How to draw the philtrum and cupid's bow

Between the nose and the mouth there's a shallow groove, the philtrum, with a low ridge on each side. At its bottom the edge of the upper lip rises into two peaks with a dip between them: the cupid's bow. From the front both take only a few light lines, but they set where the top of the mouth sits. This guide measures them on ten drawn heads.

The heads come from the free head rotation reference. On the ten front pencil plates a script traced the mouth line, the top edge of the upper lip, and the two ridge lines of the philtrum, which it found as the darkest thin lines on each side of the middle. We drew every trace back on its plate and checked it. Nose widths, wing to wing, come from our face width measurements; the gap between the nostrils comes from the nostril guide. We count only differences large enough to read clearly. The numbers describe these drawings, not people's faces; use them as a starting point to check against your own reference.

The philtrum takes most of the space under the nose

Measured at the middle, from the line under the nose tip down to the dip of the bow, the philtrum is about a third to half as long as the nose is wide, a little over two fifths on a typical head.

Of the whole space from the nose to the mouth line, the philtrum takes a little under two thirds to about five sixths, about three quarters on a typical head, and the upper lip takes the rest. The full-lips head has the shortest philtrum over one of the two thickest upper lips; the high-cheekbones head has the other thick upper lip under a slightly longer philtrum. On the other eight heads the upper lip is thinner. Two heads make no rule, but those two give the philtrum the smallest shares of the ten.

The groove widens, then turns in

On seven heads both ridge lines are clear enough to trace down most of the groove. On the minimal, full-lips and heavy-brow heads only one is drawn firmly; the other is faint or missing. On the seven, as a share of the nose's width:

At the top, just under the nose: about an eighth to a fifth, about a seventh on a typical head.
At the widest: about a sixth to a quarter, about a fifth on a typical head. That's a little wider than the top on all seven.

The widest point isn't at the lip. On six of the seven it sits a little above where the lines end, and on five of them the lines then curve back in before they stop above the bow. Lean the two lines apart as they go down, not as parallel bars, and turn them in a little at the bottom.

The heavy-jaw head from the front. The groove widens below the nose; the bow's peaks sit wider apart than the groove and inside the nostrils.

Where the two peaks sit

The two peaks of the bow are about a quarter to a little over a third of the nose's width apart, a little under a third on a typical head, and about a sixth to a quarter of the mouth's width, usually about a fifth. On several heads the peaks are rounded and flat on top, so where you put the point changes the spacing; a second read that picked the peaks differently also found a quarter to a little over a third of the nose's width. Two checks place them:

Outside the bottom of the groove. On all seven heads with both lines traced, the peaks sit wider apart than the ridge lines end, clearly so on six.
Inside the nostrils. On all ten heads the peaks are closer together than the inner ends of the two nostrils, clearly so on nine; the second read agrees on the same nine.

So drop two marks from the inner ends of the nostrils and put the peaks a little inside them.

Keep the dip shallow

At the middle the bow dips only a little below its peaks in our trace, about a twentieth of the nose's width; a second read that placed the peaks differently sometimes found an even shallower dip, and on several heads it's too small to measure reliably. Either way it's a notch rather than a deep V. From each peak, the traced edge runs down and out to the mouth corner on all ten heads.

One ridge line is drawn darker

The two ridge lines are rarely drawn the same:

One firmer: on five heads the line at the left of the plate is darker than the one at the right, by more than a quarter of a step. On the hard-plane head the left line goes down to about three and a half steps below the paper while the right stays about half a step below it.
One barely drawn: on the minimal, full-lips and heavy-brow heads the right line is so faint the script found it on under half the rows.
About equal: on the gaunt-planes and deep-folds heads the two lines are about the same.

On eight tonal plates the two cheeks match almost exactly, so we can't tie the darker line to the light. Take it as a way of drawing: one firm line and one faint one say "groove" with less fuss than two equal lines.

The hard-plane head from the front. The ridge line at the left of the plate is dark; the one at the right is faint.

In tone, the lip is darker than the groove

Read by eye on the ten tonal front plates, the upper lip is hatched on every head: all the way across on seven, and on the half at the right of the plate on the heavy-jaw, soft-planes and high-cheekbones heads. The philtrum above it is left unhatched on all ten. So shade the lip and leave the groove light. How to hatch a face covers which way the strokes run.

The square-jaw head in tone from the front. The upper lip is hatched across its width; the groove above it is left light.

Order of work

Place the mouth line, then the line under the nose tip.
Split the space between them: about three quarters for the philtrum, a quarter for the upper lip. Give a fuller upper lip a larger share.
Mark the peaks a little inside the inner ends of the nostrils, about a fifth of the mouth's width apart.
Draw the bow with a shallow dip at the middle, then run each side down to the mouth corners.
Draw the two ridge lines from under the nose down toward the bow: about a seventh of the nose's width apart at the top, about a fifth at the widest, turning in a little and ending inside the peaks. Make one firmer than the other, or draw only one.
Shade the upper lip and leave the groove light.

Common mistakes

Parallel ridge lines. On all seven heads where both are traced, the groove widens a little below the nose.
Peaks set on the ends of the ridge lines. On six of the seven they sit clearly wider.
A deep V in the middle. The dip stays shallow on every head.
Peaks out under the nostrils. On all ten heads they sit inside the nostrils' inner ends, clearly so on nine.
Two equally dark lines. Only two of the ten heads draw them about alike.

Related guides

This guide covers the front view. How to draw the mouth and lips at different angles follows the mouth as the head turns, how to draw full lips measures the full-lips head, and how to draw the nose from different angles builds the base this groove hangs from.

A short exercise

Draw the gaunt-planes head and the full-lips head from the front, side by side and the same size. On each, place the mouth line and the line under the nose, then split the space: the gaunt-planes head ties for the longest philtrum, about four times the height of its upper lip, and the full-lips head has the shortest, about one and two thirds times its upper lip's height. Set the peaks inside the nostrils, keep the dips shallow, and compare both drawings with the plates.

The gaunt-planes head is Study Pack 02 in Volume 1, and the full-lips head is Study Pack 08 in Volume 2.

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