The Artist - UK (2019-12)

http://www.painters-online.co.uk artistDecember 2019 37

PRACTICAL

MATERIALS

To paint the lips featured here

I prepared a toned canvas by

scrubbing on a mixture of black and

yellow ochre with turps and wiped

back with a rag. You will need some

sable ilbert brushes in sizes:10, 8, 6,

4, 2, 1 and a 0 for highlights. You can

use lats if you prefer, and sketch out

with bristle brushes and same sizes.

If you want a smoother brushstroke,

to blend or to reine, use the sables

with some medium – such as

Michael Harding oleo resin or some

linseed oil.

I used an earth palette of oil

colours: titanium white, yellow

ochre, light red, cadmium red

light, Venetian red, ivory black; raw

umber and burnt umber are useful

additions. Set up your model with

a directional light source so that

there is a shadow side of the face if

possible.

The teeth are only slightly painted and no pure white has been used. The stronger the

contrast in tonal value, the more it leads the eye to it and one often does not want the teeth

to be the irst thing you look at in a portrait. Good colour mixes can be made from white and

raw umber, warmed if necessary with a little yellow ochre or cooled by adding more grey

up vertically from the top lip to the
base of the nose. There is usually
a slightly darker tone between the
ridges.
Check your shapes, are the lips
thin or plump and bee-stung? Is the
cupid’s bow correct? Apart from the
expression of the lips, the procheilon
or central fleshy bit of upper lip
affects any angles that you see where
the two lips meet. Your drawing does
not have to be perfect at this stage
as you can make corrections as you
paint but it does help to have the
basic structure as right as you can.
Next start with colour. For the
darker tones of the top lip, Venetian
red with white and black can make a
rusty-red to lilac-purple-grey range
of colours that are suitable for the
shadow sides of your sitter’s lips. For
pinks, just mix red and white, varying
the ratios of each to see tonal and
saturated ranges that you can modify
with a grey mixed from your black
and white. As you paint you naturally
address the surrounding areas of
skin so that the lips make sense.
This also enables you to modify your
shapes as you can correct lip shapes
with skin tones made from the same
colour palette.
Try to keep the outer lip edges
soft. Blend them with your little
finger if need be or use a wide flat
brush to soften, fanning it across the
surface, wiping excess paint off on
a rag between each stroke. There
will sometimes be a highlight on the
bottom lip. It is easier for you to see

This mouth is on a three-quarter angle, so one

side of the mouth is wider than the other

The top lip and corners of the mouth have

been deined, leaving the teeth blank for the

moment. Note how the bottom lip is easily

described by the tone running underneath

By deining the tone under the bottom lip you deine the form of the lip itself,

so it makes sense to establish the mound of the chin or the philtrum as it helps you to

see if you have placed your lips correctly