area the same treatment!
2. From your reference, run your eye across the centre line of the mouth from corner to corner. What do you see?…..perhaps repeat this in a contour drawing.
3. Working with a new foundation painting of your own choosing (perhaps using the Reference Gallery), experiment with creating depth in the mouth area with intense dark in the corners, with lights and darks modeling the fullness.
4. Using one of your existing portrait studies or this new work, develop the mouth and nose area as a consequence of the above experience.