PORTRAITS IN DETAIL
A
s John Singer Sargent said, “a portrait is a picture
in which there is something not quite right about
the mouth.” In this article, I’m going to explain how
I paint the mouth in watercolour, but from a variety of
viewpoints, and hopefully the mouths in your paintings will
end up just right.
As always when painting a portrait, I recommend bringing
everything up together, rather than painting one feature in
isolation. It’s helpful to half-close your eyes and see the
general darks and lights in the whole area of the face.
Before locating the mouth, I like to find the shape of the
face in which it sits.
I identify the edge where the hair meets the skin of the
forehead and find the particular turn of the chin. Between
these two edges, a shadow runs down the left side of the
face. Once the general face shape is established, I place
the nose in relation to the forehead and the chin.
By half closing my eyes, I can identify and paint down the
shadow shape attached to the underside of the nose, and
cast by the nose. Then I am ready to place the mouth,
estimating where it is in relation to the nose and the chin.
In most cases the upper lip is darker than the lower lip as
it’s sloping in and doesn’t catch the light in the way that the
bottom lip does. If you find the warm dark shape of the
upper lip, the general light shape on the lower lip and then
the shadow beneath the lower lip, you will go a long way to
explaining the form in the area in just a few moves.
I find it helpful to look at the line dividing the lips as a
starting point. Whether you’re looking straight on or from
another angle, see if you can estimate which corner of the
mouth is lower. It’s also useful to estimate the length of
each change of angle along the dividing line.
In my oil portrait, Jill, the placement of the mouth ishelped by the clear, sculpted shape of the light that sits
above the lip. This patch of light runs parallel to the bridge
of the nose and provides one edge of the triangle of darker
skin in the cheek beyond.
When you’re painting the mouth, see if you can find
shapes that look like triangles, rectangles and squares,
and then relate those in size and shape to one another, like
jigsaw pieces that fit together. Whether I’m working in
watercolour or oil, I avoid tinkering, and prefer to lay the
colour down and leave it alone until the next layer explains
it further.
Above all, observe each part closely and believe your
eyes, rather than what you think a mouth looks like. Once
you’ve noticed an angle or a shape, commit the mark to
paper, and keep moving. Remember, it’s possible to shift
and change things even when the paint is dry, so there are
no mistakes, only the finding of lines and marks; these are
evidence of your unique painting process.BY HALF CLOSING MY EYES, I CAN
IDENTIFY AND PAINT DOWN THE
SHADOW SHAPE ATTACHED TO THE
UNDERSIDE OF THE NOSE. THEN I AM
READY TO PLACE THE MOUTHOPPOSITE PAGE
Aine Divine, Lake,
watercolour,
45x35cm
ABOVE Aine Divine,
Jill, oil on board,
45x35cm
LEFT Aine began
with a mix of
Sap Green and
Cadmium Red
for her guide to
> painting the mouth
Artists & Illustrators 5756 Aine Divine.indd 57 11/05/2016 11:48