Free Tutorial: How to Paint Realistic Lips

Let’s paint realistic lips in a few easy steps!

When it comes to painting realistic looking details, especially on people, it can be a bit difficult to start but with this easy-to-follow tutorial you will learn step by step and begin making beautifully, detailed paintings!

Painting Realistic Lips:

Step 1
Under the sketch add the skin color and then the basic lip color.

Step 2
Start to give volume to the lips by adding a darker shade with a soft brush. Focus on the side of the lips and the crease were they meet.

After that add more details, first accentuate the line that separates the lips and add a few creases as a guideline, then stars to add brush strokes to sculpt the lips. You should alternate between dark and light shades, but only the shades you have available on the existing color scheme.

Color pick and paint the strokes only with curved lines , the lips are like 2 cylinders, make sure to emphasise those curves what you want to achieve is a blend of subtle lines.

Notice that we can still see the shadows and shape from the first step, try not to lose that and make it too uniform and flat, the initial soft shadow is there as a guideline.

Step 3
Add highlights and shadows to the skin. Imagine the light comes from the left, and highlight the cupids bow accordingly. As marked with green those are your major light areas. Add soft shadows in the corners of the mouth and cupids bow.

Step 4
The final highlights enhance the volume of the lips. Focus them on the edges of the lips, on the side with the light source.

Consider also following along with the video instructions for this tutorial!

Drawing Tutorial: Tips to paint realistic lips

You can also easily download the PDF tutorial here:

Check out these links:
Online Drawing Courses
How to Draw the Human Body: 19 Free Tutorials for Beginners, by @arturo_torres_landa