How to draw lips from the side: where the corner goes

From the side, the lips stop being a shape in the middle of the face and become part of its outline. The front of each lip is a bump on the profile, and the corner of the mouth sits far back on the cheek. Put the corner too far forward and the mouth looks like a flat cutout; put it too high or too low and the expression changes. This guide measures the mouth in profile on ten drawn heads.

The heads come from the free head rotation reference. On each pencil plate at 90 degrees, a script traced the outline as the furthest stroke out on each row and followed the line between the lips back to the corner. We picked the base of the nose by hand, drew every point back on its plate and looked at it. The plates are 1024 px across and drawn in the same frame and scale at every angle: the top of each skull sits on almost the same row from the front and from the side. The points are approximate, especially at the corner. Four heads are drawn tipped a little chin-up, by about 5 to 6 degrees (hard-plane, heavy-jaw, minimal) and 2 (square-jaw), estimated from their eye-level guide lines; we turned them level before measuring angles and sideways distances. To make the numbers usable at any size, we give distances as a share of half the mouth's width in the front view of the same head. The numbers describe these drawings, not people's faces.

The upper lip is a thin wedge

On all ten heads, two lines leave the outline and run back to the corner. The upper one starts at the front point of the upper lip: it is the top edge of the red of the lip. The lower one starts a little lower, where the two lips meet on the outline: it is the line between the lips. The two lines close in on each other and meet at the corner. On the full-lips and high-cheekbones heads the strip between them is hatched, which makes the wedge easy to see.

So draw the upper lip from the side as a narrow wedge that points back to the corner, not as a round bump on the front of the face.

The line between the lips

The line between the lips never rises toward the corner, but how much it drops varies. On the hard-plane, gaunt-planes, heavy-jaw and minimal heads it slopes down the whole way, 15 to 27 degrees once the heads are level. On the other six it runs nearly level, 5 to 13 degrees, and on five of them it ends in a short downward flick at the corner. So a gentle line with a small flick at the back is the common case here, and a steady slope the other.

How far back the corner sits

We take the corner as the point where the line between the lips turns into its flick, or its end where there is none; the front widths were read the same way. Measured straight back from the front of the lips, the corner sits about five sixths of half the front mouth width behind them on a typical head. Nine heads range from a little under three quarters to just over the whole half-width; the high-cheekbones head, with the widest mouth from the front, is the shallowest at about two thirds.

Put another way, seen from above the mouth curves back nearly as far as half its width. In your own profile drawing, take the mouth's width from a front view of the same head, halve it, and set the corner about five sixths of that behind the front of the lips.

The corner sits behind the nose wing

Drop a line straight down from the back of the nose wing, the rear edge of the outline around the nostril. On all ten heads the corner lands behind that line, never under it or in front: about an eighth to two fifths of half the mouth width. If your corner sits under or in front of the wing, the mouth is probably too shallow.

Upper lip forward, lower lip nearer the line

Once the heads are level, the front of the upper lip stands ahead of the front of the lower lip on all ten, by about 4 to 11 percent of the mouth's full width. As drawn, the hard-plane and heavy-jaw heads are close to even.

Now draw a line from the tip of the nose to the front of the chin, touching it. The upper lip sits behind it on nine heads, by a twentieth to just under three tenths of half the mouth width, and on it on the full-lips head. The lower lip crosses it on the full-lips head by a tenth of that half-width, sits on it on the minimal and high-cheekbones heads, and stays behind it on the other seven, by a twentieth to a third of that half-width. The gaunt-planes and heavy-jaw heads sit furthest behind.

On eight heads the lower lip comes nearer the line than the upper lip; on the hard-plane and gaunt-planes heads the two sit almost equally far from it. The line slopes back toward the chin, so a lower lip a little behind the upper one still lands closer to it.

Below the lower lip

Between the lower lip and the chin, the outline sags behind a straight line joining them on all ten heads, by a tenth to just under three tenths of half the mouth width. Only on the hard-plane, gaunt-planes and heavy-jaw heads does the chin then come forward again into a real notch. On the other seven the outline keeps going back to a chin set behind the lower lip. How to draw a chin carries the chin itself.

How to draw lips from the side, step by step

1. Draw the nose and the chin, and lightly join the tip of the nose to the front of the chin.
2. Place the front of the upper lip on that line or up to three tenths of half the mouth width behind it.
3. Place the front of the lower lip a little behind the upper lip, near the line.
4. Set the corner about five sixths of half the front mouth width behind the upper lip, behind a line dropped from the back of the nose wing, and a little lower than where the lips meet.
5. Draw both lines to the corner, the top edge of the upper lip and the line between the lips, with a small downward flick past it if the line runs level.
6. Let the outline sag between the lower lip and the chin.

Common mistakes

• A mouth line that rises to the corner. None of the ten does.
• A corner under or in front of the nose wing. All ten sit behind it.
• A shallow corner. The mouth curves back nearly half its width; a corner close to the front reads as a cutout.
• A lower lip ahead of the upper lip. None of the ten has one.
• One line for the upper lip. Both edges of its red run back to the corner.
• A straight run from the lower lip to the chin. Every head sags there.

Related guides

How to draw the mouth and lips at different angles turns the mouth through every view, how to draw full lips compares a full and a thin mouth, and how to draw the head in profile builds the rest of the side view.

A short exercise

Draw the full-lips head and the gaunt-planes head in profile, the same size. On each, draw the line from the tip of the nose to the chin first. Let the full-lips lower lip just pass it and keep both gaunt-planes lips well behind it. Set both corners behind the nose wing, then compare each drawing with its plate.

The full-lips head is Study Pack 08, in Volume 2, and the gaunt-planes head is Study Pack 02, 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.