How I Draw Lips

Here’s a very basic tutorial on how I draw lips using Procreate on my iPad. This example took me about 25 minutes or so from start to finish to share this basic method for drawing lips.

Start with a simple sketch to get the general shape. Lips are somewhat almond shaped and curve differently on each person.

Start adding some basic shadows and defining lines to start sculpting the shape of the lips.

Start blocking colors by laying a base for the skin and add your lip colors on top of that base. Don’t worry about coloring inside the lines, we will clean and blend after. At this point we want to get the color blocked.

I like to use a cool purple tones for shading. It will contrast nicely with the warm peachy color of the skin in this example. You will always find warm & cool tones when coloring skin. This helps emphasize highlights and shadows.

Now we blend. I try to not to be a perfectionist about it because I find myself usually going back and adding more layers of color. My style is evolving to where originally I liked blending everything as soft as I can, now I prefer a little texture when I shade. I will also usually modify the line work color to something a little warmer and softer, so the black line work is not as harsh.

After you have blended and cleaned up your work, I enjoy adding final touches. Blending contour and adding highlights to make a glossy lip pop.

And there you have it! Now go try it for yourself & let me know how it goes!