[Enayla]

Soft, pretty lips.
Tutorial originally made for my page on Elfwood... so pardon the simple level of it, I was just trying to be helpful to some young people and thought that someone here might appreciate it too =) I'm not really looking for crits here, just so you know - just sharing.

1. First, we're going to put down a very basic skin colour. Nothing too orange, or red - those kind of values I usually add later on. A slightly greyish beige tone. Upon this, I sketch the lips themselves. With the airbrush set on 60% pressure or so, and sketching the lips with soft, careful lines (if you haven't got the Wacom Tablet - set the pressure even lower, and be careful not to get the lines too thick. We want them gentle, and only as guidelines). We're using a small brush - but not one of the soft edged ones. Don't forget the small indentation above the upper lip.
   
   
2. Then we'll decide from which direction the light is coming. If this had been a picture of the entire face I'd be setting down highlights all over the forehead, nose, brow and chin now. Note that the little indentation above the upper lip is accentuated by a highlight on its inner side. This actually makes it look more "real" than putting a lot of shadows there.
   
   
3. Okay, we'll go for colours now. At least on the lips themselves. Since the light is coming from the upper left/middle left, the colours on the lips will be darker on the right side. See? Brighter, slightly warmer colours where the light falls, fading over to a darker tone to the right. If we're drawing a guy's lips instead, the colours will not be so dark, but the basics are the same. We're still using a hard edged airbrush - but one of a larger size this time. As for which colour I pick, that varies wildly depending on what person the lips belong to. A general rule, though, is that the basic colour of the lips shouldn't be that much darker than the basic colour of the skin. Does that make sense?
   
   
4. See the difference? We're shading the lips here, and redrawing the sketch lines that were lost in the colouring and highlighting. With a soft brush, we're carefully strengthening the shadow where the lips meet, as well as the shadow at the bottom of the lower lip. We have to be very careful when doing this, lest we end up with the lips looking TOO pouty.
   
   
5. Strengthening the line where the lips meet... not TOO much, though. We're also adding some very light texture to the lips now - by using a very small brush, and making very soft, soft lines here and there. It makes a world of difference. Of course, the biggest change in this step is the fact that I've added shadows to match the highlights I added much earlier on. From the right side of the divot above your lip and softly down along the line of the lip, around, and all the way down to the chin. It adds a LOT to the image... As I think you can see.
   
   
6. So what's going on here? Well, we're highlighting. We're picking the lightest colour of the skin, and then we go on and turn up the brightness of it further. The highlights are placed along the line of the upper lip (for the girls among you, think about where you apply the "line" when putting on makeup lip pencil... then draw right outside that line. A soft, rather discreet highlight). The highlights are also added to the bottom lip, and to other various places - as you can see in the picture. We've also added a bit more "texture" on the lips.
   
   
7. Hum te dum... What did we do here? If you look carefully, you'll see some altered things. Just a little bit more shadowing in some places, some more highlights in others. We're "fixing" things that can be improved. Usually, this is the last and final stage of working on the lips, and we don't REALLY need to work more on them. See? It looks rather nice already.
   
   
8. However, we decide to add some more, just to see if it can be done. A lot more shadowing of the lips themselves to bring them to the attention of anyone watching the picture - along the line of the bottom lip... and in towards the indentation, where the upper lip is concerned. We never /quite/ shade all the way across the upper lip, though, as that will really only flatten the appearance of the lips. As I said, this final step isn't really needed, and it depends a lot on what kind of look you want for the lips.
   
   

[ May 31, 2001: Message edited by: Enayla ]

[EviLToYLeT]

yay! Looking good..... what's next tut thats coming? I wanna learn how to do hard ugly lips!

Hehe.... anyway, thanks for taking time to share with us enayla

[Probotech]

Very nice.
And very usefull.

[Kaiju]

Nice Tutorial. I think number 7 looks better than number 8. Course it depends on whether there is lipstick involved and what shade of lipstick. 7 being a more natural than 8.

[Ko]

Hmn... nice!

But I like nr. 5 the best, more painterly and less metallic.

Ko

[roundeye]

i like the metalic look. although it seems like more of a mother of pearl sheen. or something=)

[PrittStick]

hmm... that's totally different from my marvel tutorial. i don't trust u

i feel the lip wrinkles look in 7 better than in 8 though. 8 is too flat for my taste.

[noco]

Thank you for the nice tutorial, Enayla!

No.7 ... I like the natural color!
No.8 ... I feel the lips' existence so much... great work!

[nova]

Thanks Enayla The lips seem kind of translucent.. very neat.

[ReSistanZ]

Thanks again!

[MoleculeMan]

i was looking for a tutorial on eyes, and i found this! I like this whole lot. Just soem questions, 1. What size file do you usually work in? I have been having problems with either choosing a pic size thats too small or too large. 2. Do you use Dodge/Burn or do you actually choose the colors?, and 3. Bet you didn't think you'd be seeing this thread again!

[Collosimo]

MoleculeMan:

Reading through the tutorial, I can see why you may have asked this question. It is fairly clear from her comments that she has mostly used an airbrush. Although It does look like dodge and burn in places, especially the lower lip highlight. This could well be done with an airbrush.. you just have to know the correct values and colours to select. I would suggest that you use the dodge tool set on highlights, for starters, as it will easily produce a metallic sort of shiny look. As Enayla quite often says throughout this tutorial... 'Softly, do it softly first'

Turn down that exposure!

[simuartist]

Excellent tutorial...thanks

[catnip]

Enayla,
Not only do you have fantastic talent,
You are a kind and giving person!
I was one of the newbies that requested
a tutorial or explanation on how you
achieved your fantastic art.
Thank you so much for sharing!!!!!
I'm not a "Kid". I've been a freelance
Illustrator for over 20yrs....but I am
a "babe in the woods" when it comes to my
computer and software.
Thank you again..I hope some day, I can
"share" with you.

[Kallen]

Wonderful tutorial! It is exactly how I do my lips. One little hint that I could add to it; is something obvious but in helping other artists work digitally I have noticed that some have missed it. You can use the zoom tool on the lips to bring them close to do every tiny detail.

You can use this same method that you have shared with us to do Dark lips too. (right now I am working on a character portrait where the client wants tatooed red lips...LOL..boy is that interesting..dot dot dot.
I always use the airbrush tool set on low pressure. That helps in eliminating the pixel problem that you will find if you use the paint brush tool.
On dark red lipstick lips, only darken the line between the lips slightly. For some reason that gives the *lipstick* look more. Also your highlights can be more dramatic because lipstick gives off more of a shine. If you are doing Gothic black lips...don't use black. Use a nearly black red, blue,purple or greyish tone. (depending on the colors of the rest of the picture.) green even works. Then follow the steps in this tutorial just using the darker tone.
Gothic lips don't have as much of a shine and look better matted.

Hope you don't mind my little add to your tutorial. It is wonderful! I did learn something too I have missed that little highlight on the inner shadow of the indentation of the upper lip. That will help a lot...Big hugs.

--------------------

• Kay Allen - Artist of RealmsQuest
  
  
  

[v1510nAry]

Great !!

[rbfigueira]

Thanks Enayla :O)

Very GOOD, great work !!!!

Best regards,
RBFIGUEIRA

[Waldo]

My coworkers just caught me kissing my monitor...

[Enayla]

*blinks repeatedly*... say... didn't this thread drop off the page... ages ago?

Well, um, thanks everyone, I guess.

I can't honestly say for sure if I used dodge on the picture or not, because it was pretty long ago - AND very hastily thrown together. I can say for sure, though, that I'd never mention it in the tutorial if I had...

For the simple reason that there's nothing that's so easy to overuse and misuse as the dodge tool. Like I said, I mostly did this tutorial for some of the younger people on elfwood - I did not want to set them on the wrong path and have them all shading and highlighting with dodge and burn within a few weeks.

(And Kay, I don't mind at all =D )

Well... that's it for now, I guess.

[green.7]

number 7 looks more realistic , anyway good
work , thanx Enayla.

[exo13]

Enayla just plain rules! Seriously, it's great when the more experienced artists here take the time to make these. Even if you don't nessicarely take the time to follow them, we all love to see the various steps of a masterpiece simplified.

[Bishop_Six]

this should prove very useful. thanks, enayla