How to Draw Realistic Lips | Beginner Art Tutorial

How to Draw Lips for Beginners

Learning how to draw realistic lips can be intimidating. But if you break it down into basic shapes to use as guidelines, it becomes much easier.

That’s exactly how we’re going to approach this lips drawing today. Learning to draw anything takes practice if you want to get really good at it. The more you draw the better you will get. So let’s gather up our supplies and get started.

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Art Supplies

How to Draw Realistic Lips Step by Step

As I mentioned earlier the first thing you need to do is draw out some basic shapes to use as guides.

Begin by drawing a straight horizontal line on your paper.

Next draw an almond shape around that line so it’s lined up through the center of the shape.

Don’t stress out about your lines and shapes being perfect. Follow the steps and do the best you can. The more lip drawings you do, the better you will get.

Next draw a triangle where the bottom touches the lower edge of your lips shape. And extends slightly above the top of the lips.

Using the triangle as a guide, draw a small curved line at the top of your almond shape. Make this line the same width as your triangle is at that point.

Draw a similar line at the horizontal line. This line will not be as wide as the triangle. Draw it slightly smaller than the first one.

Draw two circles in the bottom section of your lip drawing. They should start at the center point of your triangle and extend past the edges of the triangle.

These circles will be used to round out the lines for the lips.

Now draw the center line for your lips. Curve the line around the two circles. And then curve back up at the corners of the mouth.

Everyone has a different shaped mouth. There is no exact way to draw parts of a face. Follow the steps using a reference photo of a mouth to practice drawing the lips of an actual person.

Connect the small curved line you drew earlier to the edges of the mouth with curved lines. There are different ways to draw this line depending on the shape of the person’s lips.

Do the same thing for the lower lip, curving your lines around the circles.

Erase your guidelines and clean up your drawing before moving on to the next step.

Lip Drawing Shading with Pencil

Start shading in the darkest areas of your lips. This is going to be where the upper and lower lips meet. And at the bottom edge of the bottom lip.

If you want your shading to be softer, use a blending stump to smooth out your pencil strokes.

Lightly add in some lines for the wrinkles in the lips. Draw these lines so they follow the contour of your lips.

Continue building up layers of pencil for the shading. Work back and forth between adding more pencils strokes and blending with the stump.

Make sure you’re keeping the darkest areas darker than the rest of your lips.

Keep working on your lips drawing until you’re satisfied with your shading.

Use a kneaded eraser if you need to lift some of the graphite from your drawing.

Finding Lips to Draw

Most things are easier to draw with some kind of reference. Whether it’s a photo or real life. It’s best to draw from life but that’s not always a possibility.

The next best thing is a reference photo. These can be found on the internet, or you could purchase a book to draw from.

One such book is Facial Expressions. There are hundreds of images in the book. And all sorts of different facial expressions. This book is a great resource to have.

How to Draw Lips Like a Pro

If you want to get really good at draw lips, then you need to draw as many as you possibly can.

You don’t have to draw them all with shading. Focus on the overall shape of the lips.

Drawing lips several times will help you to better understand what you’re actually seeing.

Repetition is the best way to get really good at drawing lips or anything else.

Challenge yourself to draw one hundred lips. I guarantee you’ll see a big difference between the first drawing and the last. Or just do a 7 day drawing challenge and draw some lips each day for 7 days.

Get Your FREE Art Challenge Guide